I thought several times of Indiana Jones as I was climbing funerary towers ancient Palmyrians once used for burying their dead. The corridors stretch from the dark underground to windy towers where I had to do some jumping over a meter and a half wide and up to ten meter deep shafts and then stop safely on a 25 centimetre wide shelf on the opposite side. Interesting.

In the afternoon I was planning to head to the east to the Ommayad palace built in the middle of the desert. Right when I measured the co-ordinates of important crossings and the final destination and entered them into the GPS I got the idea about climbing the fortress above the town before leaving. I don't know exactly what was attracting me but I met Klaus and Barbara from Bavaria there. They are travelling all the way around the Mediterranean with their 25-year old Magirus-Deutz, perfectly transformed into an authentic palace on wheels. So they are fulfilling the idea I was thinking about for quite a long time. It's true that the border between Algeria and Morocco is on principle closed, but they think optimistically. Well, I'm starting to think also…

One of the first themes to talk about was of course Libya with its visa-related problems. They are planning to enter it more than less at the same time as me and my friends, so we were thinking about joining our forces as far as the guide cost is concerned. We'll see.

I changed my plans and stayed at Palmyra for one more night so we went out to have some beer. As we entered a local pub well known melody entered my ears. "Oliver", I screamed. And really, the pub was full of Croats that work for the Croatian INA Oil Company at some nearby drills. We all spent a looong evening together with a few (or maybe a bit more) bottles of Lebanese beer…



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