18th May 2010

We began journey early and stopped at Hama where there were 13th Century Waterwheels. At one time, medieval Hama contained more than thirty of the waterwheels, today there are only 17 . Had breakfast and did some food shopping. We drove for four hours to Crac des Chavaliers . We had a guided tour of the Crusader castle once described by Lawrence of Arabia as "the finest castle in the world". The castle itself is in very good condition and mostly intact, it was the castle that 'Richard the Lionhearted' was based.

We camped out in the middle of nowhere in the desert. As we were settling in a desert sandstorm and rain blew up. Everyone went back into the truck. I lasted about 2 minutes and went back outside and just put my head inside my sleeping and left the sand blast up against me. In the morning those that slept outside were like little mounds covered in sand.