Ahhh Alleppo. An ancient and famous Syrian city. Reknown for its age old soqs, imposing citadel, and world heritage listed old city. A city where you can loose yourself for a day, or a week walking throughn its twisting, winding, narrow streets and alleyways. What is not mentioned is the lingering smell of raw sewage and foot, massive and nearly overwhelming noise and air pollution, traffic that will cut you off below the waste if you drop the ball for a second. But at least the hospitality was still awesome- hey its Syria afterall. So moving forward. We rolled into Alleppo [View Full Entry]

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The next part of our riding escapades was a ride for a few days along the Euphrates river. The aim being to cross the border into Turkey. I was finally through the valley of bowel explosions and we were both super pumped to be on the steeds again. Happt days ahead. Firstly we had to exit Alleppo. Mmmmm poolution. That is the stongest memory of riding out of Alleppo. It pretty much tasted and smelt of diesel fumes. The best example I can give is when Spectacle was riding about 100m ahead and went through a tunnel. I could literally see [View Full Entry]

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Our next date with the bikes was riding towards the northern syrian city of Allepo. We said our goodbyes to Hama (and the great Hotel AlRiad- cheap, clean, and great people working there) I said a special goodbye to the toilet and off we went. Of course we werent going to Allepo the direct way. We planned on checking out some more Roman ruins (horray) and some more ruins the origin of which I really cant rember. Before we could start riding we had a date with the passport office to extend our visas. We had already gone there the afternoon [View Full Entry]

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The next few days we cruised around the pretty town of Hama. It is famous for its massive waterwheels that are still in operation today- but just as a tourist attraction! Hama prooved to be full of super friendly people- as always the case in Syria. While I was fairly spanked with a tragically humerous and fantastic case of the runs (tragically humorous like when a clown dies). Apart from the cool school water wheels we discovered numerous cheap and hearty juice bars- which were frequeneted almost as many times as I went to the toilet. We took a day trip [View Full Entry]

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We blasted out of Palmyra stoked to have seen the sights but also glad to be leaving this odd little town out in the middle of nowhere. The landscape was again the same monotonous beige type of earth. Not too exciting but not without its merits. The endless expanse of rocks sand and slowly rolling hills (and not to mention the rollicking buses) was really enjoyable to ride through. It was a pretty uneventfull day. We ran into some sheppards that drunk all the water from my bottle and thought they were hard cases beacuse one of them had a gun. [View Full Entry]

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Roman ruins. Columns and old streets. Probably the only place in Syria that has been negatively affected by tourism. A real shame. Offers of cheap hookers (not accepted). Great sunset on a hill. [View Full Entry]

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Said our goodbyes to Ahmed and the boys and rolled on. Today we had the aim of reaching Palmyra a famous roman ruins sight. To do this we had to punch out 100km. We were both up to it and feelng good after a great nights sleep. At sometime during the day Spectacle claimed he would eat a kilogram of Backlava upon reaching Palmyra. I reckoned I could rise to the challenge so layed my bets on the table. The Backlava challenge of Syria was on. After a good days ride we reached Palmyra in the early afternoon. It felt pretty [View Full Entry]

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Saddled up in the morning but not before the standard fallafels and lotsa coffee. And not before we met a mad Frenchman who was walking from France to Palestine- and I was thinking we were doing well, but this guy on his foot falcon blew us away. We had a quick chat bonding over personal propolsion methods through the Middle East- he then bounced away into the alleys. _____________________ Exiting Damascus was a fun affiair I tell ya. In and out and around; we swayed and sawm. Two odd creatures on odd bicyclets huffing heaving pushing our legs to crank the [View Full Entry]

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Well to say that Damascus was a small revelation would be an understatement. I had been told by friends about this amazing city and was ready to explore all it had to offer. Damascus had a lot to live up to. The city is thought to be the oldest continuably inhabited city on the planet. Its 12000 or so years of habitation a touch longer than Sydney's 220 years (since colonisation). The city is now home to about 4.5 million humans and possibly more cats. The city has seen the passing of possibly all the major civilisations and conquerers the earth [View Full Entry]

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Woke up to a massive storm. Which was good cause the flu had a tight grip on me. Even the Spidey dance couldnt lift my spirits. Passed in and out of sleep all day. Woke up to see Spider had a new friend. They were going out and Spider was getting numerous fashion tips. An adjusted belt (it must hang loose) and adjusted pants (they must hang over the shoes) this went on to my quiet amusment. Fell asleep to the roaring wind of the med and my lungs. Suxs to be sick. Next day tried to ride up the mountains. [View Full Entry]

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