GPS points, routes - Iran
 

Hi everyone.

I was searching through the forum but I didn't find anything like this. (I apologize if I missed it.)

The question stands: Does somebody have some interesting roads and spot points or even routes for Garmin GPSmap? (.gpx) in Iran? (I'm especially interested in parts around Dash-e-Lut desert, Yazd, Bam and Shiraz.)

If somebody does, can I ask you please share to them with me?

My email is: nejcDOTtrpin(at)yahoo.co.uk

Thank you!

Regards
Nejc

GPX files might be with the Navigation/maps
 

You might look in the navigation section, especially this sticky thread which does say that it contains some detail about Iran, among a list of many countries:
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...eearth-36431-8

Thank you!

I totally missed it. :thumbup1:

IMPORTANT ADDITIONAL INFORMATION.

1-In Iran, never ride outside main roads between main cities and on roads close to borderlines except around caspian sea.

2-Be careful about your Iran visa period.It is impossible to extend it in Iran.

Here is a passage from a charity ride memory written 1 week ago..

Day 3 of the visa extension nightmare:
Officer refuses to speak or look at me and yells at our host for 20 minutes in Parsi including threatening to jail him for 6 months for his nefarious illegal activities. What crimes you ask: hosting couchsurfers, a website that isnt even blocked in Iran. I had to pay twice the visa fee and have to return with proof of my flight to India on Saturday.

Day 4 of visa nightmare: Taken to"Special Security" a nice woman translates for a not so nice man. I am warned not to take any pictures during the NAM summit or speak to any other foreigners"Just go the park and cinema okay".

Wish you all the best.

Iran is pretty well covered by Open Street Maps. There are also plenty of tracks on wikiloc and other such sites, i.e. VagabondPix's trails and waypoints : wikiloc.com. Wikiloc actually shows up in Google Earth as a layer. So pretty easy for planing.

Number of waypoints in Colebatch's collection: http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...860#post372634

I have personally extended a visa and used minor roads and dirt roads in Iran. Things change and tensions are rising, but "istanbul bisiklet motosiklet" sounds a bit harsh, imho. Maybe just a language thing? Anyway, keep your ear to the ground, seek local and recent traveler's advise and don't do do anything obviously foolish. As an example, when I saw a bunch of anti-aircraft guns I decided to forgo the off road excursion and stick with the main road :-)

There is also a decent waterproof "paper" map you can buy from http://www.reise-know-how.de/iran-11500000-p-1516.html or http://www.amazon.co.uk/Reise-Know-H...6462216&sr=8-1

Disagree
 

I've been around on dirt road along the Iran-Irak border (in Iran Kurdistan), and had zero problems. That was 2 years ago. An amazing place, by the way, and hyper-friendly people, I couldn't manage to pay for my food.

All road signs are in Persian, so it can get a little difficult to find your way.. it's all part of the fun though.

Laurent

Hello!

Thank you all for the advices. Ofcourse, I will not try to do something foolish, at last, I will go for my pleasure. Ofcourse different people has different opinions and experience.

Thanks again for your advices bier

Have a nice day!

Nejc

hello Boarder

do you know if "vagabond" tracks are off road? As much as I can understand most if not all are on tarmac.

I’m looking for Iran/turkey off road tracks, waypoints, …

thks

This year happend twice and we met both of them at the club.
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...ng-kavir-64292

Thought I'd add some of my experiences to this since it was off the main tourist trail! Overall the Iranians are friendly people. But.

In Alīgūdarz (west of Esfahan, taken that route to avoid the nuclear facilities!) I had stopped in a small park on the main road to wait for my friend to catch up. While there as usual a car stopped, backed up to look at the bike and then they called out from the car in farsi, I call back "Farsi balad neesam", but they persist in trying to talk. One of them came over and tried talking more so I told him no farsi again, then he tried to grab for my phone which was in my hands at the time (I was checking a map). I mistook that for the usual friendly iranian way of trying to communicate but he made a few more grabs for it but I held on tight. Then he gave up, walked back around the bike, unzipped the tank bag and took out the spot messenger and ran for the car. As soon as I saw him unzip the bag I got up and ran over but I was only able to touch the door as it sped off. The idiot took the only thing that alerts myself or authorities to it's location, no huge problem except now I can't let people know I'm OK. As I'm packing up to get out of there they appear again. This time they hold the spot messenger out the window and I think they want me to go get it, I don't leave the bike because they probably want me off it and then a nearby kid gets it and hands it back to me. I guess they didn't know what it was for? Who knows. They didn't take the GPS or notice that the keys were still in the bike, which was lucky. I was glad I had it back a few days later to let people know I was OK after the earthquake in Tabriz!


In Qeydār, again, I stopped to let my friend catch up. This time a bike stops with two guys on it, they persist in talking in farsi no matter how many times I say no farsi. This time I'm wise to what happened before so I'm still sitting on the bike and the tank bag has a padlock on it. But they're pointing at different parts of the bike, still asking questions in farsi, eventually getting to the back of the bike and looking at stuff there. A car had pulled up beside me so now these guys are out of my vision and the guy in the car just gave up after asking if I speak farsi. Then I see one guy start the bike they had, and the other running to get on the back with his hands under his shirt. I check behind me and sure enough the cap of the PVC pipe I have there is lose. All they've taken is an aluminium water bottle but I'm quite annoyed that another incident like this has happened within a few days. And as per last time, THEY CAME BACK. I made it known to the larger group around me now that they were not welcome back.

Lesson learnt? If they persist in talking farsi to you they're going to rob you. Every other person in Iran gave up after learning we didn't speak the language.

So be wary, the overly friendly people can disarm you, for the most part people are great though.