Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Near Qal'eh Khargushi

The morning was absolutely cloudless. After breaking camp we followed the asphalt to Varzaneh where we filled up with water & found a very minor unpaved road through the desert to Yazd.

The desert took a while to begin. The river that was the basis for agriculture in the towns & villages that we passed through the day before continued but was no-longer used for irrigation. Near Varzaneh it looked as though the land near the river had been used for cultivation. Soon after the desert began in earnest. Where there was water it was accompanied by salt. Even though it was Spring water channels were dry, I supposed they only saw water after a storm. Vegetation was sparse & the earth dry & stony. Above the Sun beat down onto a landscape without cover, by 11am it was 37° Centigrade. In spite of it being hot, dry & barren cycling along the unpaved road through the desert was a pleasure. There was a beautiful simplicity to the scenery. The clean dry heat was much easier to deal with than a humid one or with city pollution. There was a breeze all day. Above all there were almost no cars on the road.

We learned the value of water. We overestimated the ease of getting water though were never in trouble. We got some from some Afghan shepherd & got some deliciously iced, straight from a freezer at a house that was part of a quarry. At the end of the day we were shown the location of a spring.

The campsite was fantastic. It was quiet, not far from the car-less road & being far from water had no mosquitoes. We pitched our tents amidst low shrubs on rocky sandy soil.

I cycled 98 km in 6 hours & 52 minutes
Total so far 4450 km in 62 days
GPS Coordinates of end point - N 32°09.487, E 53°15.499

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