Of course I couldn't resist trying some off-road again, it was fun and Partner did the job well. But I was flooding the heater exhaust-pipe a bit earlier; I'll check it before running it overnight. I had actually only two chances: or get stuck in the mud on co-ordinates only I knew, or, try my luck, push the accelerator and "swim" a bit. I did the latter, Partner and Fulda tyres did a good job, and as you see, I even got to the internet today!

But let's retrocede a bit. After leaving Damascus (a parked bus wished me a "Happy Jerny") I headed for the village Ma'luma, where some of the inhabitants, mainly Greek Orthodox Christians, still speak Aramaic, Jesus Christ's tongue. I spent the cold night (maybe I'm repeating myself, but mounting of the Eberspächer into my Partner was one of the better ideas of the last few years) under the Mar Musa (St. Moses) monastery from the 6th century, which was reopened some ten years ago by fra Paolo from Italy. I met other Italians, French, Americans, Germans and even an Irish there. We were feeding ourselves and goats, washed the dishes and cleaned the floor. But I found some books in the monastery library that are already on my list for the next amazon.com shopping. It was pleasant.

I'm writing this news at Palmyra (the original Arab name for the town is Tadmur) in Syrian Desert, for which they write:
"Even if you think you've seen enough ruins to last you for the lifetime and just a thought of seeing another Roman or Greek city makes you groan, don't miss Palmyra."
And here I am, in the palm-city, as named by the Romans, or the date-city, as the natives call it. We'll see in the morning. But even now it reminds me of Moroccan Zagora – the last oasis before the desert, the last port of call on the caravan route to Yemen on the south of the Arabian Peninsula, from where they would return loaded with Indian silk, parfumes, spices…

A charm of this kind of travel is also the fact that I still don't know where I'm going tomorrow. I can continue to the east towards the Euphrates River, or, alternatively, head to the north in direction of Al-Ladhiqiya. All I know is that the diesel-tax is valid only till Monday so I have to be at the Lebanese border by then. The rest of Syria will have to wait for my return from "Eastern Switzerland".


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