After Yazd we headed to a tiny village (pop: 1000) called Fahraj, in the Dasht-e Lut desert, to break up our onward journey to Shiraz. The Dasht-e Lut is a large salt desert in south east Iran, and the village of Fahraj was like a mini-version of Yazd, with the same historic buildings in its old centre which included a crumbling castle, and what may well be the oldest purpose-built mosque in Iran. There was only one guesthouse there, the Farvardinn Desert Inn, ow...

(Beginning - mid October) After a 10-hour stopover in Moscow airport (no sign of Edward Snowden hanging out in our transit lounge), we arrived in Tehran late at night…and our entry into our first port of call in Iran was very different to that of Bishkek. We had booked into a midrange hotel for the first couple of nights, and it was a real treat to be met by a hotel driver on arrival! Definitely a first. That and the lovely hotel we stayed in made for a ...