Turkey - Iran - Pakistan in a few days!
 

Hello Hubbers!

I'm in Greece atm, looking to be in Istanbul in the next few days. I know that winter is fast approaching but I wanted to ask what my chances for making it through before the snow are?

I've researched what I can about the weather and know I'm cutting it fine. To make matters more interesting I'm solo on my first trip on a 1994 XL 600 V, running on as little money as possible. Nothing like the chilly deep end :)

Thoughts, advice and *constructive* critisism welcome!

We went that way in 2007, crossed from Greece to Turkey around Oct 25th, and from Turkey to Iran during the first days of November. Eastern Turkey is likely to be the coldest region on your trip, maybe we had some luck, but it never got really cold there, worst was something like +5 / +7C daytime and -2 / -3C nighttime.

Once we got to Iran, it started to warm up again (but northwestern Iran can get seriously cold, too). Getting close to Tehran it got quite pleasant, and heading southeast to Esfahan daytime temps rose to over 20C, closer to the Pakistani border they were nearing 30C (crossed into Pakistan around Mid-November).

But remember, that it can vary a lot each year.

edit. here´s more: (three w:s dot) moto1.fi/blog

Result!
 

Oh my gosh I love the Hubb. In the time its taken my to update my blog and write an email, someone who has experience in exactly the area I want has replied with a blinder of an email eleviating my fears singlehandedly. Outstanding.

I still hear what your saying about variations from year to year. Which part of the boarder did you cross into Iran? Dogy biscuit?

Any more replys welcome. Cheers guys, great big biker love :)

I am not sure where are you know. But here is some advice about Turkiye.

The country is big. Lets start from Marmara region where Istanbul is center.
We had lots of rain last 2 weeks, and everyweekend has been suny (grrreat). The temperatures are 12 to 19 degrees so not too bad.

Egean and Mediterranean region. Well people are still swimming! So it is warm an nice.

Now to cross to Iran you will go through eastern part of Anatolia. That is a high plateau and it will get cold. But keep to day riding and good winter gear still should be doable in October. At least we did not hear any snow reports yet....

Try the below web site for 5 day wheater report,
Türkiye Genelinde Önümüzdeki 5 Gün Hava - Meteoroloji Genel Müdürlüğü
As is says rain sun but no snow.

I would say hurry up.

If you have decent camping gear, then I don't think it will be too bad. Eastern Turkey and northwestern Iran are about -10 in Nov / Dec, but can get down to -20ish. But the rest of Iran is not as cool, and the Persian Gulf is wonderful in winter.

The question is if you have your visas... Iranian visas are not straightforward, especially if you are a solo British male applying for the first time. And Pakistani visas are pretty much impossible to obtain outside your home country at the moment.

Daniel