Hi, i was following lots of you guys in the past and thats how i got inspired. So thank you all for sharing your adventures and all the stories behind! Now its my turn
Last year i was asking a friend of mine if his KTM LC4 adventure wants to join my Transalp from Austria to Tehran. He agreed so it was decided
We planned no route at all, had no GPS, no navigation, no internet, no smartphone, no nothing. We were just using some simple road maps and a compass (it still works in this century). We just knew the approximate direction: Austria - Turkey - Iran - Armenia - Georgia - Turkey once again and somehow back to Austria. The journey is the reward! We decided our route from day to day which provided us a lot of fortunate coincidances and absolute freedom. So after 65 days and 10000 kilometers we finished our mission safely but of course it wasnt that easy.
At the bottom of Nemrut Summit (Turkey). The simple life of motorbikers - me (left) and my bobby mcgee (right)
cappadocia, spiderman in summer vacation
Iran, I think there wont be snowfall in the next few weeks
Iran, standard procedure
Here is a small impression of the problems we had to solve: The heat was our biggest enemy. The temperature increased constantly from turkey to Tehran. We started at around 40°C and ended at 48°C in the shadow of Tehran. In the first 40 days of our journey there was no day which was "cooler" than that. Another big aspect was the traffic in Iran... without words. We called it the most dangerous traffic in the world, you wont believe how challenging it was. We already hired bikes in India but the Iranian (city) traffic was another story. We are fast and crazy drivers as well and after 10 days i would honestly say that we grew up to an coequal danger on the roads of Iran
In Tabriz (Iran) we accidentially experienced the "day of anger" with tenthousands of participants and 3 days later we joined a 400km traffic jam (made in Iran) around Tehran at the end of ramadan. It took us two days to get out of this but all the Iranians were just lovely and welcomed us at every corner. You got an idea of being a superstar. In Armenia an KTM engine breakdown separated my travel mate and me. It was a little wonder that we´ve met each other again three weeks later in Istanbul. Happy End!
Highlights:
Cappadocia (Turkey), Whole Iran (landscape, people, adventure), Mt. Kazbek (Georgia), 3 Seas (Mediterranian Sea, Caspian Sea, Black Sea), Istanbul
It really was the summer of my life so if there is anyone who is interested in the full story - here it is. Unfortunately my travel blog was written in German, you can try the embedded google translator to get a funny impression... At least you can click through the images to get an idea of what we´ve experienced
>>> >>> Link to my Blog <<< <<<
If there is someone who wants/needs further information please feel free to send me a message!
secret shot at the "day of anger" in tabriz (Iran) - every last friday of ramadan the Iranians demonstrate against USA and Israel. Unluckily we got into it... but everyone was nice to us, so it was kinda experience, no problem
Somewhere on the road to Tehran, yes it was hot!
Tehran, here we come!
"Otrish" - "Austria" in Persian letters - creating this sticker was one of the best ideas - everyone was reading it and everyone was really enthausiastic to have guests from that far away. They seemed to like Austria
Iran, just awesome!
Iran, on our last 200km to Armenia
Caspian Sea, thank you Iran! It was just incredibly hot, every single day...
this is what can happen at every corner, the Iranians are just awesome! It doesnt matter if they are old or young, if male or female, everyone welcomes you all the time! Everyone is friendly, helpfull and respectful. It was overwhelming!
Yerevan, worst case scenario in armenia
sightseeing in georgia, of course you can reach this church with your bike!
my new russian travel mates in front of Mt. Kazbek, Georgia
offroad in the Caucasus region
offroad in the Caucasus region
somewhere in the deepest Caucasus
Bosporus, reunion after 3 weeks in Istanbul
Istanbul, Blue mosque from the view of Hagia Sophia
Summer of my life!