2023-05-20. Asara - Saravan

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

When I wake up in the morning I see a dog that has slept next to the tent keeping me company, the river is nearby, I go to wash my face and the dog accompanies me. At the end of breakfast I give him the piece of bread I have left over. Everywhere there are apparently ownerless dogs, cautiously approaching, without bothering, waiting for you to give them something to eat.

I go back a bit of the way I did yesterday to take the mountain road, very secondary with recent landslides and rocks and streams running through the middle of the road, snowdrifts, it's fun.
In the pass there is the detour that I should take but it is a track, I am at 2,800 meters and I do not want to encounter the problems of landslides, mud and snow not knowing if I will be able to continue or not because of what I am following along the same road that in the end takes me to the main road, the 59, which goes from Tehran to the Caspian, but a motorway is being built next to it with many tunnels and bridges that will spoil everything.

There is a lot of traffic, both there and back, and there are very beautiful parts of the road, but the closer you get to the sea, the uglier it gets.
There is a section where the road and the river are clogged and the water flows over the wall and the sellers of doogh (Persian festive drink with yogurt, water, salt and dried mint) set up their stall, I stop at photo and the seller offers it to me but I have the money on the bike below but another customer is paying me. It's very good and refreshing.

The coastal road, with two lanes on each side, goes through all the towns that are connected, in fact it is like a big street with shops, banks, hotels, cafes, many half-built (or half-demolished?) buildings.
All quite ugly and although the Caspian is only a hundred meters away you can hardly see it.
I put petrol in and at the first place I see they have a barbecue outside I stop and they show me what they have. I order a beef skewer and some fried tomatoes, they also bring a green salad of noseque leaves with the meat and also rice, phew, I can't have it all.

I continue the route, and there is a lot of traffic and I go towards Qazvin. I'm looking for a place to camp off the main road.
I had just set up the tent at a quarter past 7 when four drops began to fall. At a quarter to nine it rains again.