We were off to the Crac de Chevaliers today - one of Syria's iconic sites. We left our hotel after having the worst breakfast of the trip - and this is one of the most expensive hotels. We tried for a minibus trip out to the castle but none seemed to be running so we went by taxi. The trip took us out on the coast road then turned off and climbed steeply up the hill.The castle is set at the top of a mountain where it commanded the Homs gap - the main pass between...

We headed out of Palmyra, quite pleased to get out of the frozen desert. We had had another chilly night in the draughty hotel. Our next destination was Homs and the bus journey there took us through some pretty boring countryside - just miles of desert. Then, about 20km short of Homs, it gave way to a much greener landscape with almond trees in blossom. We had entered the Orontes valley which grows lots of Syria's fruit and vegetables. The only drawback to th...

Today we were leaving Damascus for Palmyra - a site in the Eastern desert on the road to Baghdad. It was a good job we were leaving, it had been raining and the weather looked miserable. Damascus doesn't do rain well - the drainage system doesn't cope and there were huge puddles everywhere.We made our way out to the bus station, got dropped outside and then found we had to walk miles to go through security - and by this time it was raining again. Once inside the ...

Today we woke up to rain - the first we have seen on our trip. It has also turned a lot colder. We were off to Boursa - a town south of Damascus that used to be the capital of Arabia in Roman times.We had a 7:30 alarm and were out for 8:30. We arrived at the bus station to find out that the buses are every 2 hours and the next one was 10:00. Lots of moans from Fran - she could have had another hour in bed! The bus took 2 hours so after organising our return ...

Today was moving day - going from Jordan to Syria. We made an early start - 6:00 am alarm - not use to this since Ken & Judi went home. The first leg of the journey was getting the bus to Amman - which turned out to be relatively painless. It was then across Amman to pick up a shared taxi (we had missed the 7:00a.m bus and the next one was 3:00p.m). The shared taxi is a large taxi (takes 4 to 5 passengers) and goes when its full. We located one that does...