British adventurers Tom Allen and Leon McCarron set out to follow Iran’s longest river, the Karun, by human powered means. Their aim is to go beyond the politics and explore the culture and geography of this most misunderstood of nations – and have a great adventure doing so. But despite Tom’s previous experience of travel in Iran, they find that cultural differences run deeper than they’d realised. And when the once-calm waters of the Karun turn nasty, they wonder if they’ve bitten off more than they can chew…
In the spring of 2014, Tom & Leon set out to explore a broad slice of culture and geography of Iran by following the country’s longest river, the Karun, from source to sea.
What they found was a country markedly different to the one so often portrayed in Western media. Both Tom and Leon were driven to try and fight the growing amount of bigotry and hatred towards the cultures of this part of the world. That’s what had drawn them to the country in the first place.
Yet they also discovered that filming and travelling in Iran presented its own challenges, causing them to question many of the freedoms they took for granted. This, in many ways, represented the biggest lesson of the journey, and one of the central themes of the story they found in this stunning, misunderstood nation.
Karun is due to be released on Monday 16th November 2015 as a digital download and video stream. In the meantime, you can read Tom’s recent article for Sidetracked.com about their journey in Iran.
