The morning started in an odd fashion. Yours truly was feeling a bit fluish. So Kris being the champ he is decided to take it upon himself to cook up some eggs for breakfast. This was to preceed a rather odd event. Read on..... I layed in bed thinking of what amazing concocution Kris was preparing (would it be the omelete of the century? eggs benedict? or something untill this time unknown to man). I waited in anticipation looking at the peeling paint on our 4 by 4 metre dogbox room. I heard a faint murmur from the kitchen 'Kahleed what [View Full Entry]

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NYE in Beruit. This had been our goal and we had finally made it. So of course a couple of ciders were due. We had a few celebratory drinks on the terrace of our new digs. The terrace being much more preferable than the room. Kahlid the Jordanian hotel manager joined us for a few and listened to our tunes. Good guy but a touch high strung. Off we ventured into the night. Roadies in hand, hey were Australian. We cruised over to the main bar and club strip in Beruit. We were told previously that it was too far to [View Full Entry]

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Saddled up in the morning like a pair of caffenated olympic cyclists. Rode and rode and rode. The riding was quite good going. The Med spread past my head and onto the horizon. It was a deep blue colour, gentle soft waves lapping aginst the rocky shoreline. I was definately savouring the feeling of my legs pumping along like two little Thomas the Tank Engines. Choo choo choo. After a bit I found Spider in a ditch. He had crashed a bit. Was now more brown than before. Poor fella. Stopped for lunch. Met Saed, a helpful man he did proove [View Full Entry]

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Punched out of Tartous with the wind behind our backs and a desire to get to Lebanon to see what there is to be seen. We rode along close to the Med Coast and were very much enjoying the sun and easy terrain. We stopped at a small Syrian town for some lunch and were promptly mobbed by about a dozen kids. So much for a quiete bite to eat. After feeling like a spectical we saddled up and hit the Syrian/Lebanese border. The crossing was pretty easy. The Lebanese guys even gave us a 1 month visa for free (beter [View Full Entry]

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Being somewhat sucked into the cruizy atmosphere of Lattakia we had a late start on the bikes. We hung around an espresso man for about half an hour and probably put his kids through school with the amount of coffee we brought. However we had a job to do, and being full of caffine we had to get down to business! Saddled up sucked in a deep breath, braved the malestrom of traffice and blasted through Lattakia. We soon hit the highway and made great time. Got pulled over by some guys who gave us free coffee and a guy pulled [View Full Entry]

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Ahhh today was probably the first full day off the bikes since we started. And it did feel good. The legs appreciated it, the butt appreciated it, and the gut loved it! Started the day with a bit of a lay in and some BBC World action. But theres a city awaiting to be explored. After a couple of schewarmas and four or five 10c espressos we parked our caffinated hides into a serivs bus (really a van with a few extra seats in it). And at speeds barely short of the sound barrier we hammered it to Qala'at Saladin - [View Full Entry]

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Woke early and had a feed on the roof of Mehmet's apartment. Good views over the fog covered sleepy village of Karakose. Jumped on the bikes and ploughed our way through the centre of town which was now overrun by a hundred bleeting sheep and dozens of Turkish farmers. Most of whom stopped to have a look at two fools on bikes riding into the thick fog- at least I wasnt wearing bike tights. Ran into Mehmets dad who gave me a hearty hug and kisses on the cheeks- good man. And thus dear reader we rode into the fog. Onwards [View Full Entry]

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We woke this morning to a Turkish Christmas. Meaning there wasnt really anything going on. Being the good lads we are we made a few phonecalls home which warded off some of the home sickness. Got on the bikes after a late start and headed towards Samandagi. And here we were accosted by the hill from hell. For our sins we were faced with a long, steep, winding, steep road. It was barely two lanes for the whole way and we copped many odd looks from the Turkish guys driving up and down it in cars- lucky buggers. After the hill [View Full Entry]

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Woke up in the abandoned building feeling nice and refreshed. To be greeted by a bone crunching 7km up hill climb. Joy to the world. But stopped near the top for a famous Bellen kebap. Good stuff and good fuel for the engine. Were greeted at the top of the mountain by a belting 10km downhill run. Smashed it. reached about 70 km/h passed a stack of trucks and buses on the way down. Cruised into Antakya. A very historic city. Look it up on the web there's some stuff there I couldnt be bothered plagerising. Aiming to be in Syria [View Full Entry]

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Another day on the bike. In agreeing to do this trip I was always a bit worried that I wouldnt really be into the bike riding side of things. Sure it sounded good, riding from town to town having adventures and solving mysteries but from other experiences I also knew it would be a hard slog. Constantly getting up each day and riding for long periods of time, eating basic food and covering in one day what, on a bus, would take about 1 hour to do. But I think it was sometime during this day I started to find my [View Full Entry]

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