Amir came around to the tourist house this morning with a breakfast of fresh bread and homemade cheese. We got going a bit later than usual on account of this and having to fix a flat tyre, but we were off before noon.
Riding out of Miyaneh we were in hills for a while, rode through one tunnel and along a river gorge but soon the land opened up and we were in steppe country again. We found ourselves by the famous (made famous to us by Amir) broken bridge.
We had another charming interaction with an Iranian family pulling over and getting out of the car to talk. Tea from a thermos and some tasty cardamom sweets. The kids were eager to get photos for the gram.

We’ve had cars, buses, trucks – all sorts of vehicles beep at us and wave on the trip so far. Today we experience a new one. Riding through the wide expanse of the steppe a railway line snaked over the horizon towards us and then ran in parallel for some time. One train blew the horn and looking over we saw the driver giving us a big wave out the window!

We were climbing slowly – and would be over the next few days. We came back within view of the main freeway to Tehran, both roads cutting through the steppe. We found somewhere to camp between the two roads in an old concrete bunker.