Trekking through the mountains of Iran more beautiful than beautiful

From glaciers to overwhelmingly friendly welcomes, Dan MacCarthy straps on his boots and goes hiking through the mountains of Iran.

THE wild rhubarb was simply delicious. High in the Alborz Mountains overlooking the Caspian Sea in Iran, our hiking guide Ali gathers armfuls of the knobbly stalks and peels them for us. This was for the starter which we would later consume.

This veteran of the Iran/Iraq war in the 1980s, in which up to 5m people were killed, has a keen eye for flora and a forager’s eye for our evening meal. A bit later when we have crossed the last of the day’s glaciers we descend into a lush valley to the hamlet of Avatar.