Hitching to Palmyra

As yesterday was Tuesday and most places of interest were going to be closed we decided to hitch from Deir ez Zur to Palymyra (about 220km). Our taxi driver dropped us off at the edge of town at the start of the road to Palmyra. He then invited us to his house for tea. We declined as we had started a bit later than planned but thanked him for his kind offer and he gave us a wide toothy smile and touched his chest in that gentle gesture that people here do to essentially mean “at your service”. The first couple of vehicles that stopped couldn’t get their head around the idea of hitching and kept pointing us towards the bus station from where buses left every half hour. That was of course our back up option but I was sure given people’s nature here we wouldn’t have to wait long. After about five minutes a young bridge technician stopped and offered to bring us the first 20km as he was driving out to a site. He apologised as he let us off for not being able to take us further and gave us his mobile number in case we were back in Deir ez Zur and needed any help.

We waited in the blazing sun for about 15 minutes and one driver stopped and said he would take us but for an outrageous price. As he pulled away, Hamad, a goods driver from Damascus pulled up and we told him where we were going and he told us to put our bags in the back and we joined him the cockpit. It was a really nice drive through lovely flat desert scenery with large birds of prey and herds of camels with their Bedouin minders punctuating the journey. Hamad spoke a little English but excellent French and had been to Luxembourg where his uncle lived. After about 2 hours he dropped us on the edge of Palmyra as he was driving on to Damascus, explaining it was a problem for large vehicles to go into the town. He too seemed apologetic and refused any money. We got a taxi the last few kilometres to town and went out for some dinner, unable to resist spaghetti though I am looking forward to some Bedouin and local specialities.

- Dave