Tag Archives: Alamut valley

Day 287 – Humps and bumps

Totally sealed, Garmin, totally sealed

It seemed we had managed to hit the perfect camp spot – not too hot, not too cold and undisturbed the whole night long. I felt really well rested getting up this morning. Besides, we had only a light day ahead, so what was there not to look forward to?

Maybe I should have been a bit more suspicious of the fact that the Garmin found a “third way” over the mountain that was neither on the Lonely Planet map nor on our Iran paper map. But it was set to avoid dirt roads, so clearly it knew something the others did not…?

The condition of the dirt road deteriorated quickly

Well, as it turns out it may have been that avoiding a 50 km “detour” back to pass number two overruled the no dirt rule. Or the open street map is a bit ahead of its time, since for the most part there were roadworks actually on the way to transform this into a proper sealed pass. For now, however, it was not. For about 60 km we had everything from a perfectly compacted gravel road to “this is a muddy riverbed at a 30° angle, if it rains now, we die”.

You can see our camp spot and the tunnel we came through

In all fairness, it was mostly good though. I mostly enjoyed the exercise, but I also could do without any more drama on this last leg of the trip. In the end, we made it and were rewarded with another set of fantastic view from up to 2400m back down to the valleys to the north.

Once on the other side, the motorway called and we got back into full cruise mode for a short hour to cover the last 120 km. Traffic truly got interesting once we got into greater Tehran, but nothing much surprising left to it. The Lonely Planet calls it “a Darwinian game of chicken”. There are still rules to it, though. They end up in a higher risk game than most sane people would engage in, but on the other hand, people get from A to B much quicker than they would in high survival rate countries under the same circumstances. I just go with the flow and compensate with better gear for the worst case, I guess.

Quite the shock to be on the motorway into Tehran

We had lunch in a hip cafe at the House of Arts – good burger and veggie pasta for once. A lovely place we probably like to come back to (the House of Arts, that is). For now though, we need to find a place to stay. Hotels are pretty expensive, so we settled on one place slightly too expensive, in the knowledge that A: There is not much else cheaper and B: we had saved some by camping the last few days.

When I parked the bike I saw another overlander bike from the Netherlands and back in the hotel found out that we were next door neighbors, so I knocked and introduced myself. Joris and his partner were busy for the day, but we agreed to catch up tomorrow.

That was pretty much our day, except for the one hour it took me to find some bread around here. The entire neighborhood – a full city block – is exclusively dedicated to selling auto parts. Not even a single little grocery shop anywhere among them for the most part. I did, however, get a replacement for the second screw that had vibrated off our windscreen in Iran.

: Good bye Alamut valley! You have been fantastic!

: Totally sealed, Garmin, totally sealed

: Climbing higher up…

: Last look back towards Alamut before riding through the tunnel

: Old-school: No lights and an uneven muddy ground

: Crossing over a bridge to get to the next mountain range

: The long and winding road

: The condition of the dirt road deteriorated quickly

: You can see our camp spot and the tunnel we came through

: See? Tunnel!

: It made for some great motorbike shots

: Quite the shock to be on the motorway into Tehran

Day 286 – Over the hills and far away

Another bright and sunny day!

The night had been slightly eerie as we could hear the wolves howl. I was happy when the sun was back up and we could pack and leave. I know that there were enough sheep around that no wolf would be interested in us but still…

All of today was dedicated to exploring the Alamut valley. We started with a stint to Evan Lake which was the back-up camping option yesterday. Arriving at the tiny lake with lots of rubbish at the shore and almost no privacy, we were glad that we’d camped in the fields. However, on the way out we met a retired French couple doing an overland trip in a 4WD. They were lovely even though the conversation was in French (go Flo!) and gave us the coordinates of a possible campsite further on.

almost back on the main road now

The next “attraction” in the Lonely Planet is a road that leads through or alongside canyons. Flo found a loop that we could ride to not double up and so we went in on river-level. First, we follow the road along the ride with the cliff side to your right. It was hard to photograph as the sun was right behind the cliffs. After a while, the road starts to wind up into the mountains. From here, you can look into the valley with the canyons below. Again, we saw the tents of nomads up here.

Full service overland adventure …

On route to Alamut Castle, the next of the famed Assassins’ castles, we saw a group of overlanders parked in a little side alley. They rode down from Switzerland in a tour, complete with support vehicle full of spare parts and tires, and will continue for a month. Thus, they were in a bit of a hurry…once a flat tire was fixed. We talked to them until we were near melting, standing in full gear in the sun.

A quick roadside lunch at the Alamut Castle parking lot prepared us for the hike up to the castle. The “Assassins” were prosecuted and thus quite paranoid when they built their castles here: There is no easy entrance and no easy siege. The mountainside is steep so the narrow staircase is the only way up (the second entrance has been destroyed).

one wing of the castle. Must have been decently manned

Alamut Castle is the one with a bit more structure remaining but it is also the one where you have to pay a fee and most of it is covered in scaffolding. We were a bit disappointed, yesterday’s castle had much more to offer.

Technically, the “attractions” end here. There is a pass leading out of the valley all the way to the Caspian Sea but the Lonely Planet only describes it for hiking. The French overlander couple from his morning came in that way and while the views are gorgeous, they said the road was in bad condition and muddy. They were happy to have 4WD. Thus, I was not keen to go that way. However, coming from Alamut valley, most of the road up is sealed. Flo wanted to go as high up as possible…fair enough. First, the road continued on in the valley in a rather unimpressive way. When the incline finally started, the road became interesting again. Up and up and up and up. When we seemed to be level with the snow-capped mountains on the other side of the valley, the tarmac ended and Flo stopped as promised. We took a couple of pictures of the valley, Rocinante and us before heading back down.

The ‘final’ view – pretty cool

It was late enough to look for a camping spot but we were lacking in the important departments of food, water and fuel. So we hopped from village to village hoping to remedy these lacks without having to go too far. The first shop, with a lovely owner, had water, eggs and veggies for us. Good start but not all we needed. Again, he gave us the things for half the price and a toffee on top. The next village supplied cheese and bread but fuel was only available in the third village. By now it felt late. The first possible spot next to a field of wheat was ours.

Flo cooked the tomato-egg dish for me that Azemeh had made for breakfast all those days ago. It worked well and was delicious with bread and the seed mixture that Azemeh had given us as well. Well fed, we had a short visit by a shepherd asking for water before settling in for the night.

: Another bright and sunny day!

: Heading east, towards the rising sun

: Alamut valley is famous for it’s rice terraces. Did not expect to see those again so soon.

: Nice and circular in a way. Sheep are equally stupid all around the world

: Turn off number 1

: Lovely couple. Unfortunately, we forgot to ask for their names.

: Most impressive from afar

: back on the main road

: they were pretty impressive

: but the light was not right

: the other side was right, but less impressive

: random turtle on the road – pretty high up actually

: The ridge road on the other side gave us better views

: looking good from up here

: the road we took in seen from above

: And always the snow capped mountains once you are a bit up

: almost back on the main road now

: Hard to focus on the road – but we were going slow

: Pickups are the new camels / donkeys

: one last look at the canyons from above

: Full service overland adventure …

: It was steeper than it looks

: The final steps up the castle

: Not much to see – protective scaffolding from anno 1984

: the wind blew nicely through this dugout towards a lookout point

: the view to be defended

: there are a lot of them around, and pretty big

: one wing of the castle. Must have been decently manned

: fooling around at the edge

: it will be sad once the underpuff is gone

: first time we got a good photo

: almost at the end, after this, the road goes up over the pass

: white peaks peeking

: that motorcycle magazine shot at the end of today’s route

: The ‘final’ view – pretty cool

: looks like gravel, but is very dirty tarmac

: no matter how high you go, someone will always have brought up some lifestock

: It even had a neat waterfall

: checking where to put the then, I promise

: The creation was actually pretty good

: chasing the signal at dusk

Day 285 – Assassini, assassini!

On the road to the mountains

Rejuvenated, we left our guest house in Hamadan in good time to tackle the 340 km for the day with little worry. I was looking forward to some more camping, but if we had to stay in a hotel, I wish it would always be like this one.

The road started out really flat, with only the occasional hill to hop along the way to Qasvin, the gateway to the Alamut valley. We reached it in time for a slightly late lunch and settled in our hurry for an overpriced restaurant in town, only to end up with kebab and salad once more.

All the more reason to leave for the mountains – not least to escape the heat. On our way out, we grabbed some of our now standard dinner / breakfast fare of bread and cheese. Once more, the local baker could not be persuaded to take our money.

Great views from the road

There are only two sealed passes from Qasvin over into the valleys – we decided to take the western one in, and work our way east to take the eastern one on our way out. That meant the first point of interest would be Lamiasar Castle, one of the famed castles of the Assassins.

But before that, the pass itself was the first real attraction. Rising steadily from 1200m to 2300m, this narrow mountain road was just our cup of tea. When we first dipped over and saw the snow-capped peaks of the Alborz Mountains, we slowed down and started exploring a bit. One of the dirt tracks leading off to a particularly epic lookout / picnic spot lead us right into another Persian encounter. A family seemed to have arrived shortly before us and was getting ready for their picnic. The spot was so nice that if it were not for them, we probably would have camped right there. Instead we took pictures and got invited to tea right away.

A better look on the affair

We once again did not share any language, so conversations were had by pointing and gesturing a lot. We got treated very kindly and had to take the chance to leave at an opportune moment, just before the chicken skewers over the fire were done or we probably would have spent the rest of the evening up here. We could not, though: there was a castle to be seen. We were not even stopped by the swarms of crickets trying to suicide themselves on the road in droves.

It looked even more like Altaïr in reality 🙂

It was a nice but exhausting climb up to the ruin of Lamiasar Castle. Not much is left up top, though. The Mongols really knew how to raze a castle. We still enjoyed climbing around the impressive site all on our own in the afternoon light.

Soon enough, it was time to look for a camp spot. Our first try further up the side valley was a nice ride, but did not score any good site. Instead, we headed back for the main road and towards the next point of interest from the guidebook. After maybe 3 more tries, we did find a lovely and secluded patch of green near the road but just out of view for anyone around. This time, we really appreciated the longer days further north, as we got everything set up just in time to have a sunset dinner …