Having both had a good nights sleep, we were ready to face a day on the road. We were soon loaded and ready to go, it was just a shame that we missed saying goodbye to some of the Hostels great staff. Unfortunately Roger wasn't there before we left and sadly we missed one of the long term guests, Philip. If you happen to see the blog guys, take care and best wishes.
As we joined the main road we made a brief stop outside the city walls to take a picture of the hostel. Seeing our room from the outside made us glad that we had stayed there, it was certainly a better location than the main backpacker area.
Getting out of Damascus was pretty painless and we were soon on the main road bound for As-Suwayda. For the main part the road was flat and the winds that had plagued us before were absent. It certainly wasn't the most scenic route though, most of the land use appeared to be military, so no photos.
Having covered nearly 60km by midday we stopped for lunch outside a shop. The owner rather kindly got us a chair each and then found an old table for us to use. Our bikes caused a great deal of interest with three of the local children, so after lunch I sat and took a picture of them, which they readily posed for. Waving goodbye we headed back onto the road.
We had planned to go a reasonable distance today and then find somewhere to free camp, leaving us with an easy ride to Bosra tomorrow. Despite the large areas of military land there were plenty of places to camp along the road. Today though we encountered a different problem, we couldn't find any water. The road wasn't exactly littered with shops, but what there were didn't appear to sell water. This has been a bit of a problem throughout Syria, we will have to get in the habit of setting off with more than we need, just in case.
With no water available, we decided that we would have to try and make it to As-Suwayda, and find a hotel. The only problem with carrying on, was that it would mean riding over 100km and since passing the 70km mark the road had started to climb.
Stopping for a drink at a small restaurant, I lightened Debs mood by losing one of my gloves, which wouldn't have been funny but for the fact that I was wearing it! Hilarity over, at least on Debs part, I just felt like a plum, we returned to the road.
The last 30km of the day were tough, less tough for Debs who got a short push up a hill by a team of road workers, it was a relief to arrive in the town. As is now to be expected the town centre was uphill. All the information I had regarding a hotel was a letter H marked on the map. With the help of several locals we were given directions and went of in search of what was bound to be an expensive hotel.
As we headed through the town a guy shouted across the road, asking if we needed any help. Going over to speak to him, he told us that we could probably stay at a nearby church for a small fee. This sounded promising, so following his directions we located the church, but unfortunately it didn't have any free rooms.
The hotel when we got there was as expected very expensive, but we had little choice as it was getting dark and we were both shattered. On a plus point we have WiFi that works, and breakfast is included, plus the beds feel very comfortable.
We decided to forgo the hotel restaurant and headed into town and had a very filling meal in the aptly named 'Yummy House'. It will be an early night for us both.
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