In Istanbul going to Iran. December 4th. Its cold :(
 

I just got in Istanbul today.. i want to cross into Iran quick.. Its getting really cold and foggy.. what route should i take to cross into Iran??

south? north? center?

any help will be appreciated.

Im going from San Francisco to Pakistan on a Honda CBR600 F4i sport bike..

Moin Khan - ADifferentAgenda | Facebook


HELP PLEASE!!!

thankss

In -07 I went ´around the middle´ (Izmir-Konya-Malatya-Tatvan) to Lake Van, then turned north do Dogubayazit and Gurbulak-Bazargan border (that´s the biggest and northernmost one, I believe). But that was during the last days of October, and it was quite cold already. I hate to think what it would be like now... and on a streetbike!!

I´d probably try to go as far south as I could, maybe even follow the Mediterranean coast as far as I could (but that´s a very long detour – and whether or not the Black Sea coast would be an alternative, I dont know)...
and then I´d also try to find out, what routes there are in the east, that might have a little less elevation. I´m not sure, if there really are any such routes, because the whole eastern Turkey is quite mountaineous. Our route was very often about 1km above sea level, and the altitudes generally kept rising, as we went further east. But also remember, there may be other military-related troubles in the southeast.

I remember that someone also mentioned a train between Ankara and Teheran, that allegedly was a possibility to transport a bike... but sorry I don´t know more about that.

edit. Also check out some of the web´s weather sites (like BBC´s weather service, or accuweather.com) for forecasts for the areas you plan to go. And remember, those are usually for towns and cities, and when talking about a mountain area, the passes may be a lot higher and therefore colder. Our highest pass was maybe 2,5 kms above sea level.

thats kinda bad news i guess.. maybe ill wait a few more hours. maybe someone with more current info helps me out here...

thanks though

i took the border from VAN (Turkey) is the middle border you can take. the more south one was not save in oktober coz of PKK Fights.

the border ist small and i had no problems. was easy. after one hour i was in iran. but the whole area from doubajatzi an van ist on 2000m hight. so ist cold there and i guess snow too. is not easy now to cross. not with a street bike.

so look out weather and snow. could be thats no way now anymore.

clinging on to the south coast is your warmest bet..you'll have plenty of cold to deal with so might aswell keep warm as long as possible.. turkey get's higher as you go eastwards.. even the middle of the country Ankara is hitting -6C etc at night and Van has already had some snow... it is the start of the cold weather so I'd say get your heated grips on and pray

Khan,

To be honest every border can be taken, but it's how your have prepared your elf. Three weeks ago I took the most southern border called "Sero". It took me only one hour, but in Kurdistan I had to go trough a lot of snow, with -3˙C during the day. There a lots of roadworks and they have hardly heard of cleaning the road from snow.
Don't be worried about your safety, I never meet more friendlier people than in the Southeast Turkey and the Northwest of Iran. Your bike is not the perfect bike for it but which bike is??

So be prepared of riding in the snow and suffer some serious cold.

Good luck and keep your passport and bike papers ready for the many but friendly checkpoint al the way to Iran.

Cheers Richard

just checked in a hotel in Ankara... Oh man its cold...

thinking to go to Erzurum then to Sivas then Dogubeyazit

yes? no? maybe?

the only this cold is my hands and my face up till now..
i was wearing 8 layers of sweaters and jackets and thermals

That route could be very cold – I´d advice to find out about the conditions further east.

Or if I were you, I´d probably try to find out the possibilities of a train (or truck) transport to Iran. And while eastern Turkey is likely to be the coldest part, midwinter in northern and central Iran can also get pretty chilly.

there you go mate.. one click away..
BBC Weather : Erzurum
but Erzurum is especially cold.. it seems warmer on the east / southeast (Iran)