Down from the mountains

Hello to everybody!

stopping to bye some food

also food: camel head and cow head

We are now in Bandar Abbas, on the Persic gulf. It means that we are arrived at our last stop in Persia! We came down from the Iranian high plateau and now we see again the sea. We left it almost two months ago on the west coast of Turkey and it is really nice to find it again. Besides the coast, almost all Iranian is above 1000 m. Shiraz is for instance at 1500 m and Kerman at 1700 m. We have done the 500 Km between Kerman and here in 5 days...not bad!
  To be again at 0 meters above sea level  has several advantages. The immediate advantage we have recognized is that if you cycle to the sea you cycle mostly downhill. Also the temperatures increased and every night we placed the tent in a warmer place than the night before! It is so comfortable to cook your meal after a day of cycling and eat it without freezing the fingers... Actually here the temperatures are fantastic, that is always between 18 and 23 degrees Celsius (at least in January, they tell me that  in summer it is about 45). Another advantage is that fish is fresh and cheap. Our Russian host (I will tell you about him later) bought for 50.000 rials (3.5 euro) 1 Kg of  fresh tuna. I think I will visit the fish market at the port soon again...

well prepared for the tunnel

biggest traffic jam ever after the tiny tunnel on top of the pass

Chapter 1:Weather

As you may know, god does not exist. I mean, if you believe that god exists, then it surely exists. But it exists because you believe it exists, it does not exist before you. To make it short, there are some evidences that men made god, even if a couple of billion of people are quite convinced of the contrary. But, taking for true  the existence of god before the men, under the principle meius abundare quam deficere (brutally translated: more is better than less) it can be assumed that god could be more than one. Before monotheism actually, men were more comfortable to invent more than only one god. Believing also in reincarnation, I think the following story happened.

Matteo in the middle of all his clothes

Head wind - as mostly!

In one of my previous lives I could be a drug dealer. I had good connections with Afghanian smugglers who provided me premium quality opium. I sold this premium opium quite cheap to the god of rain, who really liked it  a lot. In this life he is recompensating me with only two days of rain in more than two month of travel. That is actually good only for me, because the Persian people is suffering since a couple of years a strong drought which seriously treat the local water balance and the agriculture. All river we passed were dried, also in this season when they should be full of rain, and here there is really fear for the summer, which will be almost surely characterized by water shortage. On the other hand I think I did something wrong to the god of wind. I do not really know what , but some data suggest that I fucked several times his daughter without condom living her affected of gonorrhea, pregnant, and without any economical support. Other evidences show that the opium I sold to him and his wife was so bad that they are both severely sick and his wife became even more crazy than she already was. Only in this way I can explain me why the wind is blowing always against us. From south on the west coast of Turkey all Iran from south. Exactly from the direction we wanted to go!My father says that all cyclists of the world complain about the wind in face, but in my case it is true! The strong nationalism makes possible that in Turkey there are more Turkish flags than trees. In Iran it is the same. Because of that, I have the prove of what I am saying!
Besides the wind, until now the weather was good. But if you travel in these regions in winter, expect warm days around 10  to 15 Celsius and night around zero within cities, definitively below zero outside them. Fortunately we had all the necessary with us. By the way Mascha is half Russian and she could have done that in T-shirt. My Mediterranean soul convinced me to bring some wool. It was the right decision!

Next chapters follow soon!