Day 111: Isfahan to Sagzi

We started off with a half day to get out of the city but still keep some time for sightseeing after getting the night bus back from Shiraz. The hostel very kindly let us rest for a bit in the courtyard in the morning. We had some post to send and I went looking for a bike shop unsuccessfully.
Before we left we went down to the river to look at the famous bridges of Isfahan and have some lunch. We ended up meeting a couple of characters while eating; a friendly old guy in a big furry hat and a less old and less old guy who sort of smiled at us while making seemingly stream of consciousness statements to none of us in particular. The guy in the hat was a bit more interesting, he wanted us to guess his profession and then revealed he was a brain surgeon, which I didn’t really believe until he started showing photos of himself operating.

Eventually Dr. Brain Surgeon left and it was just us and the other guy who didn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon so we said goodbye and kind of ran away. We rode out of the city then.
It was Richies first day of cycling and is gave us a new lease on it too. The ride out of the city was mostly through the dispersed factories and farms and complexes of unknown function that ring most of the cities for miles and miles. Though toward the evening, before sundown, we got out into good isolated desert. About 30km out of town we pulled off the road and set up in one spot amongst the tracts of dry, flat, desert.