The road to Damascus - Day 19

---

Gail’s birthday - she opened cards from all of us, plus one or two others brought from friends. We were then off to Palmyra where we found the ruins almost deserted. We were free to wonder around at will where we marveled at the wonderful preservation of much of the site. Pictures will explain better than words.

Ian, who was suffering from a very sore big toe, did not walk with us but sought out fuel - successfully in the end. A taxi appeared with containers in its boot and we each of us put 40 litres into our cars at the cost of GB Pounds 5 each - and that was the black market price!! Having satiated ourselves with the wonderful ruins we set off for Damascus, again through vast deserts which were wonderful to see.

There was the occasional road off to the east marked BAGHDAD or IRAQ, something I never thought I would see! Little or no traffic till we approached the city where, with the aid of Garmin GPS we got to within a few hundred yards of our campsite destination but in the end we had to resort to a helpful van driver who knew the place and lead us there. It proved to be a large, walled compound in a very busy and noisy industrial area, but it did have lovely grass pitches, nice loos and showers - and a friendly manager. We set up our tents and, after a joyful meal with one or two of our surviving bottles of Turkish wine, we fell into bed. (144 miles today)

---

Photos

Palmyra Campsite
Campsite 11 Near Palmyra - Syria

Palmyra ruins
Palmyra ruins

Oftat Palmyra
Oftat at Palmyra

Palmyra - Camels
Gail and the camels - Palmyra

Road to Damascus
On the road to Damascus - interesting road signs...