I left as early as possible in the morning through a foggy village and made my way down to the main road. It was further than expected and took me almost one and half hours to go down. I managed to get a ride by a nice father and his son who were going back to Tehran. I was already used to not being able to communicate well with the people in the cars, but usually I still try to communicate with the people when it wasn’t for a lack of sleep and physical and mental tiredness after the last two days.
The original idea was to take a small mountain road to Pooloor, but the weather was still rainy and the forecast for the mountains not the best. I decided to not push my luck any longer and instead opted for the safer option and went by bus from a town close to Tehran. The people who gave me a ride were so nice to drive me to the correct junction and put me on the first bus to Pooloor. After a long time of hitchhiking in small, a lot of time overloaded cars I have to admit I was quite happy about the space I had for my legs and body. I was lucky because it was one of the newer luxury buses which made the ride even more comfortable. I felt like I could stay on this bus forever, but the ride lasted only about 50km.
I arrived in Pooloor and made my way up to the hostel I wanted to stay in for the next nights.
I was already kind of giving up on the idea of hiking all the way to the peak at 5600 meters above sea level, but part of me was still hoping to maybe at least try it… which is what I was thinking when a car stopped next to me and went right into a puddle, splashing water all over me. I looked to the left and saw a very sorry face apologising over and over before asking me where I was heading. I told him my direction and he drove me the last meters to the hostel with his car. It turned out he was one of the few people in Iran who spoke English very well which made me immediately like him. He was going mushroom hunting the day after and invited me to join. This is how I found my travel buddy for the next two days.
It was still difficult not to follow the group of mountaineers who were about to start hiking the peak the next day. But my Arfa Kuh experience was too fresh in my mind and I wasn’t accustomed enough to the high altitude. I didn’t want to chance it. Mushrooms it was.
The area around Mount Damavand is extremely beautiful with the mountains shining in all kinds of different colours around you. Mushrooms were rare, but we did find enough for a great omelette for lunch. Damavand was shy for the day and hid in clouds, but the next day was about to be sunny and nice and I couldn’t wait to go on a hike to find the best spot for a picture.
I didn’t need to wait until the next day – in the evening, the clouds went away and Damavand showed itself in all of its beauty. The good weather stayed until the next day in the afternoon, allowing me to take a few nice shots of the beauty before it decided to cover itself with clouds again. In the distance we saw a smaller peak and I thought it would be the perfect place for a picture of the mountain, so we started walking. It was further than we expected, and definitely steeper than I imagined and it took us far longer than I would have thought, but at the end we managed. Damavand hid behind clouds already, but we had lunch on the top anyways, with a view of some beautiful clouds and a lot more mushrooms than the day before. So many that I took almost a kilo to my next host in Amol.
On our way down, we carried a lot of garbage in a plastic bag and at one point, my new Iranian friend just jumped down a small stone, the plastic bag broke and the entire waste hit the ground with a big splash. I guess the last few days of exhausting myself paid their tribute because I just cracked down in hysterical laughter. I couldn’t stop laughing for a good minute. Finally I managed and we collected our garbage in multiple bags before continuing our way down. On the way, we decided to collect not only our garbage, but also most of what we found on the way around us. When we finally arrived at the main street our hands and bags were full of garbage and our legs tired, but we had the satisfied smile on our face which you only have after a day of being in the nature.
I didn’t manage to hike to the peak of Mount Damavand, but the alternative was definitely worth it and a lot more relaxed.
