We left Tabriz early so that we could get to Dogubayazit (border town in Turkey) early and allow spare time incase we had any problems at the border.  As it happened we sailed straight through the border in less than an hour and were in Turkey before lunch.  We were staying at Murat camping in Dogubayazit which is high up in the mountains (6000 feet), just below the snow line so it was bloody cold!  We arrived and put up our tents for the first time since India and then climbed up the mountain a few hundred feet to see the Ishak Pasa Palace which has great views of the mountains and Dogubayazit below and then came back down to the bar and restaurant for our first beers in 10 days.  By the evening we were a bit tipsy and joined in the local Kurdish dancing which seemed to have been invented by a drunk man, so we fitted right in!

We left in the morning, getting a fantastic view of Mount Arrarat which is where Noah's Ark is supposed to have landed after the great flood.  It was a  2 day drive to Goreme which is in the Cappadocia region of central Turkey.  The drive was great and we passed through some stunning scenery, including thick snow covered mountains with drifts higher than the truck, bush camping overnight to break up the journey.

We arrived in Goreme the following day where we met up with Martin and Vallery again.  Goreme is a beautiful little town with lots of nice bars and restaurants, so we had a very nice chilled out afternoon before being picked up to go to a large restaurant which is built inside a cave, we payed 18US$ to get as much food and drink as you can consume and procedded to do our best to make up for the 10 dry days in Iran.  We were entertained by a belly dancer and some other traditional dancing before they turned the rest of it into a disco.  By the time they closed we were all pretty drunk, we got a lift back into town and spent several happy hours dancing the night away in Fatboys which was the local disco.

The following day was spent just chilling out and getting our breath back which we need to do every so often.  On Thursday (14th April) we had a guide for the day (Osgur) to take us around the Cappadocia region of Turkey which is stunning, the landscape is covered with tall natural rock spires which have a large stone on the top which looks a bit surreal, the insides of these have been carved out to make houses and churches etc.  When it rains and then heats up they all start smoking, so they have been dubbed fairy chimneys by the locals.  In the afternoon we had a couple of hour trek through the valleys which was great fun, but a bit painfull on the legs.

We were up at 5 the next morning to go on a hot air balloon flight to see the region from the air and to see the sun come up.  It was amazing, I took over a hundred pictures and it was very difficult thinning these down to 35 or so.  We had a great flight for about an hour and a half and then landed in the middle of a field when we then had breakfast of beer and cake (not bad for 7:30 in the morning)!  When we got back to the hotel we loaded up the truck and headed for Aleppo in Syria, the drive took all day and we arrived at about 7 after yet another easy border crossing.  On the way down to the border we bumped into another Dragoman truck coming the other way who were doing UK to UK via Northern Africa and Egypt so we both stopped on opposite sides of the motorway for a quick chat.

We only stopped in Aleppo for the night as we will be back here on the way back through Syria.  We all went out for a nice meal and had an early night as we had another long day tomorrow.  We left Aleppo early and drove all morning to get to Crac Des Chevaliers (castle of knights) which is supposed to be one of the best castles in the world.  It was very good, but I would not say that it is one of the best.  It was a holiday weekend though and was crawling with screaming school kids who all wanted to get photo's taken with us - it was just like being back in India (famous again).

From the Crac we drove for the rest of the afternoon and arrived in Damascus at about 7 where we will be spending 1 day before heading down to Jordan.  We put up our tents and then hired a minibus to get kebabs and beer and drive up into the hills to see Damascus lit up below us - stunning.  Today we had a nice easy Sunday morning before coming into Damascus for a look around and an internet session which is where I am now.  We are taking it easy today though as we will be coming back to Damascus for a couple of days on the way back up.

Tomorrow we leave for Jordan where we will see Petra before heading into Egypt for a good couple of weeks which should be great.

I will try to post another update in a week or so.