Qazvin – Rasht

27th August 2014       34℃       368km (120km off-road)
Qazvin – Rasht

A nice early start after a good night’s rest, I headed back east for 120km, thought the Alborz valley, to visit the Castles of the Assassins. On reaching the castle, I found a very steep and hot climb on foot to reach the remains of the 12th century castle.
I decided that I wanted to see the Caspian Sea, since I was relatively close, but choose to ride the shortest route, over the top of the mountains, on a very scenic but hair-raising steep dirt trail, that eventually peaked at 3300M where it was cool and the air was clear.

Down the other side of the mountains, and approaching the Caspian, the mountains now covered in greenery, and the air sticky humid. So despite it being a few degrees cooler than the desert, it was much more uncomfortable, sweating buckets.
I stopped in the seaside town of Ramsar, for a photo of the sea, and was approached by a guy who asked if I needed a villa, with a girl. Later I passed a car that had been pulled over and searched, the police had found, and confiscated, a bottle of vodka, and the occupants of the car were trying to get it back.
I thought to myself, obviously not all of Iran conforms to the religious stereotype projected.

I reached Rasht at nearly 6pm, a long day and I hadn’t covered anywhere near the number of kilometers I needed to. I have two days to reach the Turkish border, 1000km away. So it looks like I’m in for two very long days, due to my overeagerness to see as much of Iran in a short time.

Tonight walking around Rasht, I tasted the local speciality, walnut cakes. Delicious. The friendly guys at the store then stuffed me with walnut/chocolate cookies, washed down with some type of fruit juice with rose water.

Rasht is a nice old town, and I really enjoy how the streets come alive at dusk in Iran, once it starts to cool down, everyone is out on the streets, walking, chatting, eating. It’s a good atmosphere.