I crossed over the border from Iran into Pakistan yesterday, so I thought I'd give you guys the low-down on how it went.

I started from Bam at 6am.
Bam to Zahedan, no problems, pristine road, no checkpoints, did see a bus being escorted by a pickup-mounted machine-gun which gave me the willies, but no worries!

Once you get to Zahedan you're met by the most irritating relay-race of escorts you'll ever want to meet.
It took me four hours to get through Zahedan and to the border (a total of about 100km!) as I was waiting half an hour each time for a policeman who escorted me about 3 feet to the next checkpoint and told me to wait there for the next guy... Repeat ad-nauseum.

Once I actually got to the border the process was relatively quick and painless.
2 hours it took from riding in and waving good-bye to my escort to driving off into the sunset in Pakistan.

The Pakistani side of the border is a stark contrast to the Iranian side, unsealed roads link the run-down customs and immigration offices together.
Taftan, the town immediately on the Pakistani side of the border has virtually nothing apart from a shop and a government hosted accomodation block (or so I'm told, I didn't actually stay there)

The road from Taftan to Quetta is in pretty shit shape.
It looks ok, but suddenly there's a huge chunk out of the road where it's been washed away, and the Pakistani way of warning you is to put a big pile of gravel in front of the offending area (not helpful at night!)

Petrol is 70Rupees a litre as far as I've seen so far, there are no official petrol stations between Taftan and Quetta (as far as I saw anyway) but there are umpteen stalls selling petrol by the roadside at any of the towns.

It took me approximately 14 hours to ride from Taftan to Quetta, going as fast as the roads would allow.
As that's only 550km or so.. that gives you a fair idea of how shit the road is.

EDIT: Oh I forgot to mention, in Pakistan I have had NO escorts so far, though I think they are available if you want them...


Hope this is of some use to somebody!