Syria..... Oh What a Place!

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Photos in order of appearance:

Damascus back street

Roman Theatre at Palmyra

Triumpual Arch Palmyra

Krak de Chevaliers x 2

Breakfast at Lattakia Marina

The brochure I am looking at says "Syria The Cradle of Civilization"... and we have certainly seen some sites in this country which back this up.

First of all though we must say that from the food, the wonderful welcome we have received from all the people we have encountered and the places we have visited, this is definitely a must see. No sign of the axis of evil did we feel or see.
The only bad thing which has happened is that although we have security guards on 24 hour watch, someone has stolen Richard's Teva leather sandals during the night. We are moored so that we have to climb over another boat to get to Ibis II, and everyone leaves their shoes on the dock beside the gangways. Obviously they are the right size and style for the thief, but Richard is greatly inconvenienced by this loss until someone from another boat loans him a spare pair.

In one day - 28 May 2008 -we leave from the Lattakia Marina at 8.00 am and visit Krak de Chevaliers, breathtaking Palmyra and arrive in Damascus to stay the night.

Krak de Chevaliers - a crusader fortess built in 1100 AD on the Silk road so that it can dominate the Homs Pass. We walk through it and imagine the lives lived and lost here.

Palmyra - Age wizened sandstone example of wind eroded Roman majesty built in the 1st century AD. The Roman Theatre, Triumphal Arch and temple to Baal are parts of the huge site which we visit - we barely scratch the surface before we move on to lunch in a Bedouin tent where the heat is nudging 45 degrees and we are sure we will be cooler outside!

Damascus - The oldest continuously occupied capital city in the world dating back to the 12th century BC, where we visit the Damascus Museum - a magnificent museum housing an underground tomb discovered in Palmyra and relocated here, see the origins of our alphabet found in Urgarit and created by the Phoenician people... hence phoenetics. We only have an hour here and would like to have spent a day at least. We move on to the Temple of Jupiter and associated mosque, Church of St Ananaias where St Paul (Saul) story from the Bible is based and an opportunity to wander the city and do some shopping.

Syria leaves us with so many lasting memories and wonderful photographs but it is soon time to move on to Lebanon and we depart 3 pm 31 May for Jouneih near Beirut for our next stop.

Weather is very settled and we have dolphins around the boat on my 4 am watch. I can hear them in the darkness breaking the surface from time to time. We are just about off the Syria/Lebanon border when it starts to get light and I notice a faint grey shadow on the horizon. Closer inspection with binocs reveals a warship checking the fleet out. They soon disappear as I reflect on the previous evening's drama. Around 9.30pm and very dark but lights of all the EMYR fleet are all around us. I am alone on deck and I spot an unusual set of lights off our port bow. I see a couple of white lights v close together and a very faint starboard light which is almost non existent. It resembles one of our EMYR yachts and at this time we are overtaking quite a few as are motor sailing. As we rapidly close on these lights I am uneasy and take the helm off autopilot and have it in my hand. Suddenly from out of the darkness looms a huge ship crossing in front of us at an angle from port to starboard. I send us shooting away to port and call for Richard to "get on deck now!" Before he has a chance to make it up the companionway the ship slides less than 50m past us at speed and he just glimpses it as it quickly disappears into the night. We see a couple of other ships during the night, but none come as close as this one.