Getting into Adventure Green

Architecture on the way through to Iran
home and men are in control.
It is illegal for a women to ride a
motorbike in Iran, with foreign
women excluded. Many locals don’t
know this and would warn me about
riding a bike. Once I had someone
tell me, having found out I don’t have
children, that it’s because I ride a
motorbike and it’s made me infertile!
“IT IS ILLEGAL
FOR A WOMAN
TO RIDE A MOTOR-
BIKE IN IRAN”
I did really like Iran. It was my
favourite country of the lot. Mainly
because it was so different from
anywhere else. I also really liked
Armenia and Georgia as well. The
scenery there is amazing. Iran is
a massive country and there’s not
always a lot of variety – you can be
riding across a desert for days - but
you get to Armenia, which is really
tiny, and there’s so much diversity.
It is a lot poorer than I thought it
would be, poorer than Iran. But the
people were really friendly and the
food is incredible. Lots of fish, giant
tortellinis., and cheese. They really
like their cheese!
I was wild camping most of the
time. My method is that if no one
knows you’re there then you’re safer.
I also don’t set up until after sunset
to make sure I haven’t been seen by
anyone. Or if I can’t find anywhere
I’ll ask in a village or at a farm. Often
they’ll let you stay in their house
and the whole village then turns up
to speak to you. I thought it would
be a lot easier to wild camp than it
was, but there are so many people
everywhere.
In a sense the trip was easy. I
thought it would be a lot harder
than it was. Aside from the political
incidents in Turkey, I didn’t really
have any problems. I think when
I came back, when I told people, I
got a lot more credit than what was
due. People think it’s difficult, but it’s
actually really easy.
When you haven’t done it it’s easy
to imagine problems. You can’t
imagine the solution because you’re
not there to see what the solution is.
So people think ‘Oh I can never do
that because of xyz.’ But that’s only
because you can’t imagine the good
things, only the bad.
I don’t think you are more vulnerable
as a women. People tend to think
you’re incapable of causing any
harm so don’t see you as a threat.
In Iran it was a case of wondering,
‘Why is your husband letting you do
this?’ They didn’t understand it, and
therefore sometimes thought you
had questionable morals. But if you
told them you were going somewhere
and it was a really long way and you
needed their help to get there then
they would understand and help. My
next trip is even further, to Malaysia,
leaving in March. Wish me luck.
PLANNING A TRIP TO IRAN
A trip into Iran is rewarding but never easy. Visas can be a pain to get hold
of, requiring an authorisation number from a travel agent to apply for a
visa, with the process especially hard for British, American and Canadian
passport holders (born out of tensions, some of which go back to the
previous centuries). If you’re from one of those countries you now need an
official government guide to accompany you at a cost of around £140 per day.
This is possibly to restrict movement once inside the country, with similar
requirements in place when crossing through Myanmar, Thailand and China,
though in those countries the guiding fee applies to all nationalities, with
costs similar to those for Iran.
Travelling on an Irish passport, Johanna didn’t require the guiding service,
but did need a Carnet de Passage. These are issued in the UK by an
organisation found here: www.carseurope.net. It’s a complicated process to
get to the cost of a Carnet - dependant as it is on the value of the bike - but for
a £1000 machine to pass through Iran the Carnet cost would be £700, with
£250 of that refundable when you return to the UK. There are ways around
it with temporary import licences, either at the border or through a chap
named Hussain at Overland to Iran: overlandtoiran@gmail.com
As stated; not an easy country to access by bike, but one that’s well worth it.