Hi all,

I'm planning on riding from India to Europe, from early december. I know it's going to be bloody cold out there ... especially in Pakistan and Iran highlands.

Do you know if it's possible to go through at that time of the year ... and if it's a good idea ?? Did any of you did it and has advices for this kind of winter trip ?

Thanks a million in advance !
Paul

A friend of mine did it travelling in convoy with a bus and ended up with his bike towed by the bus with him inside, it is REALLY cold and possibly impassible at times so the advice would be don't do it, hang out in India for a couple of months if you can.

hum ... so what would be the prefered date for crossing to Pakistan ?

I think the real challenges for a biker would be:
1. Eastern Turkey
2. Northwestern Iran
3. Possibly Europe (it´s a rather large place though - like were you planning to go to the North Cape, or Sicily??)

If you take the route that most travellers take, then large parts of Iran are at surprisingly high altitude, 1000 meters above sea level or so. But eastern Turkey is even higher, and if that area is passable, then those others mentioned could well be easier. Try to get a hold of a topographic map of the region, and you´ll see what I mean.

To put it short: other areas could be negotiable, provided you´ve got enough time to stay somewhere and wait out the snow..... but I wouldn´t try eastern Turkey in midwinter, that is probably too cold (for bikes anyway), unless you´re an experienced winter rider. I passed through there at the end of October -07, and it was already quite bad.

And even central parts of Iran can get snowed in, we saw some footage of that, while we were in India, in January, maybe... the traffic in snowfall near Esfahan or Yazd was just total chaos, big piles of cars lying on the ditches, etc!!

More about our trip here:
MOTO1 - Matkalla

Hei, unless you are really well equiped for winter riding, forget it - and that is before we mention all the idiots driving cars and heavy vehicles who are definetly not equiped even for summer driving. The chances of getting run over by drivers unable to control their vehicles is higher than normal, that's for sure.
Look into the possibilities for freighting, by road or rail, I think it is central and western Iran and eastern Turkey that are difficult, all the rest is happy motoring, but not so warm. You could try local hauliers for shorter distances, rather than trying to arrange one haul all the way. Both these areas have lots of pick-ups looking for work, and that means you can drive when conditions are suitable.
It is probably a good idea to cross the border on two wheels by yourself, rather than letting some freight company bleed you for "fees" and wasting days.
Peter, in Oslo

Agree it would be preferable to hang out in India a bit longer. If you did Lahore, Multan, Sukkur, Quetta, Taftan I think you would be fine most of the year-round. However, I tried to get up the KKR to Sost in late January 2010 but only made it a couple hundred k's past abbottabad before landslides, snow and heavy persistent rain stopped me for a week prior to turning back. The KKR i'm told, would be the highlight of the journey and shouldn't be missed...

Iran is mostly ok if you go via Bam, Shiraz, Esfahan, Tabriz etc. in February though if you cross in the north of Iran into Turkey via Dogubeyazit it will be a bit cold (or it was in early March 2010) with plenty of snow but also sunshine. Alternatively you could cross into Iraq (in the northern half) and then enter Turkey via Kurdistan (can't cross Iraq into Syria last I checked) and follow the more southern route of Turkey then along the coast of the Med which will be much warmer. I took the mountain route which proved pretty tough (sliding down mountain roads which had 6" of snow) so I descended to the Black Sea for a while then took the mountain pass west of Samsun and south to the E80 for the run to Istanbul. Once or twice a day I had to stop in cafes or petrol stations to wait out the snow. Also I usually didn't start the day until after 9am and I tried to be in a hotel by 3pm.

If you see the trip as challenge, well...

If it's for fun, I just can see the point.

Hi Paul,

I did this trip in late November 2001. Eastern Turkey was cold and sleetly riding up high towards Dogubeyazit. After a few days in cool Tabriz Iran I woke on my departure day to find half a metre of overnight snow. I slithered 20km up the road and turned back deeming it too dangerous. I had another crack the following day and cover a measly 150km in 8 hours through snow and treacherous ice to just before Zanjan as dusk approached. Stopping every 10 minutes to hug my Honda Dominator engine and let us both warm up a bit out of the icy wind blast. I had latex inners and pukka winter gloves and standard hand guards - my fingers still froze. Body fine with H.G Tuareg lined suit. That evening I extended the guards to provide more protection with plastic and duct tape - it helped.

That was my most taxing day in the saddle ever. I cannot recall the number of front end slides I had but they were numerous! Never dropped the old girl though. I look back with great satisfaction, as you do on these types of days. Perhaps your biggest danger on these conditions will be other road users. Just give them as wide a berth as you can. As it was there was little traffic as I recall.

Obviously the further south in Iran the warmer it got. Down by the Gulf it was lovely.

Pakistan I never got further north than Peshawar early December. No prob's there with weather or people at all.