It's a Wrap! Time to head home... Iran back to Istanbul

It's time to go, to start the journey back to Istanbul and then home! Just a few more places to visit on the way.
We are getting better at backpacking with our bikes! The bus driver stopped to let us off at the turn off to Natanze, before we had the front wheel on someone stopped and handed us 3 pomegranates. 10 km on and we met Majhed, he pulled over and waited for us holding out more pomegranates, there is a lot of eating in 6! We chatted, he invited us to his place but we said we would find the hotel then come for a cuppa. As we got closer to the town he was coming back the other way, No hotel, follow me, you must be my guest. Majhed was an absolute hoot. Same age as Trevor, his job was managing the personal involved in new motorway construction. That week it was finding accommodation for crew for a few months or however long it would take to do the job. He spoke a little English but understood less, he could not pronounce our names so Trevor was Mr Al and I became Mrs Sis (and he introduced us as that to everyone) After a late lunch, shower and rest we went with him to view some accommodation options in a nearby city. Pretty basic and some tough bargaining going on! Then to the on site cook house, kebabs and rice for dinner. It was raining a little the next morning, he insisted we stay the day, picked up an English speaking friend, who was visiting her sister from Tehran and we enjoyed a day out and about as well as heading up into the hills to collect spring water. He was still 'at work' and spent a fair bit of time juggling his 3 cell phones. A traditional restaurant lunch and later that evening backgammon. It's hard to describe his sense of humour except to say everything was a laugh, he thought we were nuts cycling anywhere. He was divorced with 2 married daughters, said he left 10 years ago because he couldn't handle the 3 women!  It became a bit difficult to extract ourselves from his place the next morning, I think he had made plans for us for the next week! (Photo)
Natanze - Abyanee 60 km
A gorgeous ride to this ancient red brick village. The road wound its way up through a valley, the autumn colours spectacular, fresh snow on the hills around us. We met a kiwi guy coming down in a taxi, he was working as an engineer in Esfehan and just visiting for the day. It was pretty cold and starting to rain when we checked into one of the two massively over priced hotels. We only had a couple of hours to explore the area before dark but that was long enough to walk up to the old fort to get an overview of the town, check out the old troglodyte dwellings (photo) now used for animals and also the interesting old door knockers, one is for men and one for women - years ago the people inside could figure out from the knock who should answer the door, men for men, women for women.
Abyanee - Kashan 86 km
The best days cycling, a chilly start but then we were off mostly downhill through the valley again stopping to take a few photos including one of the many pictures of young war heros that are everywhere in the country,  lots of memories from the Iran Iraq war where many many thousands died. We met one  man last week who had been a soldier, signing up for military service well under age and then being taken prisoner in Iraq under the Sudam Hussain regime. Very sobering stuff to hear.
Onto the flat avoiding the highway then a quieter road and suddenly we were riding through an area of high security with barb wire high fences, guard towers, revolving guns and military presense. We felt watched. We actually said to each other - no stopping, no photos, I wonder how long it will take before someone comes to see us. Not long! A few km down the rd and then a vehicle approached from behind. Army/ police - passport please, what are you doing - (cycling??)  Where are you going? Etc They took photos of our passports and then a video of us, then said no photos, no stopping till Kashan and off we went.  Apparently a nuclear uranium enrichment facility, but we didn't hear that from them!
A great 2 nights stay with warm showers host Elam, Houssein and their daughter Negar, more lovely food, more family to meet and a day in Kashan.
Next stop Qazvin, skirting Tehren and heading west - after the, should we or shouldn't we go to the big city question that always arises. No!
We were supposed to arrive at 4.30 at the bus terminal 2 km from the center but after everything we have been through on this journey what we think is happening and reality are often quite different.
So, dumped on the side of the highway in the dark at 7 pm with the city lights twinkling some 10 km away, we had just a few under and over passes, bridges roundabouts, road works, motorway and traffic in our way. We found 'friends' to follow after 5 km, they put their hazard lights on, 1 km later - hang on they are stopping, its chaos, cars are stopped everywhere, people everywhere, a plate thrust at us, have some cake... Everyone is eating cake, in cars, out of cars, on the footpath, Trevor had to quickly eat mine as well as it looked like it had nuts in it, then off we went again following a different car, well we think its different, its still white but I'm sure there are different people in it, jeepers they keep changing lanes, now a U turn, crikey, let me just hold up 3 lanes of traffic while I go from the far right to the far left, do a U turn then get back over to the far right. Now there are 2 motorbikes coming toward me, the adrenaline surge, did I do that wrong? Am I on the wrong side of the road? no no I'm ok, they are just taking a short cut... Another roundabout, who gives way to who here? no one gives way, keep up, keep your line, how many cars are there on this roundabout? feeling a bit hemmed in, ok looks like we take the 3rd exit, can they see my arm out? I'm crossing lanes, ok Trevor are you with me, I'm crossing lanes, phew, no problem, that's right, there's no signalling in this country, they are probably wondering what's wrong with my arm and why my jacket  glows in the dark, oops, someone is yelling at us, handing over a plastic bag, food maybe,  luckily Trevor can grab it, I need my hands on the handle bars. Orange light, but our car has gone through, (was that our car?) quick, follow, oops its red... This continues for quite a while, eventually we see a hotel sign.  We made it, honestly, another 'We couldn't make this stuff up if we tried moment' of which there have been so many. We still have no idea what the cake thing was about!
The next day we looked around the city,then booked the over night train back to Tabriz for the following night. We enjoyed lunch and the afternoon with a young guy who we met on the way to buy our ticket, plus his family and neighbours. Again, more generous, hospitable people who did not leave us until we were in our cabin, the train almost moving. 
We got to Tabriz very early in the morning then had to wait nearly 3 hours to pick up our bikes. They were securely locked in a carriage and the workers didn't arrive till after 9 am - you wouldn't want to be in a hurry.
We feel like we are over sight seeing, we couldn't decide on anything to visit so we didn't, Trevor's sandals were coming apart, he got them sewn up by the guy on the footpath (photo) , we enjoyed a  Tabriz specialty for lunch, flat bread rolled up with mashed potato, egg and lots of butter inside. We caught up with Hamed again and enjoyed dinner out. He used to cycle in Europe as a junior until an injury put a stop to that. He has just brought a touring bike - from a Dutch couple who decided in Tabriz cycling was too hard and continued on backpacking instead -  and he is obviously keen to go somewhere soon, Best of luck Hamed, you'll love it!
On to Maku, we have been traveling on roads that are part of the ancient silk road, the trading route from China to Europe, there are still many old caravanseries  about where the animals were housed and the merchants accommodated.
A night there, then what turned out to be our final day of cycling (65km) back to Bazargan through the Iran Turkish border and onto Dogubayazit.
Thankyou very much to the people of Iran, although that seems inadequate, what a fantastic place to visit!
The border crossing was out of control. It took us over 2 hours to get through the border. So many impatient men crossing with so many boxes, bags and sacks of supplies. No such thing as an orderly line, just push and shove and all hold up your passport. When Trevor finally got to one of the two Iranian windows and managed to get our passports in, the poor guy could not find New Zealand anywhere in his system so it really held things up. I was hanging back with our bikes and saw Trevor being shoved out of the way and guys yelling, thrusting their passports in the window,  I thought there was going to be a riot. Security arrived soon after to calm things down, nothing like a few guns to keep the peace, we headed to the Turkish side, which was even worse, having gone from 2 guys processing things down to one. Trevor had a hard job holding his own in the mayhem among hundreds of pushy guys. Plus everyones bags had to be checked and go through security. One guy half hid behind our bikes and I furtively watched as he packed and repacked what looked like sugar cubes until he sorted them how he wanted, then it looked like he tried to bribe one of the guards to let him bypass the scanner.  Guys were stuffing cigarettes down their pants, in their pockets, taking them out of cartons. Climbing over barriers. Creating havoc and confusion which may have been a plan. It could have been some tax/duty thing, hard to know, or drugs, there is a huge amount of opium that comes to Iran and Turkey from Afghanistan. But a bit obvious if it was. There was very little proper organization, it was hilarious to watch but a bit scary as well. The officials were very nice to us but at the same time there is always that concern that you could be, unwittingly, caught up in something not really knowing whether this was normal or not. Possibly being the only border open had added to the problem.
Finally we exited and biked back past the kms of trucks waiting to be processed. The temperature had dropped considerably, we kept climbing slightly, it was bitterly cold by the time we made it to the town. Thankfully no stick wielding goat herders out today.  We enjoyed a hot meal at a restaurant thawing out in front of the pot belly stove before going back to the same hotel we were in a few weeks back.  English news on TV reporting on missiles overhead from the Caspian Sea to Syria and Turkey shooting down a Russian fighter jet. But nothing to worry about in this sleepy hollow. It was dark at 4.30pm.
The bus to Erzurum left at 8am the next morning. We loaded the bikes, chatted with the bus driver, who told us at least 5 x that he was Kurdish, not Turkish  and waited until we were told to board. We were surprised when we got on the bus that a lot of the back seats were full, 19 people, quiet, tired looking, different looking, a slight unwashed clothes smell.
After 4 hours, about 15 km from Erzurum the bus stopped at a restaurant type place, not a bus terminal, the 19 people got off, 2 young women, 2 young boys and the rest mostly young guys. They were directed to a bench, sat in the cold, there was a real bitterly wind blowing and they were not very warmly dressed. We continued in the bus, they stayed there, we then asked, hey what about the others, we were told they were Afghanistan refugees and that was as far as the bus was taking them. I just wonder where they went from there, hopefully there was more transport organized. The overnight low in Erzurum was -11 that night. It's very sad, we wished we had had time to get them a cup of tea or give the kids our gloves. Not sure how or where they crossed the border, the bus drivers are also taking a big risk transporting them.
We physically chilled out in Erzurum, far out it was cold. A dry cold. Any moisture turned to ice straight away. There is a  ski field right behind the town. 2 nights there then a 17 hour overnight bus to Istanbul. We spent our last few days sightseeing, cleaned our bikes and everything else, got some bike boxes, packed up and then it was off in a shuttle to the airport. Just 35 hrs till we are back in NZ.
Nearly 14 months on the road, 17000 kilometres cycled. An amazing adventure from start to finish.
Now looking forward to NZ, the trees, the grass, the water, the mountains and more importantly our family and friends. Thanks to everyone for joining us through our blog, the messages, comments, emails and encouragement to keep it going was just what I needed.
So thats it, its a Wrap.
Imagine all the people... Living in a world of peace...  Unfortunately still a dream