The dry hill theme continued & began to bore me. That which I could cope with much more was the fantastic tail wind. I sailed into Arak having done most of a good day's cycling before lunch.
Since leaving Hamedan I'd decided that putting on a new cassette couldn't wait until Mashhad, & 1500km of road, where one would be waiting for me. I also needed to have the freewheel looked at, after the horrible reassembly in Hamedan it had been making all sorts of noises. I found a shop in Arak that had reasonably priced 8-speed cassettes, they were cheaper than in Hamedan which pleased me no end. They performed the installation & serviced the freewheel. Once it was established what would be done I asked whether there was a restaurant serving dizi around, I didn't want to break the tradition that I'd established earlier of always having dizi for lunch when it was available. One of the shop workers took me by bike, I on one borrowed from the shop, to a place in the centre of town. It was like riding with the guys I met in Tabriz. We zipped through traffic, the wrong way down one-way streets & even took in a section of the bazaar. The guy later admitted to enjoying the thrill of cycling in traffic. He paid for my lunch. When we got back the work was done & I was on my way most satisfied.
I cycled 131 km in 6 hours & 52 minutes
Total so far 3965 km in 54 days
GPS Coordinates of end point - N 33°48.925, E 49°57.98
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