From Shiraz, Iran (Islamic Republic of) to London, United Kingdom - June, 2004

You have a choice of Gulf Air or Iran Air from Shiraz. Gulf were honest enough to point me to Iran Air who were about $200 cheaper for 244kg bike/crate(lower dangerous goods surcharge, I think). I seemed to be the first person ever to have attempted anything like this from Shiraz. No agents or specialist crating people so you are on your own. Found a local carpenter who did me an excellent crate overnight for $80. This, and handling all the customs stuff myself, was a bit of a nightmare when my Farsi is limited. Bike went to Tehran and then on to London. The connection delayed it a week and it ended up coming in to Manston Airport in Kent with a plane full of Tate Gallery art work. There were no agents in Iran but in UK they are keen for you to use one - I didn't so no costs for storage or agent. Manston airport were a fantastic help (thanks Stewart) and we had to go to Ramsgate to get customs clearance. As a sea freight port the bike/carnet was a little out of the ordinary. They let it through without inspection and with little interest in the carnet or anything else. Suspect the lowish value and Saturday afternoon may have had some influence on this.
If I did it again I might try Tehran airport and avoid the connection, but the small Shiraz airport meant novelty value and easy to track down the key people. By the time I left I'd met so many airport staff I was waved away on the plane.
At Manston it sounded like it was very unusual to get cargo flight like this from Iran but they were able to clear it all through on a Saturday. Heathrow customs only open 9-12.30 Mon-Fri so this saved me two days and time off work.