Now seriously would you?

Hiking, not hitch-hiking.
You know, trekking or hill-walking.

The borders are ill-defined, so if you're walking in the mountains it'd be easy to stray. (As I did many years ago in the Communist era on the Czech-Polish border, and had a man with a gun suggesting I retrace my steps)

Their either poor spys or idiots IMO.

Bet their having teh time of their lives…

They are all students of University of California, Berkeley. So they must be very bright………………………… 😯

Moses – I stand corrected, I resemble your comments.

I suspect it's absolutely lovely country up there, and statistically not particularly perilous (although obviously more so than the Lake District). Also agree with Moses about the border. 🙂

Moses: "you're walking in the mountains it'd be easy to stray"

40 years it took you to find your way out of the wilderness last time you got lost wasn't it?

wwaswas – PMSL!

Should have seen it!

Hope your plague(s) clear up in time for Crymbo mate….

Having travelled around there just under a couple of years ago I would have no worries about hitchhiking in Iran, however you stick to the right areas. The south east and border with Iraq are 2 areas you're told to avoid. Risk it, like this lot did, and you have to accept the consequences.

Exactly. You deal your own luck in life!

i've no idea why anybody goes on anything but package holidays to lanzarote

CIA – fact.

I'd like to cycle through Iran. There's some great history there. I'd just make sure I had a visa first 🙂

There was a guy in 2004 who hitchiked from Jordan to Baghdad to do security work, turned up knocking on Company doors in the Green Zone without the paperwork and unaware he had just travelled up the most dangerous road in the World, or it was then. Apparently he got plenty of job offers but in answer to the OP no thank you, and they are spies deffo, the area they got lifted is not on any tourist map and is in an area where you go with security and police permission only.

I suspect not real spies but wannabies / fantasists who have bitten off rather more than they could chew

My parents did many many many years ago, got as far as a signpost at a crossroads in the middle of the desert with Turkey/Iraq/Iran on it.

Decided to turn arround because there was some kind of revolution going on……………..

If Iranians went wandering through certain areas of the USA they'd get lifted too 🙂

Hitching is a piece of piss there and there's some lovely places.