After a night of rain and our bikes getting nearly destroyed by mud we were first helped by these two lovely gentlemen who found us some warmth and a hose to clean our bikes after first giving us a lift over a mountain through another rainstorm.
As we entered Mashhad after 90km of hard wet cycling we were soaked and couldn’t get through to Saeed who we were going to stay with, his mobile number wasn’t working. We stopped on the street and were almost immediately greeted by a smiling man who ushered us into his workshop, sat us around a fire, made us cups of delicious tea and then lent us a mobile phone to ring our few contacts in Mashhad. His son Majid spoke good English and helped us out and we had a great time sitting in the workshop with the employees (one fanatical Manchester United supporter among them!)
We eventually contacted another friend Mohammed, who sorted out some accommodation with his friend Sara. Majid and his father then escorted us on the craziest 20km night time drive from one side of Mashhad to the other to where Sara and her friend Behnam met us. We cycled on motorways, flyovers, huge roundabouts and nearly lost them many times. We had no idea that Mashhad was so big, or so like a normal Western city. When we arrived we hadn’t eaten since breakfast and were exhausted, just running on adrenalin for the last half an hour.
A huge ‘Merci’ or ‘Motejekhuram’ to a lovely family!!!!!
iranontheroad
