Just gone noon, half-past monsoon: Tea in the Baghdad Cafe

I recently had the opportunity to go out to Syria again and do a bit of scouting. No, no, in this case I did not pack my scarf, woggle, whistle, swiss army knife and tent because in this case scouting mean't driving out into the Syrian desert to look at the place we want to drill a well and see if there are any issues we need to deal with. So this was work, :-)

In a case of tremendously bad planning (by my workmate!) the trip was organised when the World Cup final was due to be played, so we spent most the journey down talking about whether we would be able to watch the football 500 miles from the nearest sports bar with a 56in flatscreen TV. On top of this, Instead of a comfy hotel in a town called Deir Es Zoir we had arranged to stay at the wonderfully named Rig 14 (a drilling rig). To locate Rig 14 we had some co-ordinates and all the modern gadgetry to find it (you don't want to get lost out here in summer). If you imagine a big area of gravelly desert, lets call it "no where" well Rig 14 was near the middle of it.

We drove out of Damascus to the east along the road to Palmyra (a wonderful roman town on the silk route). We stopped off en-route, not at a Wimpy or a Waffle House (how much I would give for a double portion of hash-browns and eggs over easy), but at the wonderfully named Bagdad Cafe, for we are not far from the Iraqi border (near enough for me). An eclectic little place, serving sweet red-hot tea or a tarmac thick coffee.

Back on the road again we made Palmyra by lunch and unfortunately did not have time to visit the ruins (I was working after all). We stopped in a roadside restaurant recommended by our

HSE guy, so we hope the Health part of HSE was taken into account. I do not think Egon Ronay, or the Michelin Star man has been troubled to come an sample the truckers stops of the Damascus-Palmyra road. I had an old friend, a RC cola (we had these in oman, were they laughingly called Arsey cola) and a meal of grilled meat, kofta and arabic bread. I was a little skeptical, the meat, (3 sheep carcasses) was kept in the glass fridges you see in all the roadside establishments in the Middle East and the chap just got out a big knife and cut-off our order for the grill. I was packing a few kilos of grade A "anti-trots medication" so I felt brave enough to play food poisoning Russian roulette - it was actually very good and fresh with no adverse side effects (happily - roadside conveniences at a premium).

Heading further east we then had to cut across country using the romantically named T2-T3 backroad. We turned off the main road with its thundering barely controlled russian trucks and headed south to the pipeline terminal called "T3", along a single lane blacktop. At T3 we turned east again to T2, along a pretty straight 140km single blacktop desert road. The desert here consists of low gravel plains with the odd shallow wadi, no wonder Ansell Adams stayed in the Rockies and Yellowstone, not the most inspiring of landscapes.

Gets a little boring after the first 100km......

In 140km we passed two trucks. The only buildings were government water wells with a few Bedouin huts surrounding them and occasional herd of sheep woolly hot looking sheep.

The metropolis of Humaimah...big city of the T3-T2 road.....

At T2 we then got the technology out and headed across the plains armed with the co-ordinates of the Rig. It was a good feeling when the mast came into view and a relief from the long journey.

T2, a picturesque spot for a coffee and a chat with the Syrian officals.

At the rig we signed in, had the HSE check, then went and filled up with fuel from a petrol station on the edge of the Euphrates. Coming out of the desert the area suddenly becomes greener, with many people and villages growing all sorts of vegetables along the fields watered by a falaj system (water in canals diverted to the fields).

I would have liked more time to photograph life here but the sun was descending and rules is rules no night time driving so like Cinderella we had to return to Rig 14.

Night falling over rig 14.......

Back on the rig before sunset we settled down and were treated to a feast in the mess, an argument about which sort of mango is best in Egypt (these guys are a little lonely on the rig) and then settled back in cabin VIP 1 (for I was classified as a VIP) and watched the World Cup final on a old chinese colour tv (I would have preferred the 56in flat screen but beggars cant be choosers).

VIP1 A room with a view, and more important a TV with satelitte!

After an early sun rise start we arrived back at the pipeline terminal called T2 and waited for the engineering guys we were meeting to show the site. Whilst having a quick nescafe at the gate a chap in army fatigues carry an AK57 came out, we were obviously interesting when nothing happens for months in this far out desert outpost, two white westerners sitting outside the gate, whoa hoo, something to do! A more senior chap arrives, after explaining in poor araboenglish what we were doing (including miming drilling an oil well), our Syrian engineers turn up and we are invited inside to meet the Colonel and explain what we are doing. We go it, everything is a bit ramschackled and meet the commander who was obviously not expecting us lounging around smoking in a track suit and flip flops, he took our details and wished us good luck - nice friendly chap.

We then went off road heading south towards Iraq (about 25 miles away, hopefully no slip up with navigation) and the potential site we are checking out.

Checking a wadi...yep, its a wadi....

We investigated the wadis, ground conditions and the Syrians had a chat with the bedouins who

were in the area.

We came all the way to be at this spot - lovely....

What a desolate place to ekk out a living, it was 47oC whilst we were walking about, my throat was as dry as Ghandis sandel.

Finishing up we retraced our steps and got to T2, said good bye to jolly engineers, then onto T3 and then back to Palmyra. As it was still light we could make it back to Damascus in daylight, which frankly I was disappointed at as this would have meant a night at the hotel in the Roman ruins. As a compromise to me, "the tourist", we drove through the ruins and I could hang out the window and shoot photos like a Japanese tourist on speed. So I got to get a quick look at this beautiful ruin - hopefully to come back another day and do it at less than 40km/hr

I then spent a couple of nights in Damascus. As this was the first time I had my good camera I went out on the last night and explored a little more, although it was roasting hot. I wandered around the Hamideyah souk as usual.

The souk......

I popped into the Umayyad mosque again to get out of the heat and take some sneaky pictures of people there, however the half of the city that was not walking around the souk had the idea of getting away from it all in the mosque.

Ladies need to don a cloak that makes them look like a Ewok from a Star Wars movie to enter the mosque.

You can see the Roman columns used in the building on the mosque......

The beautiful wall mosaics on the main entrance

The tomb of St John the Baptist who is supposed to be buried here, along with Hussein head (which is also buried in Cairo amoungst other places)

After exploring a few backstreets that I had not been to before, including the card souk, and the soap souk and the curtain tassle souk, I made my way back to the 4 seasons and enjoyed a traditional Syrian "all-you-can-eat" sushi night!

Straight Street, mentioned in the Bible, and the Quran probably too. St Paul

entered the town along here. Lots of craftsmen working away in the little shops either side.