Why cycling? Why Iran?

Well, all this idea came thanks to a Czech cyclist, Honza, I met the day before starting Te Araroa. He cycled around the world, and the place he most enjoyed among all was Iran.

All along my walk to Bluff, this idea was blooming in my head, and I met other people who encouraged me to do it. At the same time, I was reading a book about two young French fellows who decided to cycle around the world during a year, living incredible stories. I think that cycling across a country is the right speed of travel: it's slower enough to get into places you would have never stopped if you were traveling by car, and you are still faster and less exposed than if you were walking.

Iran seems to be a country very interesting for many reasons. Indeed, this country has been (and still is at some point) totally closed to the rest of the world, especially from the day of the American embassy hostage crisis in 1979. Today, it is one of the only country of this region where it is quite safe to travel. The people there are known as very hospitable and generous (more than 30 people already contact me through couchsurfing for the last week!). Despite all the historical gems and incredible landscapes of this region (have a quick glance about "iran" in Google image ;) ), western tourists are still rare in this area (a lot of prejudice about this country), so it seems to be the right time to go there!

The other reason why I'm doing that is because I want to "deserve" this coming back to France. I feel like it's time for me to settle down for few years, and I don't want to switch from New Zealand to France in couple of hours by plane! I really want to feel something when I'll be back home, and for that, I need to sweat a bit, I have to go through good and difficult moments, that's the only way to make all this gap year real.

From Iran, I plan to go to Europe through Armenia, Georgia and Turkey (to avoid all the sensible borders). Then, I'm thinking about going to France through Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria and Germany. I don't have the exact route, but it will be something about 8000km. Like all the challenges like that, everything can happen, I cannot guarantee the success of such adventure, but I plan to be back in France before September.