Sometime during the night the already strong wind got up to gale force levels. We both lay there wondering if the tent was going to survive the onslaught. Fortunately the morning brought sun, seemingly lighter winds and a fully intact tent.
Heading out onto the road, it quickly became apparent that the winds hadn't lightened at all. We were soon riding down the road accompanied by a crosswind so strong that we had to lean the bikes sideways to compensate. The wind slowly changed direction so that it was a full on headwind and that is pretty much how it stayed for the next 50km.
We can honestly say that we have never experienced anything like it. The open desert landscape meant that we got very little relief from the wind and to make matters worse it was icy cold. Stopping for an early lunch gave us some respite, but then it was straight back into it.
Leaving the town of An Nabk we had to make the choice of continuing along the motorway or taking a smaller more direct road to Maalula. The minor road was 12km shorter but it would mean we would be riding directly into the wind. Eventually we decided that as we hadn't been able to escape the wind all day, there seemed little point in taking the longer route.
I would love to say that it was nice to be away from the motorway and its traffic, but in all honesty it took all our concentration just to keep going. Despite travelling through some quite dramatic scenery, the day was mainly spent with our Ipods in and our heads down.
It would have been very easy to get totally demoralised, but once again there were enough friendly greetings and a very welcome offer of coffee to keep our spirits up.
In a mad moment we turned down the offer of a lift, our foolishness being repaid by a freezing rain/sleet shower.
When Maalula came into view, via what ordinarily would have been a welcome descent, two very tired people gave a little sigh of relief. Having turned across the wind to head down to the town, we had the unpleasant experience of riding a bike that felt like it was
being picked up and thrown across the road. It had to be our slowest descent yet!
Not really sure where we were going we turned towards and climbed a short but steep hill to the Convent of St Serge and Bacchus. Built in AD 325, it is one of the oldest churches in the world and Aramaic is widely used.
Knowing that we could hopefully stay in one of the monasteries, we enquired in a nearby café, over a warming cup of coffee. The staff said that we could stay in the convent, which was great news, as bearing in mind the worsening weather it meant we wouldn't have to move far. While in the café the wind showed its strength by knocking over both of our very heavy and, we thought, well propped bikes!
Having met Father Thomas, we were shown to a rather more deluxe room than we had expected. It seems that staying for free, is not an option in the Convent of St Serge, in fact it is quite costly. We are contenting ourselves with the fact that, after the day we have had we deserve it, plus it's not every day that you get to stay in one of the world's oldest churches. Weather permitting we will look round tomorrow and then ride the 60km to Damascus. It can't possibly be as windy tomorrow, can it?
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