Day 45. Masalli - Sarein (Iran)
Well what a day. This will be a long one, sorry. We left early and had a lovely drive to the border. Picked up a bit of extra USD and on the way to the border we caught our first glimpse of the Caspian sea. And headed for the people at the Azerbaijan exit point. Played the bike passport game again!!!!!! Then they insisted all bags be x-rayed. Over an hour later we were cleared to leave Azerbaijan and across a bridge of no mans land. Salaam Iran. Reasonably straight forward with our visas but not with the bike. Absolutely no way could they admit the bike. Our guide was running late but the local fixers chatted away to us which was nice. Hossein our guide arrived and took charge of proceedings. A lot of waiting around but finally I got the go ahead to ride the bike to the loading dock where I tearfully said goodbye. We grabbed a very nice lunch at a small roadside cafe, big plate of fragrant rice and a very generous piece of chicken, water and coke for 3 - about $5. We are a real ...