Photos to follow, having problems with Syrian Internet!
Having checked the weather forecast yesterday, telling us that it would be fine, we were a little disappointed to wake up to rain. By the time we had loaded the bikes and said goodbye to the staff fortunately it had stopped. Our already potentially challenging ride out of the city would have been a lot less fun if we had to contend with being soaked by passing traffic.
Despite the heavy traffic we made it out of the city unscathed, we are still not sure how everyone doesn't run into each other but somehow the system works. The drivers are actually quite courteous, slowing down to let us cross the traffic when we were in the wrong lane and generally giving us plenty of room. Perhaps they are terrified of hitting a foreigner!
As we joined the motorway, yes in Syria we are allowed to ride on them, we once again cursed the day we were told not to have mudguards fitted to the bikes. The rain may have stopped, but the wet mud in the hard shoulder covered us.
Pretty soon the sun started to shine and we were making great progress along the road. We quickly covered 20 miles and as we sped along we were beckoned over by a mobile coffee seller on the side of the road. These small espresso stalls are all over the place, despite the fact that we are not that keen on strong coffee we thought it would be rude not to stop and try one. All I can say is that it certainly woke us up, we were going to have no problems staying alert in the traffic. The stall holder wouldn't accept any money from us, so with a thank you and a wave we headed back onto the motorway.
While we had been stopped the weather decided to turn against us, the sun was still shining but it had now been joined by a very strong headwind. Any chance of maintaining our earlier speed was quickly dashed, but fortunately we didn't have too far to go to our first stop, the ancient ruins of Elba.
Our first priority though was lunch. Having discovered that the bakery close to our hotel was sold out of bread this morning, food was going to have to be bought on the road. The chicken kebab wrap we had couldn't be described as a triumph though as it was with a not particularly pleasant tasting pickle. Hopefully we won't regret eating them later.
Had we read the guide book first, we probably wouldn't have visited the ruins at Ebla. To say that you have to use your imagination is something of an understatement. The sight may be of enormous interest to archaeologists, but to us it was just a very windy collection of rubble.
Despite our earlier progress the wind was now starting to take its toll. Riding along a motorway doesn't give much opportunity for finding a free camp site. As our next destination was some of Syria's dead cities (abandoned ancient towns) we decided to press on until we were off the motorway.
Needing to buy some water we stopped at a roadside shop after being beckoned over by the owner. It was all very pleasant as he got us chairs to sit in and then opened some biscuits for us to eat. He then proceeded to charge us a ridiculous price for our water and drink. Perhaps shopkeepers should adopt this technique in the UK, get the customer to sit down, then open packets of food they didn't want and then charge them double for the privilege. Sadly the experience will make us think twice about stopping next time we are called over.
On a cheerier note, like Turkey before, we have received lots of waves, shouts of hello and honks of the horn as we ride along. It is always cheering to have groups of children waving and shouting 'how are you' and 'where are you from'.
Turning off to the town of Maarat an Numan, a guy on a moped rode along beside us to say hello and offer his assistance. Asking if there was a hotel in town he said yes and asked us to follow him. After we had gone a few kilometres we began to wonder where he was taking us, especially as the dead cities that we wanted to visit were in the other direction. When we stopped he came back for us and said that there was only one hotel and it was still about 1km away. I quickly explained that it was too far away and we needed to be going in the other direction and fortunately he didn't take offence. We know he was just trying to help, we just didn't realise we were going to end up in another town.
With the help of several locals we found the right road towards the dead cities and started looking for somewhere to camp. After a few aborted attempts we found a suitable spot and set up camp. We must have been there all of 20 minutes before we were approached by two guys on a motorbike. Fearing the worst I wandered over to say hello, thinking that we may have to pack up and move on. As it turned out they were just curious and couldn't understand why we wanted to camp. Most of this we worked out from sign language as they spoke no English. After trying to get us to go with them to a restaurant in a nearby village, they finally accepted that we wanted to stay. When they then started a fire, we began to wonder if they were going to stay as well! Thoughts of how I was going to make a drink for everyone with only two cups started to run through my mind. It all remained good natured and eventually they got up and said goodbye, after a final attempt at saving us from ourselves. It has been a very eventful and very long day, hopefully we will have no more disturbances tonight!
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