2023-05-13. Kashan - Tehran

Iran 2023 (Iran - Iraqi Kurdistan - Turkey - Greece - Albania - Italy)

On leaving Kashan I wanted to pass by the pool and the Fin Garden, very beautiful gardens, at 8 I'm already in the gardens but they don't open until 9, I don't want to wait and continue on my way.

All the time I'm thinking about the oil loss and every 20-30 kms I stop to look at it, clean the bar and sides to prevent oil from getting to the brake pads and disc, it seems to lose less than yesterday, let's see how it goes.

I stop at Nushabad to visit the underground city. It's incredible, it's 4 km2 but you can only visit a small part.
2,000 years ago everyone invaded them and they built a new city right below the city where they lived to take refuge from the attacks and when the danger passed they went back up to rebuild everything destroyed.
It has 3 levels and up to 18 meters deep, water inlet through the qnats and several wells to store it, many small rooms, pantry, toilet, etc. everything necessary to live a few days or weeks.

As the road passes through Qom, another holy city, I stop to visit the mausoleum of Fatima, sister of Imam Reza.
Just enter and after the security control a man at the control tells me to wait 5 minutes that now the "leader" will come, I don't understand him since he doesn't speak English but after a while a mullah arrives and asks me if I he can accompany me on the visit and he explains everything about Islam, Shiism, Fatima, the construction of the shrine on top of the tomb and the subsequent extensions. He is interested in my trip, etc.
At the end in demand if I have questions and if he can help me in anything and I tell him that the Internet is very bad since the VPN (paid ExpressVPN) fails me a lot, he tells me that he uses one that works very well and that if I want to install it for me... obviously yes!
We go to a private mausoleum administration office, they bring us fresh juice and Muhammad does the work, great, AnonyTun is free and works perfectly. I say goodbye and continue the route.

While I'm refreshing myself at a gas station I'm looking for a place to sleep before entering Tehran since I'd rather do it tomorrow morning and I discover a magnificent park in the south of the city, it will be the first free camping of the trip.

I pitch my tent on the grass while a father with two kids tries to chat me up and waits for me to finish setting up the tent to ask me to take selfies.

A storm is approaching and 4 drops fall but they don't prevent me from preparing dinner but according to the forecast rain is expected in the morning.