Drudgery and Decadence

That's what describes the 98km cycled from Esfahan to a small village called Toudeshk. Not the decadence part, that came later; no, it started off with just the drudgery. It should have been relatively straight forward; the road was flat and the traffic was light. But a combination of a month of non-cycling, my recent addiction to all things chocolate and a sideways wind made the final half of the journey sheer hell.

It started off promising with a very respectable average speed of about 23km/hr, but in the final hour I was "pleased" to be going over 13km/hr. And speed was not my only problem. Boredom (for the first time) entered the equation. There is nothing more tedious that flat desert with an occasional truck roaring passed. How I missed the adrenaline of oncoming, overtaking Indian buses that had forced me onto the dusty road margins in days gone by. How I wished for the pleasant green of sugarcane!

But I got there in the end and the two nights I stayed in Toudeshk more than made up for the dreary journey there. Mr Mohammed Julali used to see cyclists camped by the side of the road and so started inviting them to stay with him (well, his older brother, if truth be told) instead of braving the elements. The home is a 200yr old traditional house (arched roofs and mud-brick walls surrounding a small courtyard) with a Persian Rug mid-way through completion in the living room and a spare room in which cycle and motorbike tourists are housed. Unlike other hosts, Mr Julali and his family are well used to tourists staying and so the uncles, aunts, brothers, sisters, friends and first cousins twice removed are not called to share the experience. A weary traveler can sit by the gas fire in peace, join in the conversation or retire to contemplate life in the silence of the spare room without fear of offending anyone.

After 2 days I was more than easily talked out of cycling the 2 day journey to Yazd (I thought it would be good penance for all the buses I've taken; but 2 days of desert cycling, with only 2 more days of the exact same desert cycling back up the exact same desert road was just too much for even my masochistic self) and I, once again, hopped on a bus. Aboard I was glad of my decision; the temperature outside was shown as -5, and this was at 10am!!

I've spend the last 5 nights living in a converted mansion here in the oldest, still inhabited, city in the world. It is true that the dorm I'm staying in was probably the former wine cellar, and is linked to the outside world by a steep staircase and barred hole (a window gives it too much justice), but at less than 3 euro per night I'm hardly complaining. Plus, I get to recline by the fountain during the day whilst eating dates and figs, drinking tea, and even smoking the forbidden qalyan. It was lemon flavour today.

Though, once again, changes are afoot. The layers of fat I've accumulated over the passed 4 weeks are going to be shocked into submission. Tomorrow, I return to Toudeshk, stay one night, pick up my bike and scadaddle onwards. I have decided that I have waited long enough. It's now or never. Time to hit the road again...

You'll be glad to hear I've run out of cliches and so will just post a couple of pictures instead.









Desert Cycling; not good for one's complexion.












Mr Mohammad Julali with his elder brother Mr Reza Julali and his (Mr Reza's that is) two children.









Dinner in the Julali household









Mr Reza Julali's wife, mother, father and children. This is the first picture in Iran that I have been able to openly take of members of the fairer sex. Not that I surreptitiously photograph women...










Water Cooler in Toudeshk. The towers are for passive cooling - They're set to be all the rage in 21st Century Europe. This was built 200 years ago...








An even older building down an even older lane (this time in Yazd).









When I'm not roaming the streets looking for chocolate, I'm eating it here in my hotel.









True to form, I arrived at this Zoroastrien Fire Temple to find it...closed!










I climbed on a wall to get this photo (locked gates were not going to stop me!). Apparently, all that's inside is a window with a fire behind. True, the fire is meant to have been burning continuously for the last 600 years, but I can just tell myself that the next time I look through some random's window at their fire.