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Sunday 12th December Since we last wrote, we spent a few days in Damascus catching up on all the jobs, which seemed to mount up, checking our visas were valid for long enough, and checking our possible routes through Egypt. Monday 13th December We made sure we relaxed on the Monday and for once the sun came out for us. We spent a little time chatting with Miguel, a Spanish cyclist spending a few weeks in Syria, Eddie the German cyclist and Flip, another cyclist from Holland. Recently we seem to have met more cyclists than on the rest of the trip. Despite the cold weather, Syria still seems to attract us all. Tuesday 14th December On Tuesday morning, after a terrible night's sleep (our room was just off the lobby and there seemed to be a lot of night time traffic in and out of the hotel), we quietly and quickly packed up our bags and loaded up our bikes outside ready to set off. Only then did we realise that Kate's rear tyre had kindly acquired a slow puncture and was as flat as a pancake! Don't ask me why I didn't notice it earlier... must have been the lack of sleep! Not wanting to waste too much time and guessing that it was a slow puncture we decided just to pump up the tyre and head out of the city as soon as possible. By heading out of the city, we mean riding a few metres to grab a cheese toastie and a mixed fruit juice! Finally, we did set off properly but struggled to leave the city. Damascus is huge and the signposting to the small road to Suweida is not exactly brilliant. After stopping to ask a number of people for directions we eventually picked up the road we wanted. Unfortunately after about 10miles Kate's tyre started annoyingly to sag. Humph!! We decided there and then that we had to sort it out properly and so we set about finding the puncture. This was so incredibly frustrating as the bike had been sat in the hotel garden for 3 days and now we were using valuable cycling time to fix the damn tyre! Scream! At least this time, there was an obvious cause - a staple had pushed through the casing of the outer tyre which Kate then had to remove with her tweezers. Puncture fixed, Paul in a bad mood, we loaded the bike up again and set off. The rest of the day's riding was pretty unremarkable. We spent most of it riding past endless military bases which looked such miserable places to be posted. Only when we got closer to Suweida did the scenery improve. The ground started to rise and rise and the hills and fields were strewn with thousands of basalt rocks. It was quite an impressive sight although it looked a bugger to farm. The numerous military zones and the rocky ground made it impossible to camp so we knew we had to find a hotel. Suweida has only one hotel which after asking directions both in Arabic and Turkish, we found at the top of the steepest hill in the area. It's a grotty shabby place which claims to be 2 star but it's one of the worst hotels we've seen so far. They were intent on charging us 28 dollars for a similarly shabby room which of course we refused to pay. We even asked if we could use their grounds to camp on - no was the immediate answer. As they saw their only customers of the day slipping from their fingers, they eventually agreed to halve the price. Wednesday 15th December 3501.8miles, Bosra, Syria At least the room was warm and we were able to have a hot shower this morning. We were both so tired after a long days cycling and a poor night's sleep from the night before that we slept really soundly and for the first time in ages felt refreshed in the morning. We went down to the lobby to pack up our bikes, and saw from the look of their bikes that two other cycle tourers had stayed there. They turned out to be Sybil, a girl who had cycled all the way from Switzerland and was a few days a way from her final destination in Palestine, and Basam, who we think was from Lebanon. He had only started cycling the previous day and was already struggling with the distance and the cold....perhaps the brightly coloured shell suit wasn't warm enough?! (I'll put my claws away!) He had joined her from Damascus, but she was already finding him annoying and we can't see them remaining companions for much longer! We cycled with them into town where they stopped for breakfast. We were supposed to meet them again in Bosra but as far as we know they haven't passed through. So here we are in Bosra. Yet again, we're lying in a very dodgy bed, in a dirty little room with flaking plaster, cobwebs, and a forty watt strip light to illuminate it... but we are extremely grateful as the only other option in Bosra (now that the hostel inside the citadel has closed) is the 100 dollars a night Cham Palace hotel. No thanks. We're in the back room of a local restaurant which doesn't seem to have much on its menu but the chef can send his son to get a falafel if you want! At least like all Syrians, they're a friendly bunch and some of them speak good English. The chef's kindly given us a blanket and a duvet and blocked up the hole in the wall so that we're as comfortable as possible. The Bosra Roman amphitheatre is one of the best-preserved Roman theatres in the world and has the capacity for 15,000 and, unlike most Roman theatres, it's freestanding rather than being built into a hill. The theatre's been fortified, creating a citadel from whose walls you have great views of the surrounding landscape. Previously, you used to be able to sleep in the citadel, but sadly as we already mentioned this is no longer an option. The old city below the citadel, like the theatre, is all built out of the local volcanic basalt so all the remaining columns and structures are all black which is unusual in itself. We've had plenty of time to absorb this small town as we only had 25miles to cycle this morning from Suweida and arrived late this morning. Those 25miles were also some of the most pleasant we have experienced in Syria so far. And there are only 9 more shopping days till Christmas... what are we going to do! Well at least we've now bought tinsel for our bikes and will be wearing Santa hats when we head into Petra. Guess what...it's absolutely freezing and the forecast is for heavy snow tonight! Oh joy! Just what we need to keep the going quick. Seems like we're constantly being chased by bad weather (had we been on another sort of trip snow would have been wonderful but cycling makes it a little tricky). This afternoon, we've been wandering around the old town and we spent a few hours chatting with Mohammed and Tibo both of whom Kate thought were Syrians. Tibo is in fact German....no wonder he was lighter skinned! It was nice to sit in out of the cold and drink yet more sweet tea. Let's hope that when we wake up tomorrow morning the world isn't under a blanket of snow! Thursday 16th December Well, it didn't snow and after Bosra we only planned a short day, just making it to Deraa, the border town, so that we would cross the border early the next morning. It was grey and overcast and the coldest start of the lot, making it really difficult for our stiff limbs to keep moving. We only stopped briefly once, and we're immediately accosted by a man with gold teeth, who kept squealing, (yes really) that we should come to his house for tea. We just wanted to move on but he was squealing so much that we reluctantly agreed. After a brief respite from the cold, we headed out again. Rightly or wrongly, we took an immediate dislike to Deraa (Kate was particularly uncomfortable with the male attention) so we quickly changed our plans and rode towards the border. About 500metres before the border, we stopped at a roadside cafe to get some lunch. Paul ordered two falafel wraps. When he asked how much to pay, the man gestured that they were free, so we gratefully went and sat outside to eat them. He then brought us cans of pop and then tea, both of which he refused payment for. It seems that on our first and last days in Syria, we received the most kind gestures of our stay in the country. On finding that there were no hotels on the Jordanian border in Ramtha, and being told that Jerash (although 40km away) was a downhill run, we decided to push on and try to make it before nightfall. It wasn't exactly what we would call downhill and we did wonder if the guy had actually ever been on this road. It was hard going; the road climbed and climbed and although it was now sunny, it was still bitterly cold. The sun started to go down and we still had no idea how far Jerash was (in Jordan no distances are given on road signs). The continuous effort had made us sweat and the dampness was now sucking the heat out of us and causing us to shiver. We were beginning to worry, as it wouldn't be long until it was dark and with no obvious camping options we would be facing a very cold if not hypothermic night. We stopped briefly for a desperate Kate to find a toilet at the roadside vegetable shop. We found ourselves soon after sitting around a fire with the family group sharing tea and food. Although we had little time to spare, it was one of those unique and wonderful experiences that only travelling by bike could expose you to....and it was a brilliant introduction to Jordan. Still worried about our final destination (they said we only had 7km to go of which 2km were uphill) we said our goodbyes and saddled up again. As it turned out it was more like a 7km uphill before a 2km descent into the town of Jerash. From now on we think we should take Jordanians' opinions of distance and gradient with a pinch of salt! It was pretty much dark when we arrived in Jerash and we were both shivering from the cold. When we heard that there was no hotel in town and that our only option was 7km away we readily accepted an offer of a lift in a pickup for us and our bikes to the said hotel. We didn't feel guilty in taking this transport, as we would have to retrace these 7km the next day to get back on our route. We could not believe how much the road climbed up to the hotel and were so grateful for the lift. The hotel is called the Olive Branch resort, when we arrived we had to make a difficult decision. They would charge about 10 euros for us to camp or 35 euros for a double room (no bartering). We eventually decided that it was far too cold to camp and we desperately needed some warmth so we agreed reluctantly to pay the full whack. We consoled ourselves with the fact that Syria had been so cheap and we were ahead of schedule. As it turned out the room was gigantic. The problem with this was that it never really heated up and also the water in the shower never really became hot. Not what we expect for the most expensive night in the last 3 and a half months! They even had the gall to charge us the equivalent of 1 euro each for a luke warm cup of tea! Sorry, but we were gobsmacked! We did sleep well though - our brains numbed by the shockingly bad films on TV and shattered from the day's riding. Friday 17th December The next morning, we went for a complimentary breakfast which took ages to serve in their freezing cold dining room. We had a choice of English or Arabic brekkie and thinking that they would know how to cook it we chose the latter. We were less than impressed by the results - Kate was even forced to leave her Fuul which she just couldn't stomach. We ended up leaving about an hour later than we had intended but it was sunny and we were glad to be on our way. A 7km freewheel is a wonderful way to start the day but it doesn't help you warm up! The scenery was absolutely stunning. Almost as soon as we left Syria the relatively barren landscape gave way to lush green mountains and fertile river valleys. The sight was breathtaking. It was soon after Jerash that the climbing began - a 10km stonker that saw us climbing up the river valley on the main road to Amman. When we finally reached the top we were knackered! It was straight back down again into the next valley from where we could also see the next soul-destroying ascent ahead of us. There had been some sort of perverse enjoyment of the first climb but the prospect of a second one, equally as hard, straight afterwards, was almost too much - even for Kate! We did however, make it and 45 minutes later emerged at the top exhausted and still not sure how far Madaba was. From here onwards, we stopped almost every pedestrian we saw to make sure we were on the right road to Madaba as the sign posting was erratic at best. We were very aware that if we took the wrong turning and ended up at the Dead Sea, the 1000metre plus climb back up would not exactly be enjoyable! We stopped at a busy roadside shop to ask for more directions. From here we found out that the turning to Madaba was less than 2km away and that Madaba was only 16km after that (we didn't allow ourselves to relax too much just in case this estimate of distances was typically Jordanian!). Luckily the turning was 2km away and the riding on the start of the King's Highway was really enjoyable - the only disappointment being a lad throwing a rotten tomato at us as we cycled past (this unfortunately may be a regular occurrence from other cyclists' reports of children on the King's Highway). They were pretty bang on with the distance but road works had forced a small detour which involved the earlier mentioned third monster climb of the day. We arrived in Madaba far earlier than we had ever hoped (we were not even sure we would make it there today) and after trying one expensive hotel found ourselves being offered a really good price (about 12 euros) for a very warm double room with ensuite which has a wonderful steaming hot shower and free (and delicious) brekkie. The contrast between here and the previous night is amazing. We're so much more comfortable here and they even give you free tea even if you don't ask for it! Saturday 18th December 3607.5miles, Madaba, Jordan We have really taken advantage of the chance to relax today, getting up late, having a leisurely breakfast, wandering around town, going to see the beautiful mosaic map of the area as it was in the 6th century AD in St George's church and now we're going through the games collection in the Black Iris Hotel. Tonight we'll be joining Kevin and Siobhan, a lovely Irish couple, for dinner and then maybe a civilised game of Uno! As you've been reading, recently it's just got bloody colder and colder! When riding we can no longer feel our bums, feet, legs, fingers, noses and ears. On the hills you get this strange sensation when you're sweating profusely but your skin is still stinging from the freezing cold air. And unfortunately Jordan has its fair share of hills, for instance, yesterday think 2 Bileciks (that will test whether you've been reading carefully!) and then to top if all off, a short hill, the steepest the trip has to offer to date. It was so steep that even the steepest hills in Sheffield don't compare - even in our lowest gear we both struggled to keep them wheels turning. Paul and Kate x
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Challoner's, Fasiledes, Amersham, Buckinghamshire