Cycling The Globe

Distance: 170.53! km
Ridetime: 7:12:48
Average: 23.6 km/h
Total distance: 3947 km

Syrians are not early risers in the morning, so leaving the hotel at 7 o’clock I pretty much had the streets for myself. With the snow still visible on the surrounding hills of Damascus I left the city I had really started to like.

After 80 km a guy on a bicycle suddenly rode up on my side. It turned out to be Tjalf from Holland also on a long bicycle ride. A bit further behind followed his friend Peter.

I have now met more cyclists in Syria than on my whole trip through Europe. The cycle touring community is clearly heading south these days.

The Dutch guys had planned to stay a few more days in Syria while I wanted to cross into Jordan, so after half an hour of road side chatting we said goodbye and continued down the road.

The border crossing went easy. Only one of the guards boards kept asking about the registration certificate for my bicycle. I tried to explain that bicycles really didn’t have such things and finally I was let through.

In Jordan the landscape turned into a desert. I hadn’t expected this and I ran out of water. Oh well, I guess a real desert experience includes being a bit thirsty. It wasn’t long before a could buy more water at a gas station.

The cycling day became longer than expected because I didn’t find any hotels at the first border town. As I still had some hours left before darkness I decided to go all the way to the suburbs of Amman for a new distance record of 170.5 km in a day.