I am sitting now in the office of my friend Mohammad Hajabolfath who runs the website and guiding company www.mountainzone.ir – a great website about the mountains of Iran and his services. The English version is good but the Farsi is so much better (if you can read Farsi that is!).

I am stoked (and perhaps a little relieved) to say that what could be considered the first section of my walk across Iran is now complete. I have travelled on foot from the coastal town of Chalus, heading east to Mahmoud Abad, then taking a direct (well, far from direct in all honesty!) southerly route heading to Tehran. As I wrote in a previous post the stretch along the Caspian Coast, I could only describe as perhaps interesting. Certainly, the section I travelled along could not be described as beautiful. In it’s natural state, for sure, but now thanks to man, not so much. I travelled a long and straight road all the way to the town of Mahmoud Abad where I met and stayed with some great people. From here I passed through Amol, again meeting some fantastic Iranians. Both groups were university students, however they could not be more different. While one group preferred to listen to traditional Kordestan music, the others would much prefer to rock out to Linkin Park. Wolf whistling and propositioning their female counterparts in the street came pretty natural to these boys. Somehow I could not see the guys in Amol behaving in the same manner. They were much more reserved and definitely more religious. Their unifying trait was an overwhelming hospitality towards a complete stranger and this has been true for every single person I have met on the journey so far. At times this friendliness seems almost surreal.

After leaving Amol I began to climb into the Central Alborz mountains, towering snow covered peaks dominated by the most famous, Damavand. What a sight. This mountain range is an amazing sight. You could get lost in here climbing, skiing, trekking and mountaineering for all of your days and still not cover them all. If you are thinking of getting into some ski mountaineering then this is the place to go. World class open runs, so close to Tehran, so cheap, so friendly and no crowds of people to get in your way. Plugging Mountain Zone again here is not so out of place. Mohammad is known as the go to man in Iran for both summits in the Central Alborz and for getting back down a whole lot quicker with a couple of planks strapped to your feet.

After trekking for several days into the Central Alborz, I reached the small village of Reyneh, one of the points of departure for a summit attempt on Damavand. Here, on a cold, snowy evening while searching for a place to stay I met Mr. Hossein, a mountain guide. He is 50 years old and comes from a family of guides, having lived his entire life at the foot of Damavand. He kindly let me stay in the base camp hut. A little empty but nice and warm. He invited me to his house to view photos from his many adventures in the mountains. 8 years previous his brother and nephew died on a winter ascent of Damavand, a revelation into the unpredictable nature of a peak that in summer at least can be a straightforward climb. Full of energy and always laughing, Mr H. told me about his 2 wives and 2 houses in the village. He split his time between the 2 although preferred one over the other. Houses that is, not wives!

From Reyneh I pushed on higher into the mountains following a little used road passed by only the odd truck. Making the small resort town of Polur some 65km from Tehran, the wheels fell off just a little. Being a mountain range comprised of 4000m+ peaks makes it somewhat difficult for even an animal such as man to go over the top. The answer, of course is to through, which means a whole bunch of tunnels. Not the best to wander through. Now these tunnels are not exactly your Swiss or Austrian mountain variety. They are as rugged and tough as the mountains they pass through. For 30km there are tunnels, the smallest being just 500m long, while the longest is pushing 2km, with just enough room for 2 vehicles to pass through. No emergency exit doors and definitely no extraction fans. Judging by the visibility I reckoned I would fall down flat dead less than halfway through. That is if I had not been cleaned up by a wayward truck before hand.

Why not go round? Over? Good question. Maybe I am not as hard as I would like to think. The ability to complete multiple ascent and descent of a few measly (Ha!!!) 4000m+ peaks in winter should really be within the arsenal of any self-respecting adventurer shouldn’t it? Possibly, but, a couple of things held me back besides. An overwhelming part of this expedition is to discover an Iran hidden from the West and I do not mean it’s beautiful mountain vistas. It’s people and their day to day lives are my real target. Spending a couple of weeks atop mountain peaks, while being quite nice a prospect was not helping in this regard and is not my major aim. Time, as well is a big factor. Soon enough, even now, I must apply for a visa renewal. At best I am looking at 90 unbroken days total for this journey. I gotta get moving. So at the end of all that bluff and excuse making, I hitched a ride through this section, through the tunnels of doom. There, I said it. Happy? I hope so. It was a gut-wrenching decision to have to make and I made it after a good few hours going over my maps and speaking to the locals and Mohammad (my friend, not the Prophet, although I may have done well to ask for his take on the whole thing). I can assure you, I was so upset and felt physically sick as I sat sulking my way through these tunnels, even if the driver of the car was happy to chat and offer me some bloody delicious oranges.

It was a quick ride to the sprawling metropolis and as I jumped out of the car I felt bummed out. What had I done? I headed to Mohammad’s place via the metro where we again pulled out the maps and tried to make a plan. Maybe I could just live with it. Sweep this bit under the carpet. Put it in the too hard basket. As I slept that night I felt sick, my head was spinning. If this was how I had to feel then I had to do something. In the morning, Mohammad said he was keen to go into the mountains for some trekking and to show me some great views of Damavand. I jumped at the chance. I had my shot at redemption. I could head back into the Alborz, do some great walking with Mohammad and then pick up where I left off. I knew that I could do this! So I did!

After a great day so close to Iran’s highest peak, I said goodbye to my friend and departed from Polur en route to Tehran, as I should have done a few days previous. It was touch and go with tunnels. I managed to tip-toe around the icy slopes of most, only having to skip through a couple. Reaching the final high pass at 2800m before Tehran I was estatic. I knew I was going to do it. One final 2km tunnel stood in my way. How could I get past it? In the end it was so simple. I jumped the guard rail and slid, jumped, tripped my way through half metre deep snow in the valley below, emerging into a ski town complete with massive alpine chalets. This was an 11 hour day of trekking with a 30min sit down. I was knackered! The following day after some very straightforward walking I saw a sign in the distance indicating the mileage to Tehran. What did it say? I did not want to get my hopes up. 35? 30? No, 20km! I was wrapt. I was nearly there. To top it off as the trail I was on disappeared and the busy expressway loomed, can you believe it I chanced upon a brand new motorway not in use! This multi-lane behemoth led all the way to Tehran. Not a car or truck in site. After, just 4 or so hours on this bad boy I had reached Tehran. Finally I had done it. A weight was lifted. I was a happy bloke that evening as I lay on the sofa mattress in Mohammad’s apartment.

So, after a few days in Iran I am off today to Qom. I would like to say that this section will be so much more direct. So much more straightforward, but I have learnt that making such predictions really just leads to frustration and disappointment. I will get to Qom when I get there (but secretly I hope sometime late next week! Ha!).

I will throw up another post then. Apologies for the lack of news over the last week or so. I promise to try harder.