In this post we will try to describe (again) the unlimited hospitality of the Iranian people. After we left Tabriz we met bike traveler Nicolas from France. It appears that he had a German mother, like Maurice and that he was born in Guyancourt, the village where Ronald and Bettina lived during their stay in France in 1985 and 1986. We decided to bike that day together and set up our camp somewhere in the wilderness.

The day after we biked until Miyanmeh together where Nicolas had a Warm-Shower appointment (WS is a worldwide organisation for providing bikers with a shower and a bed or camping spot). We went on for another 25 km and finally asked at a Red Crescent (Arabic equivalent of Red Cross) station whether we could put our tent in their backyard.

Instead we were invited into the station itself and rescuers moved their stuff from the bedroom to enable us to sleep over there. Of course the tea, a warm shower and discussions were included!

Next day after a perfect breakfast with truckers, we headed to Zanjan. A beautiful track brought us to this 400.000 inhabitants city and during our search for a suitable camping spot, we saw a green oasis after a railway viaduct.

Ronald went under the viaduct and was immediately invited for tea. This was a farm from the family Houshyar (father, mother, 4 sons and 4 daughters).

We were invited for dinner (cooked on a fire pit), got a sleeping place under the clear sky…

and the morning after, breakfast was served with a large part of the family.

We had very nice talks with them and they even invited Farah who speaks perfectly English, in order to understand everything. After several pictures and saying goodbye, we headed for our goal of the day, Qeydar. We stopped for an Internet cafe in Sotaniyeh and a 17-years old boy asked us for lunch, because he wanted to improve his knowledge of Europe and the English language. Long story short, we had a great lunch with Saleh, his father Hosein and his grandma. Just before entering the city Qeydar, a men named Hassan was stopping us and called his friend Ali, that he has found us… Ali was underway to his work in Zanjan as he saw us biking on the other side of the road. He called Hassan to take care of us with diner etc. and invited us to sleep in his house. We were flabbergasted that without asking anything, our evening was already planned and settled!

This morning we woke up in our tent in Kabud Ahang and don’t think it was easy to stay finally one night in our tent. We entered Kabud and were directed to a park for a camping spot. Again we were invited to sleep and eat at someones home. After we made clear that we were grateful, but wanted to sleep the night on our own, a group of 20 “advisers” were discussing our situation. Eventually a very nice police officer, recognized the situation and under his supervision, we were “escorted” to a safe and quiet place for our tent. There was even a guard who took care of our bikes and brought us tea in the morning.

Iran is still amazing us every day and we can only confirm the image of great hospitality!!

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