a road not taken

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In the morning, I had to say goodbye two times. First to Rasul (who still didn’t smile for photos):

And then to Mohsen (who had to go back to the city):

Then I continued down the winding mountain roads:

Sometimes I saw fields of poppy flowers:

And sometimes I saw roads that weren’t mine to walk, and I felt sad that I could not walk them all:

Mine was this one, though, and it wasn’t too bad, either:

Sadly, it led back down to the highway, the grey tape with its cars and thundering trucks:

I found shelter from the sun and the noise in a pavilion that had been erected for people who wanted to pray:

Walking along the highway didn’t have much of the beauty and the quiet grandeur of the lonely mountain road. It was dry, loud, and often dangerous:

But one time I ran into a retiree who was riding his bicycle. He had brought a tiny elephant with him, a gift from his daughter, who was also a cyclist, he told me:

Alas, I failed to remember either of their names.

There was another road that was not going to be mine:

At the bottom of a long downhill slope, a group of taxi drivers were very amused by my sudden appearance:

They told me it was only about 5km to Ashkhaneh, the little town where I was going to spend the night in a hotel. And they said it would be an easy walk.

They were right:

The land had turned into a lush dark green, and again I found myself looking down a road that I was not going to take:

Then I arrived in Ashkhaneh:

There were a lot of shops, restaurants, and car workshops along the road through Ashkhaneh:

I walked past a little shoe stand:

And then I found the hotel where I was going to rest for a day or two:

I was still sulking about the roads that I hadn’t walked on today, until I realized that this was a big part of what The Longest Way was all about. Sure, The Longest Way was a way (and a road) of its own.

But it was also a road not taken.

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