Where were we last time I wrote, Ah yes we had just arrived in the Lakesidetown of Van having taken a 5 hour ferry ride across Van Golu (Van Lake). OurIranian visas had lapsed by this point so we had to take a detour up to theuniversity town of Erzerum. It is famous for many things, the strong religiousbeliefs of the local population, the stunning scenery of the mountains thatsurround this ancient city but most of all Erzerum is famous for being cold andI mean really cold. It will be 40 degrees on the coast ans it is minus 5 thereand that can be in summer.

Applying for the visas took a whole day, the man in the consulate woulddisappear for up to an hour without warning leaving us with nothing to do butstare at the glass screen. Not wanting to make a scene we just had to acceptthe face of Iranian beaurocracy (or however one spells it). Then there was atrek across town to deposit $144 in the Iranian consulates bank account, thenback again with the receipt. After 6 hours he then said 'Here is my numberphone me in 5 days and I will let you know.'

Now Erzerum is nice and has few older very pretty sites to see but nowhere near5 days worth, so we decided to visit the ancient city of Ani up near theArmenian border so our guidebook said. Right next to the border was thereality, 5 hours on a bus, one hour by taxi and then we are told we are notmeant to take photos as the area is 'sensitive'. The place has a certain eeriequality that remind one of the photos of Hiroshima after the bomb (see panoramaphoto). The only buildings left standing are church the rest of the town isabout waist height. I immediately thought that the Turks had flatten the placeback in the 20's when they massacred the Armenian population in this area, butno it turns out it was the Mongols who had sacked the place back in the the16th century.

< p>By the time we got back to Erzerum Jenny was feeling unwell, very unwell, mostdecidedly unwell. Not too surprising since she had dysentry (or something thathad all the symptoms of dysentry, I will not hirrify you with the list). SO wespent the next 12 days waiting on her getting better, we had initially decidedto wait it out but after a visit to the doctor she was prescribed afrighteningly long list of drugs to take. I swear the girl rattled.

Finally we set off northwards along the shores of Van Golu, we had only 90km todo to get to Muridaye where we hoped to get a hotel. However the last 3 weekshad taken there toll on Jenny. She was so weak from being ill she ought nottohave been cycling. Crawling along at 10km with her legs pumping like steampistons she was having to do twice as much work as normal just to keep up aslow pace. When we eventualy crawled into a service station in Muridaye she wasphysically and mentally drained. This was when we heard the real killer, 'nohotels here, next one 25km further'. We had no option but to scrounge acampsite from the guys who ran the garage, they were delighted to have us asguests and one of them even gave up his bedroom for us.

The next day was if anything even worse as there was slight hill for theremaining 25km to Chaldiran, it took us over two hours to cover what we wopuldnormally do in one. The Hotel had a stove in each room, our one was so hot theit melted one of my front panniers. We were the only foriegners in the area,this became handy when our hotel manager needed to find us in the evening totake us to the only place open for dinner (it was Ramazzan and so mostrestaurants were closed), he just asked where the foreigners had gone andeveryone pointed us out. You definitely couldn't get lost in this town.

It was becoming apparent that the next days 60km cycling to Dogabayazit wasgoing to be beyond Jen as she was too physically wea k from being ill to managethe 2,600m pass in the snow. So we loaded the bikes on a minibus and headedover the hill. The road passed within 1km of the Iranian border (or so itseemed), climbing past mud brick villages where the sheepdogs would come outand try and bite the bus (I was very glad to be on the inside at that point).Cresting the hill the most impressive sight awaited us, Mount Ararat in all itscone shaped snow capped glory looked down onto a wide flat valley floor wherethe town of Dogabayazit nestled in against the hillside. Walking down the mainstreet we were intruduced to 2 scots guys (Iain Campbell & Simon Cranshaw) whowere travelling eastwards from Iran. They told me there was another scot, fromone of the outer island who was up on Ararat looking for the 'true Ark' site,armed with a shotgun against the wolves and bandits. So whilst we pumped themfor information we sank our last beers for some considerable time I fear.

After a couple of days we headed out along the valley floor tot he border, bythis point the temperature had dropped considerably and even more snow hadfallen on Ararat. Crossingthe Iranian border has been described as hell, it cantake 4 or 5 hours on a good day and that is without the bags of luggage we havewith us. We were expecting the full search, we got 'Hello, have you ever beento Iran before?'...'No, it's our first time.'...'Well have a nice time'. Thatwas it, it took less that 15 minutes to pass through customs and 'humanquarantine'.

---

Iran border to Zanjan

About 30km from the border (see photo of us shivering our selves to death) isthe Iranian town of Maku. Maku is in a deep gorge where the busy main roadswoops 400m down through the towns very centre, in the rainy season the waterpours over the edges of the gorge into the town so the roads have deep (as in1m deep) trenches on either side of the road, makes accurate cycli ng fun I cantell you. We received a very hospitable welcome form everyone, they plied uswith food and drink despite it being Ramazzan, it turns out the Iranians aremore liberal with their application of rules that the Turks. After a day off tovisit Ghara Kelisa, an Armenian church near the Turkish border, we headed outof Maku to the dusty trading town of Qareh zia Eddin some 86km away. Beingfriday everything was either shut or about to shut and it wa only by the goodservices of half otf the town that we found the hotel, noone asked where wewanted to go they just pointed out the way for us.

Marand lies 120km to the south of Qareh zia Eddin it started out well withsmooth easy first 50km but then we had to dig deep for the last 70km as theroad gradually rose ever upwards. Arriving in town we were told that there wasonly one 'tourist hotel' and that was up the hill, so off we went, only to findthey wanted $30 for a room (we have been paying about 7 or 8 max.) so we toldthem to stuff it and headed off back into town only to be shown a Mesafoorhanny(guest house) for $5 right next to where we had started to ask. It had taken usone and a half hours to find a room 20m away.

Needless to say we were not very impressed to find ou that we had to climb backup the hill the next morning on our way out of town. As we left town the snowbegan to fall, heavier and heavier and heavier. Within an hour it was extremelycold and looking decidedly unlike cycling weather but we pressed on. My feetwrapped in poly bags and Jen wrapped in all the warm clothing she posessed. Aquick stop for lunch in a roadside cafe saw us drying everything off and thenheading back off into the snow much tot he amusement of the owner. Tabriz was awelcome sight after 73km, even thogh I managed to split yet another tyreentering the city centre, the hotel staff didn't bat an eyelid as we arrivedcovered in mud from head to toe, in fact they just smiled at us. The delight ofwarm showers was bliss beyond belief.

After 2 days of sight seeing we set off early for Bostan Anbad 63km away, theearly morning air pollution left me gasping and wheezing as we climbed out oftown. Boston Abad has one hotel, it appears to have last been cleaned in 1979,ceratinly the sheets have never been changed judging by the state of our room.So far this place wins the 'shithole of the trip award', mind you I imaginethere will be worse, much worse to come.

Miyaneh was 109km across a very Scottish landscape with hedges (or were theywalls) picked out by snow. A short climb to around 1800m then what ought tohave been 80km of easy downhill was spoiled by a headwind that meant we had towork hard just to go downhill into it. A jeep fullof lads took us to the onlyhotel in town, they wanted $20 for a room but settled for $8 in the end. Thebest bit was tommorrow is Eide el Fatir (end of Ramazzan) so eating as normalcould commence.

'What goes up must come down' and the reverse is also true in cycling, Havinggone downhill for 80km we knew the next day was uphill for all of thew 140km toZanjan. To add insult to injury the headwind was back so we struggled hard tomake headway. Just outside of Zanjan we were stopped by a Land Rover full ofIranian lads offering to take us for dinner and telling us where the cheaphotels were. The next night Mohsin and Salik(?) took us to Mohsins family homefor dinner (see picture). After dinner, which was a special event, as Mohsinwas off to the Army the next day he took on Jen at arm wrestling, and lost muchto everyones delight. It must have been the chicken she ate. When we finallyleft at about 11pm we got back to the hotel to find the reception man had beento the Uk and proceeded to show us his snaps, Edinburgh, Chester, London, Asda,Sainsburys, Marks and Spencers, it is very strange to see what other cultur esfind interesting about ours.