Tabriz was our last stop in Iran. Unfortunately due to our time restraints we didn't get to spend any where near enough time either in Tabriz or the road many sites from Kashan to to Turkey. We hit the outskirts of Tehran but didn't stop there which was a difficult decision. The Alfa had decided to stop idling so peak hour crawl involved liberal use of the hand brake so one foot could work the clutch and the other the accelerator. Tehran is famous for it's traffic chaos and we were very short on time. Stopping in Tehran would have taken half a day to get a hotel and half a day to escape it and the few other travellers we had met in Iran who had flown into Iran via Tehran told us there was little to see there as a tourist so we decided to bypass it. I have read a lot about Tehran and it's cafe's and I hope I get to go back some day and spend some quality time. I also hope to see the Azadi monument which I had been looking forward too. The highways through Iran are of an excellent quality and we covered ground quickly. Julian kept getting stopped by the police for speeding. It happened about four times! The same thing happened each time too. We would get out of the car, they would shake our hand and greet us warmly. Then they would look at our passports and our foreign car with a mix of excitement and curiosity and tell us to slow down and say "welcome to my country". We never got fined once. It is however very rude to show disdain for the local laws and we pulled our heads in and drove at more sedate pace.

The mountains that the road wound through were spectacular. Just look at them. We were doing plenty of driving but it was never boring. We stopped on one hill that was composed of some sort of quartz that was so sharp and rough that we had to wear gloves to touch the rocks. Most of the other cars on the road are peugeots. Peugeot has a factory in Iran and the UN sanctions do not permit them to import cars so most people drive a peugeot. Another, albeit less common car is a type of 1970s ute which is also locally made. You can see them on the back of the truck in one of the pictures below.

We stopped to get a wheel alignment as our suspension was giving us some nasty vibrations. Whilst the wheels were off we dived into our wheels arches in search of any more "presents" from India and it's wretched roads. Soon the socket set was out and the hunt was on for a 13mm nut. Weirdly I found a guy only a few shops up who had a store that met our needs. It was the sort of shop that you could never do a stocktake of because no two items were the same. He stocked nuts and bolts alright, but just a tray of second hand ones of all sorts of sizes. Perfect. Whilst the wheel balancing progressed we went in search of some lunch and would up in this typical Iranian eatery around the corner. The food was excellent with the obligatory roasted tomato and pot of yoghurt. They eat a lot of yoghurt in Iran. Whilst we were there a well dressed man who spoke excellent English made conversation and was interested in out lonely planet. Then he picked it up and held it above his head and began addressing all the people around us loudly in Farsi. It was very strange. They seemed to find this unremarkable and just listened to whatever he was saying whilst they kept on eating. It turns out he was a local tour bus driver and was introducing them to the idea of the lonely planet. There is something very sociable about eating cross-legged in a booth this way but it isn't good for the digestion or messy foods.

Persia is famous for it's gardens and after SE Asia and then India and the Middle East were these are rare we never tired of admiring them. These ones are in Tabriz.