Sorry but can hardly remember where I was when I was last able to access a cafe and write anything but will try to recall the blur that has been the last week.

Curious how names of places have a romance which is sometimes lacking in reality and Damascus I am afraid was one of those places as the name and history promised a great deal but the actual experience was disappointing.

the souk was little more than a covered shopping mall for local people - understandably - with shops full of clothes and such so little on offer or worth haggling over for the visitor.

As in many places on our route we had great difficulty in finding anywhere to eat other than in a backstreet cafe selling falafel or wraps and or both. I though soya was the only thing I would never want to see or eat again but falafel is fast heading for the top of the list of food forms to avoid.

Not all of the city was a let down of course as the Grand Mosque was something to see as was the amazing Iranian Mosque which would make a Florida pimp gasp with envy at the level of bling that hung from every corner in green; gold and blue.

And...........the Arabian pulled/stretched ice cream in the souk was something to remember forever.

Cannot remember how many long drives we have had but another one took us over the border and into Jordan and on to Amman, large; grey and new and here again we arrived on the day before holy day and still in the midst of Ramadan so again, little food to be had other than a side trip to a Safeway supermarket.

Advice to anyone who wants it............dont travel through the middle east during Ramadan as you will lose the chance to enjoy the cuisine as every day ends with a standard iftar - end of fast meal - which seldoms varies from a meze and some chicken pieces followed by water melon.

And then a 6am start towards the Red city of Petra and everything changed - except the food.

I have always thought that Petra might be a one trick pony with the popular photo of the Treasury as you walk through the canyons and little else but was I ever wrong. The first sight of the Treasury is of course wonderful but the next six hours spent there were even more amazing as we climbed to the top of high cliffs to look over the site and to see the dozens upon dozens of tombs carved into the sandstone. And the colours of the sandstone as the light changed was light a moving paint box. And for me one of the joys was to see that the hawkers were selling a collection of prints of watercolours painted by David Roberts - the Victorian artist born in Stockbridge, Edinburgh.

Managed to spent most of two days there and covered acres of up and down with little or no damage to knees or hips!

And then .............we went to Wadi Run for a three hour drive across the red sand desert echoing with the stories of Lawrence. AT one point I was able to get away from everyone and sit on a bluff overlooking a wide canyon that seemed to stretch off forever towards the setting sun and listen to the sound of total silence.

At night we slept in tents in the desert and lay outside watching the wide sweep of the milky way stretching above us.

And maybe even better was this morning at 5am when I awoke and walked out into the dark to sit and watch the sunrise and see the tracks in the sand of small animals and of the imprint of a lizard where it had lain in the red sand, perhaps overnight.

Again I sat and heard nothing - no human voice; no vehicle; no animal, not even the sound of the morning wind. All I had was the sound of my thoughts and then after maybe an hour two birds flew slowly overhead calling to each other as they seemed to glide along in companionship - one leading, then falling behind for a moment to let the other take the lead. Off into the distance and some time later coming back over the same ground again.

I dont think I have ever been so alone in my life and yet so completely content.

Of course, nothing last forever and now we are in Aqaba from where we will take an overnight ferry to Egypt.

MOre advice..........if you can avoid Aqaba, do so. It has all the intent of a bad tourist town and succeeds in every way, and I havent found a decent ice cream shop either.