The road to Ankara was just brilliant, very nice condition with sweeping bends and amazing views.
The traffic in Ankara was a tad hectic though, with drivers running red lights and all manner of strange driving methods.
We settled into our hotel and had the bikes serviced and got our Iranian visas quite quickly. Only 24 hours to get the visas.
After our stay in Ankara we hot tailed it to the border (the visa clock was ticking and there wasn't much to see and do along the road to Dogubayazit (we nicknamed it Dogbiscuit), the frontier town in Turkey and our last stop before crossing the border. We did see some lovely snow-capped mountains in Erzurum. However, the roads from Erzurum to the border were horrific and travel time was slow as we went through gravel, dirt, dust and potholes all over the road at very low speeds.

The border crossing took longer to leave Turkey than entering Iran. The Turkish customs didn't enter Steve's full registration number for his bike when we crossed into Turkey from Bulgaria, so they took quite a long time sorting it out while we waited at the gate into Iran on the Turkish side. We didn't mind though, we were having a conversation with a young Iranian woman through the gate while we waited.
After the Turkish customs guys sorted the registration problem, the gate opened and we were in Iran. The lovely young lady helped Steve through the whole entry process from Immigration to Customs and changing money at the bank. It took a little while for the customs guys to sort out the Carnet, and even longer for our insurance to be organised, but the whole process on the Iranian side took around an hour and a half, so not too bad.

PLEASE NOTE......

Forget everything you think you know about Iran and all you believe Iran to be from the media, IT JUST ISN'T TRUE!!!!!!!

Iranians are the most welcoming, friendly, hospitable and genuine people we have encountered on our journey.

We rode on to Tabriz where we planned to stay two nights to catch-up on some sleep (too many early mornings recently) and to climatise ourselves to the Iranian way of life.
We stopped at the roadside to get our bearings coming into Tabriz and a small crowd gathered to help us locate the hotel. One guy even escorted us there on his motorbike to make sure we got there OK.

After a couple of days in Tabriz, we headed for the Caspian coast to Astara. We were stopped twice by police on the way there, once to check our passports, and the other just to perve at our bikes.

Astara was a one night stop. We tried to walk to the beach, but got as close as 20 meters before a rather dense jungle prevented us from reaching it. The scenery was amazing though with rainforest and rice paddies in a lovely green and lush mountain region - not what you would expect in Iran!

The next day we wanted to reach Rasht, but we weren't to make it as we were stopped by the police again and they didn't quite know what to do. They took our passports to the police HQ to photocopy them, and this took time. Another curious crowd gathered (we're like movie stars here) along with a young woman called Arezou but she preferred Leyla. She offered to translate for us which was very welcome, and after the police had done what they needed to do we were invited to Leyla's house for lunch in the next town. As we entered her town, the police there pulled us over, a very large motorcycle cop. We rode back to the police station and they again checked our passports. As Steve crossed the road to the police station, the crowed gathering around Liz and our bikes grew to around sixty or seventy odd. Steve told the police through Leyla that he was concerned about the large number, and the police performed quite efficient crowd control. After the police had finished, the motorcycle cop gave us an escort up the main high street and invited Steve to ride alongside him. He and Steve had a small drag race up the road as they were comparing and admiring each others bikes.

We pulled into Leyla's road and parked up. We met her mother and had some lunch. Their house is a lovely three roomed building which is very cool in the heat.

After a rest Leyla took us up to a mountain near her town to get a view of the whole town and the acres and acres of rice paddies. The three of us then went shopping for a new top for Lizzy (unsuccessful in finding one) before heading for the beach and visiting her Grandfather and other relatives. Back to Leyla's house for dinner and we were invited to stay. The beds were rolled out (futon like mattresses on the floor which were quite comfy) and we had a fab sleep.

Next morning we had breakfast and then went for another drive into the hills to see an old communal bath house that was around 2500 years old, and another couple of buildings around the town. On the way down the mountain, we stopped to take some photos of the river and Leyla's professor (David, another friendly Iranian and his two friends, friendly Iranians too) arrived unexpectedly. We sat and chatted for ages and had some tea.
After that we returned to Leyla's place as Steve had been invited to go fishing with one of her neighbours (Behnam) as he had seen Steve's fishing rod on his bike. While they went fishing Leyla took Liz to Leyla's English academy so that the pupils could practice their English with Liz. Lizzy was videoed for a promotional video for the academy.
Steve returned empty handed but had a great time with the blokes. We had dinner and we stayed another night at Leyla's place.

The next day we packed up our bikes after another delicious breakfast and headed for Bandar Anzali to organise our Iranian licence plates (we were told we needed them as we were riding in Iran for longer than 10 days). We were told that they no longer do it there and we needed to go to Rasht to get them. This was OK as that was our destination anyway.

It was raining and the road to Rasht was a bit frustrating as we kept getting boxed in by cars overtaking us and then slowing down to either look at the bikes (at 60MPH) or to hang right out of their car window to take photographs of us (at 60MPH). It is flattering, but they don't realise how dangerous they are making it for us as we have nowhere to go if vehicles suddenly stop or swerve, which is a common occurrence here.

We met up with Leyla near the police station in Rasht only to find that the department we needed for the plates had just closed for the day, so we went to look for a hotel. Leyla said to follow her and disappeared into a taxi that took off quicker than Steve could get his helmet on and we promptly lost track of her. We pulled over past an intersection and waited thinking she would come back if we didn't show. Next thing you know, an old guy on a small motorbike pulled up and whipped out a card that had 'Follow this guy, Leyla' written on it. It seems we can't disappear in Iran with our bikes as EVERYONE sees them.

Leyla helped us to find a hotel and negotiated a price for us which was very kind of her. We bought her lunch and then she returned home.

Leyla returned the next morning to help us with the licence plate matter which as it turned out, we didn't need them after all as our bikes are over 250CC, so we got that in writing and headed off. We changed some money and had some lunch before getting a car to Masoleuh, a mountain village where the roof of one house is the footpath and/or the front landing of the houses above. Very old and quaint. Steve found a fossil in a rock by the side of the road, but the rock was too large to take with us, so he gave it to Leyla.

Back to the hotel and then straight out to dinner where we said our farewells to Leyla.

The next day we headed to where we are now, Qazvin. We are here for a couple of days before heading for Kashan and then on to Esfahan.

We will update you all from Esfahan.

We are having an absolutely fabulous time in Iran.