The Selous Game Reserve

Following on from Zanzibar, we took a light aircraft down to the Selous Game reserve in Southern Tanzania. The Selous is one of the largest reserves in all of Africa, although the northern section is the only part open to safari traffic. While the Serengeti and Ngorongoro crater in the North draw the largest crowds,  the Selous has a magic of its own. Wild and untamed, with areas that you can visit and not see another soul and with two large rivers snaking through. Safari experiences here tend to be both land and water based.

I found some of the game quite skittish and timid,  I suspect due to historical hunting further south. But at the same time, it felt wild and the scenery beautiful and very varied. Further North around Lake Manze the game is more concentrated (as well as the people), and we finally found our lions, who were more than happy to sprawl in the sun and be photographed. On the way back we had to wait for a herd of buffalo 300 strong to pass, hoofing up great clouds of dust. It was like something out of the wild west

I stayed at two wonderfully luxurious Serena properties,  Selous Luxury Camp and Mivomo River Lodge. Selous Luxury Camp falls in the category of what i like to call Pretend camping. This is popular in Africa - basically all mod cons, in this case down to rolltop baths and chandeliers and a hint of Out of Africa colonial charm - but with canvas walls for atmosphere. I did hear a very vocal hippo through my own set of canvasses.  Mivomo river lodge is perched dramatically on the river banks - alltogether less of a bush camp experience, huge suites with aircon, private terraces with plunge pools and outdoor showers overlooking the river.  Whilst enjoying a gourmet lunch we saw 30 or so elephants come down to drink on a distant shore.

Boris Biking along the Riverbank

Bless me mighty Interweb for it has been 10 weeks or more since my last blog post.

Meanwhile I have been in South Africa (again), Austraia and Singapore, so plenty to catch up on, as well as some 2011 African adventures to write about

Today though, I'm feeling like Mr Fitness after 2 hours cycling from Mile End along to Bow, and up along the Lea River, past Hackney and Walthamstow Marshes nature reserves, and back through Hackney downs and a latte at 'Elbows' in Victoria Park Village.

On Saturday I cycled from Warren Street in the West End to Islington and popped down onto the towpath, cycling all the way home to Falcon Works along the regents canal.

These green corridors are wonderful escapes. Its great that Im a 15 min tube ride from Londons west end but can walk or ride along the canal.

Im not overly fond of Boris (Johnson...the recently re-elected Mayor)  but I do like his Bikes (even though it was Red Kens  idea to have them in London apparently). Actually on the Mayoral front, being such an amusing baffoon does mean he is one of the few conservatives who dont make my stomach churn, so if were going to have one of his lot in City Hall, may as well be this one. Ken came over just a tad desperate to get back in and the bickering was atrocious.

But I digress... Bikes.... here they are..

Marvelous they are.. The Stations have become much more frequent. You can either sign up to the scheme, or get one ad hoc. Its a pound for 24hrs access. Then first half hour of use is free, after that its not much more than a pound an hour so the cost is negligible. The great thing is you dont really have to plan, you can do it on a whim. Which is mostly when i do.




I did discover rather unfortunately, last week that they dont have stops very far along the
South Bank.  I had a wonderful night ride all along the gorgeously lit up South Side of the Thames last Monday night. I got a but carried away with myself and after Tower Bridge (amazingly lit at the moment pre-Olympics), I ran out of bridges to get back over to the other side. I thought I'd drop the bike and train it but alas...no bike parks over there!.  Had to cycle through the car exhaust filled Rotherhide bleedin tunnel!.


Well as is traditional, here are some pics.. The first being Home Sweet Home, Falcon Works on Spring Afternoon. Then a random shot of a bike stand (acually in Marleybone), and  journey along the Regents Canal and the Lea River, before a Vicky park village cafe

                            

A Cotswolds Christmas

The English countryside and villages, castles and stately homes, glorious architecture, history.. wonderful in almost any weather. Recently back from a lovely lazy Christmas spent largely in a cosy cottage in the Cotswolds in front of the log fire with a copy of the Radio Times and assorted mince pies and cheeses. Its so great in the UK, you can more or less pick anywhere and be sure to have an assortment of interesting places to visit within an hours drive.



I was amazed by an almost ghostly Oxford after Christmas with almost no one around and choccas with interesting buildings and the Ashmolian museum. Warwick caste is one of the most castley castles in the UK.. they do know it of course, its a tad theme parky, people in medieval garb etc etc.. great place for kids though.

The Cotswolds itself is rammed full of chocolate box villages in golden stone.. lovely to be driving through without the crowds and christmas lights a twinkling..

As you know, I do love a good cemetery.. Why is that? anyway... Pere Lachaise, like Recoleta , falls into the dramatic Catholic city of the dead variety, with beautiful tombs and vaults. Pere Lachaise to the non-French, perhaps most famously contains the final resting place of 27 club member Jim Morrison and the much defaced but lovingly so, winged very modern looking angel protecting Oscar Wilde.

A Westminster Walk

I took these a few weeks ago on my usual walk from work to the tube, inspired by Spring in the air and the fact that I see this stuff every day of the week twice a day.. The Houses of Parliament, mostly a Victorian creation, although Westminster Hall is the largest Mediaeval Hammerbeamed Hall in England and was the scene of Anne Boyleyns trial. The back of Westminster Abbey shows its Gothic splendour and I rather like the statue of George V looking across the road towards Parliament. Westminster Tube, like the rest of the Jubliee line extension designed by Michael Hopkins and partners and v impressive.

Sunday in Spitalfields and Brick Lane

Last sunday i took myself for a wander on a rather wet Sunday afternoon to Spitalfieds and through Brick lane. The catalyst for this meander was the announcement of a new Italian run cafe in Time out just off Petticoat lane market. Ive been pining for decent coffee and the sort of cafe culture establishment you can just hang out in for half an afternoon with a friend or a book. I find this sadly lacking in London - we do pubs well it has to be said, but not cafes. I think once you have lived in a cafe-centric place its hard to get out of your system. Anyway..said cafe was smallish and full but its takeaway latte was lovely and I took it on with me through the aforementioned environs taking some snaps. Brick lane on a Sunday has relatively ordinary markets but top notch multicultural snackage! There are scores of yummy looking stalls serving all manor of foods not to mention the bagel shop at the top of the road if you can actually get in. At night time the Bengali Restaurant touts come out and try to entice passers by into their neon lit curry houses like Kings cross pimps advertising a strip club. Each restaurant claiming to have won an award. Apparently those in the know wouldnt be seen eating dead here (hmm something wrong with that analogy!) but Sharon and I had a lovely if somewhat slow meal at Bengal Cuisine the other week. Regardless, its a very interesting neck of the woods. There was even an exhibition on the early years of Queen in a converted brewery - complete with white lycra catsuit. Freddy R.I.P

London -San Francisco - Sydney - London

My Life is so complicated right now!. So no posts on here for over a month, sorry folks. After my gorgeous little English countryside trip in early October it was time to sort my life out and figure out what the bloody hell I was going to do next. Now generally I find it hard to decide what to have for dinner let alone what life choices to make. I had however had the feeling that I wantd a bit of a change on embarking on this adventure so I did put all my stuff in storage. Now after much deliberation I've decided to give living in London another bash, this time hopefully living and working fairly centrally. So this week ive been back in Sydney going through 10 years of aquired stuff, Ebaying and donating and generally stressing over lists of things to do - but this Friday is it - flying back to London. Meanwhile on my hastily arranged flight back to Sydney last week I did manage to squeeze in a 2 night stopover in San Francisco. This was a welcome break from all the organisation and stressing, it was nice to feel 'on holiday' again. I hadnt been in San Francisco for about 20 years. The last time i remember deliberately dropping my guide book in a cafe and mumbling something in deliberately emphasised Queens English in a (successfull) attempt at picking up a local. We ended up on a mini break up through the redwoods. I used to love how shallow people were about a twinky 21 year old with an English accent!. I have to say it doesnt quite have the same effect when youre 42 with a mongrel pommy/aussie accent!. Anyway i very much enjoyed wandering about and taking my snaps. Could be the last set for a little bit so enjoy

More Stately Omes and heritage

At the start of October I came back to the UK and went of for another lovely B&B break with Mum and Dad for more English Heritage and pub dinners. Lovley jubbly. We went to Sherborne Abbey with its incredible gothic arches and fan vaulting. I loved the light streaming in. This photo was inspured by that famous portrait of the Queen at her coronation in Westminster Abbey with that dramatic depth of field and arch behind her..

We went for a forest walk near Golden Cap on the coast, Forde Abbey and Athlehampton Manor.

Poland - Krakow

Its hard to believe that just last week I was eating dumplings in cold and rainy Poland. It was quite a shock to the system after the Middle East and Greece, my first reminder of the general climate of Northern Europe that I was raised in. The sun surprisingly has decided to show itself again in the UK where I am now. It comes across as a pretty prosperous and livable city and I enjoyed spending some quality time with my parents there.

Krakow is one of only a handful of cities in Europe lucky enough to emerge from the war, architecturaly (if not emotionaly) unscathed and has an extremely well preserved medieval old town as well as an impressive hilltop castle - the 'Wawel', seat of the Polish kings and site of thier coronations and burials. We did also manage to get out of the town and visited Czestochowa monastary, home to the much 'Black Madonna', so much revered in Poland that it was officialy crowned Queen and Protector of the Polish Nation and is believed to be responsible for several miracles. Despite the years of Communist rule, Poland came across as fervently and devoutly Catholic, no doubt partly due to Pope John Paul II being from here - something they are clearly very proud of. I had a momentary panic while taking my turn to file past the icon when everyone in front of me decided to get down on their knees and proceed to work their way round the chapel like that. I wasnt quite ready to join them. On the way back from Czestochowa we stopped off at Pieskowa Skala Castle which has a section of the Wawel museum based there and an interesting collection of historical furnature (doesnt sound that gripping I hear you cry! - I really am quite a nerd at heart.)

Heres the pics..

Travel Philosophy Number 8 - A Thirst for Knowledge

Broken Jewish Tomb Stones - Kazimerz Cemetary


Without trying to be too preachy, not everyone has the opportunity to get out and see stuff in the world, sometimes people have not been able to travel outside their own town, and perhaps due to the media they are fed by which ever governement they live under (North Korea's been popping up on BBC World alot in the last few days), they may have a pretty limited understanding of the larger world around them. I always feel a certain responsibility to myself to learn as much as I can while I'm traveling. A good day is a day that sends you to Google to research something further.

Without setting out for it to be that way, this trip has been quite a religeous education for me. As I've said previously, I dont hold any strong religious beliefs, but at the same time, the concept, culutural traditions, shared beliefs and historical backgounds of the major religions is fascinating and learning more gives you a much deeper understanding of the world today. It just so happened that Ive ended up travelling through Biblical lands and Muslim countries and now in Krakow I am in what was once one of the most important centres of Jewish culture in Europe. I say 'was' in that there are now only approximately 200 practicing Jews in the city following the devastation of the war, but then it is still a major site of Jewish pilgrimage and has the grave of a prominent Jewish holy man. We hired our own local guide to give us a walking tour of Kazimerz, the historical Jewish disctrict. We visited Synagogues and learned alot about Jewish culture and traditions.


Learning stuff is not neccesarily always a fun experience either - our next stop was the site of the wartime ghetto, where the local Jewish population were moved into and literally walled in - a starting indication of the deliberate cruelty was the fact that the ghetto walls were made in the shape of Jewish tombstones. Close to there was the Oscar Schindler factory. with an excellent newly completed exhibition on Nazi occupied Krakow. Not an easy exhibition to go around, even though it was housed in a place linked to an uplifting message - i.e the thousand or so jews on 'Schindlers List' who he managed to save.

Finaly an experience which is hard to describe and whilst certainly not being enjoyable, was profoundly moving and again a travel experience to learn and take something away from - Auschwitz.

I found the diverging train tracks at Auschwitz II - Birkenau, where someone had left flowers at the junction quite symbolic as essentially when people arrived at the camp and got down from the trains the first thing that happened was the 'selection' where they would either go to the left if deemed fit enough to work or to the right - straight to the gas chambers and cremetoria if not.

Also very effective for putting things into perspective were the collections of possessions found in warehouses on liberation of the camps. When you look at the piles of shoes, shaving brushes or suitcases and really imagine each one belonging to a different person, and that these were just a tiny proportion found there at the end, it gives you some idea of just how many people passed through these camps where in the words of Rudolph Hess, the only way out was through the cremetoria chimneys. And then of course this collection of 3 camps was not the only one in operation in Europe.

I've been joined in Krakow by my 80 year old parents who were in their early teens during the war. My mother found the Auschwitz camp experience particularly unsettling I think, as she remembers very strongly feeling petrified as a girl of the Germans being succesful in their attempt to invade Britain and what would happen to her if they did. As it was they lived through the air raids and remember the bombs. It does make you think how lucky you were to be born in a certain place though - i.e on an Island as opposed to just over the border from Nazi Germany.

Unlocking Santorini

For those of you that don't know, Santorini is basically one big exploded volcano that the sea has flooded, with the big cliffs forming what was the caldera and a small smoking volcanic island remaining in the middle. The top notch address in any of the towns and villages is to be on the 'Caldera' side and thus be perched on the cliff face with that incredibly dramatic view of azure blue sea. Theres certainly something to be said for that, although its easily accesible for stroll and a cafe if you cant afford the prices of those glamourous boutique properties.



I was certainly happy in the end with my small village but within walking distance of one of the main scenic towns. I noticed that prices in Firostefani and Imerovigli are marginaly less that that of the main town of Fira and the view is just as dramatic if not more, as they are higher up. I suspect that in peak season it might actualy be preferable to stay somewhere out of central Fira. I personaly would still pick a property that your going to be happy to relax and chill in as its that kind of destination. I didnt venture as far as the beaches on the other side of the island, be warned that they are volcanic though - so black sand. Really Santorini is all about those cliff top vistas, impossibly photogenic white washed houses with blue doors, dramaticaly positioned eateries, steps and paths leading to tucked away cafes and bars. Just wandering and soaking up the atmosphere. Theres few places that can compete with its inpossibly romantic setting.

Santorini Sunsets

Sunset time is big business on Santorini - It can only be described as a bit of a circus, once you get down to the end of the headland at Oia, which is THE place to see it from. Coachloads pile in for it and your hard put to find a little spot, its quite a spectacle. Everyone applauds when the Sun finaly dissapears. You cant help wondering what some of the locals make of all this, although most of them would probably be doing very nicely from it. Nat's Dad always asks me how I manage to get my shots with no one in them - I put the shot above in for you Gary, to see the mayhem just beside me as I was taking my tranquil sea shots!

The Sunset from Fira or Imerogvilgi can be just as nice, sat in a nice cafe - its funny how you get picky when theres so many great views to choose from. Today I saw the best sunset of all when I was on my way back to Finikia on the bus and just caught one nice shot of it as I walked down into the village.

Heres a slideshow of a number of sunset and sky shots taken from a few different spots on the island - they sort of go together. I hope they dont get to boring, I tried to whittle down. The problem with the sun going down is the light changes all the time and you always feel you have to take more just in case its just that little bit better.

Wrapping up Turkey - The Hagia Sophia

Before we get too Greekified, lets go back and take a look at the 4th Great Architectural monument in that small area of Istanbul around Sultanahmet - The Hagia Sophia. Built around 400 or so AD under Emperor Constantine of the Eastern Roman Empire which became Byzantium, expanded under Emperor Justinian, - the spiritual heart of the Byzantine Empire until it was turned into a mosque under the Ottomans in 1453. From The outside standing next to the Blue Mosque it looks very Islamic with its minarets and multiple domes, once inside though it still remains very much a Byzantine Basilica at heart, especially since they have painstakingly removed the layers of plaster to reveal the incredible Byzantine mosaics once again. Once more we took an audio tour - had fun trying to find the numbers to plug in. What a way to finish up Istanbul, an incredible building.

Islamic Art at the Topkapi Palace

Following our end of tour breakfast and before our rooms were ready at the hotel, Nat and I still bleary eyed from the train took ourselves off to the Topkapi palace, home of the Ottoman Sultans for over 400 years. We got the audio tour which has been a welcome addition to Turkish museum attractions and to my mind adds a lot to a visit to anywhere unless you have an excellent personal guide. I often cant be bothered to read all the English signs and its nice to have someone explain things to you, occasinaly you get bonus amusing musical introductions to each piece or mispronounced words to keep you entertained. Perhaps that should be a travel philosophy...yes...lets, i think thats um, Travel Philosophy Number 5 - Fork out the extra for the audio guide if there is one!. 5 Philosophies in all this travel, thats not much is it - I will have to get my thinking cap on,

Apart from the musuem collections in the Palace, containing all the treasures and some fantastic Sultans Kaftans which were perfectly preserved, the most interesting part of the palace was the Harem. A big labyrinth of rooms reserved for the wives and concubines, the entrance strictly guarded in both directions by the highly influential Black Chief Eunuchs. The only males allowed in there were the Sultan and his brothers and sons, the latter mostly being kept locked up in there both for their own protection and for the protection of the Sultan as everyone of them was essentially a threat to his power. Amongst the females the main power base was the Queen Mother and the Mother of the legitimate male heirs. It reminded me a lot of the descriptions of the Zenana in Indu Sundaresans novels of Mughal Indian court life and harem politics. Nat coincidentally had been reading a non-fiction account of a French woman who had wound up in the harem and ended up being the mother of a sultan and a powerful figure who brought a French influence to the court and told her story afterwards. Actually it was interesting to note that allot of the wives were abducted from the West, so there would have been few 100% Turkish Sultans.

I had cause to think of my Mother a fair amount walking round the palace - She used to be a ceramics teacher with a love of Islamic designs and in fact we very nearly had a holiday to Istanbul when I was in my teens and had a period of spending a week a year in a European city and taking day trips out. I would have liked her to see the beautiful Iznik tiles everywhere - Mum if your reading, I was thinking of you when i took those tile shots. I always remember her explaining to me that theres few depictions of people or animals in traditional Islamic art, as it was frowned upon to re create the image of something only God could. Hence the traditions for creating intricate patterns as the basis of their art instead. That said Nat did spot one or two animals depicted in the tiles, theres plenty of floral designs and they certainly did depict people in portraiture. The Sultans often had minatures of themselves.

I really love the Islamic style - its very tasteful and invokes a peaceful atmosphere with gentle arches and often water trickling from fountains. The detail on the walls and ceilings is stunning.

Up Up and Away in my Beautiful Balloon

I had a previous opportunity to go ballooning in Luxor but was put off by the early start and cost, plus Symon's fear of heights meant he wouldnt have joined me. This one over Goreme was also an early start mind you and still a bit exey but I decided it was time to tick off this insane form of air-borne transport. What a blast - it was super-cool!. We loved every minute. To top it off there were about 60 other balloons in the sky with us - rather that detracting from the experience it actually added to it, it was totally bonkers and surreal being up in the air with all those other balloons, some up high, some down low, some scooting over or behind rock formations, we dipped down into valleys and climbed up out of them again. After an hour or so of thrills we gently touched down right onto the trailer and got out for champers and biccies. Awesome!

Turkey - Goreme

I'm writing this from fabulous Istanbul, lapping up the cosmopolitan atmosphere, but as usual Im several days behind in my blog updates what with needing to edit photos as well as find enough time somewhere with a decent internet connection to upload.

Turkey has been a great place to travel to and I will definately be returning at some point. Its a breath of fresh air after shiny suited Syria and its slightly backward ways in terms of ease of travel. This trip has not allowed time for seeing too much of it, it is definately kind of tagged on the end with some long travel days to hoon on up to Istanbul all the way from the Syrian border. The only stop of note that we made was Goreme in Cappadocia. Here we spent 2 and a half days and it proved to contain a couple of real highlights.

The area is famous for its unusual rock formations and 'fairy chimneys' with cave dwellings in them. I was well aware of the rock formations and to be honest, after a bit of a look around, its a bit like 'OK nice rocks, whats next then', in the wrong light it can look like a big slag heap rather that a spot of scenic beauty. What I wasnt prepared for, however, and what our tour leader managed to almost forget to tell us, was that the area is rammed full of rock cut churches and monastic cells dating from the 9th and 10th Centuries covered with beautifully painted frescoes. These were really stunning and Nat and I spent a good few hours wandering round the open air museum with our audio guides on taking it all in. To my mind it was an experience that easily rivals the Valley of the Kings for colourful rock painting and a much more pleasant experience. We were a bit stunned that we could almost have left the area without knowing what was a 20 minute walk from the hotel because the guide was too busy trying to push his carpet shop enterprise. Ah well..

On the travel day arriving into Goreme from Nidge, we saw another monastary and also spent some time exploring an underground city which stretched to 8 levels deep and 70 metres of tunnels rooms and passageways. Not much photographic potential down there but an interesting stop. Apparently used for local villagers to dissapear down into for months on end when invading hoardes would periodicaly come through the area. Thousands of people could live down there undetected.

We also took an easy hike through a river valley and had a great riverside lunch lounging in a cushioned pavillion.

Goreme was a really pleasant town in itself - we spied some great looking rock cut boutiquey hotels on our walk up to the sunset point, including This one. Wouldnt have minded an upgrade there!.

When photo browsing perhaps ponder over the question - was Southparks Jesus inspired by early Byzantine Christian art or is this just a bizarre coincidence!
Again, even from an agnostics point of view its impossible not to be awed by the stories depicted on these walls which have been passed down since the death of Jesus to the present time, you can imagine priests with followers sat around them as they pointed to the niches in the walls and ceilings and passed on the stories contained in them. As someone who has had no in depth religious study other than RE at school that I barely paid attention too, I was actually quite amazed at just how much of what was depicted had been drummed into me just from growing up in a Christian country. Once again, Im going to be on a mission to find some kind of Biblical mythbusters to find out more of whats historicaly documented of what actualy happened in these lands, how it affected people and how it spread from the holy land. It was interesting to be in an area where you really could see that disciples of Jesus could have spread the word up in this direction, its no further that we have travelled ourselves in the course of this trip. Other religious observations on this trip which for the last week or two has been through outposts of the Ottoman empire is the shared Old testament stories between Islam and Christianity.

One thing though... Mathew, Mark, Luke and John - what were their real names? Surely these are made up for the latin speaking mass market, these people lived in Palestine and Judea for goodness sake, where the King was called Herod etc etc, facts.... I need facts!

Its certainly the greatest story ever told. And that's not said with a note of sarcasm. I dont dispute that something of truly epic historical significance happened, and I find the spread of its message and its effect on world civilisation truly fascinating regardless of what you choose to believe as its true meaning. I have no judgements about peoples belief sytems even though I have not personaly been touched in the same way. Perhaps I will have an epiphany. One thing though - I dont think that its possible for there to be just one 'God' or true Religion. Surely it could not be right that you have the true faith just because you were lucky enough to grow up in the right part of the world in a Christain culture as opposed to in the East raised as a Buddhist, Hindu or Muslim, could they not all just be different paths to the same end? Hmmm...deep head scratchy moment, time to head out!

Aleppo

Our final Syrian destination - an odd country with some serious fashion issues and a disturbing dependance on nasty hair products, but with some fascinating historical sites. Aleppo competes with Damascus as being one of the oldest continously inhabited cites in the world and apparently its souk is the largest covered market in the world. Our hotel was quite atmoshperic and situated within the old city walls. Being the festival of Eid following Ramadan pretty much everything was closed which made the souk quite spookily quiet and deserted but also gave you the opportunity to appreciate the centuries old Islamic architecture. A pretty impressive Citadel too. We managed to cause a bit of a riot when Chris befriended a couple of the questionably dressed local lads and all of a sudden a whole gang of them were clamouring to get their photos taken. Quite Amusing. Once again a great local guide giving us the history, a real character.

Krac de Chevaliers

Another crusader castle, looking very impressive on a hilltop. We had a great view of it from our balcony. Again a great local guide for us. The most incredible thing was the English Gothic cloisters so far away from Britain and the emblem of Richard the Lionheart. I'd read about the crusades but being stuck out in Syria which still seems a million miles from anything familiar, it seemed impossible to imagine our monarch dissapearing off here for a few years - but you see the castle and theres a slice of Norman England in the Middle East.

Roman Stuff - The Sequel

Palmyra

The City of Palmyra was at its heyday around 270 AD when Queen Zenobia (great name!), wrestled it from the Roman Empire and proceeded to build her own Palmyrian Empire which stretched as far as Egypt. Zenobia claimed desecent from Cleopatra and took the title of Queen of Egypt. The Empire was short lived and she was crushed by Emporer Aurelian at Antioch (where I am sitting here typing funnily enough) and then paraded through the streets of Rome in Chains.More info here

Set right out in the desert on the way to Iraq it was a very atmospheric place, and once again we got the benefit of a slighlty eccentric but very knowledegable local guide to give the full background.

Damascus

Internet in Syria has been a little bit questionable and sporadic so hard to make any posts of late. After a fairly lengthy customs process to get out of Jordan and into Syria we arrived in Damnascus, the oldest continously inhabited city in the world. At first we were not sure what was going to occupy us for 2 and a half days but the Old city was quite absobrbing. As usual we found this much more rewarding once we got away fron the group. Just wandering and exploring. The highlight was probably one of the old Khans or Caravan resting places/store rooms - dating from the Otooman period and hidden away in the Souks. We also discovered a medressa and some beautiful old houses, now shops or hotels all incredibly ornate choccas with Islamic art. Did a bit of curio shopping and managed to fit in a Hammam too. From there we piled into taxis and then a public coach and went through the desert to Palmyra.