A long day visiting castles

A day with Clair and Sarah, visiting crusader castles along the coast.

06.10 a taxi to bus station
06.40 minibus to Latakia
08.40 walk to minibus station
09.00 minibus up to village then onwards to Saladin's castle
12.00 taxi back to village
12.20 minibus back to Latakia
12.40 taxi to minibus station
13.00 minibus to Banyas
14.30 minibus up to Qalaat Marqouf
15.50 taxi to Banyas (perimter)
16.00 walk to minibus station
16.20 minibus to Tartous
16.50 walk to other minibus station
17.30 TAXI from Tartus to Hama
19.40 back in Hama

In all this, we crossed over to the coast and went from north to south, almost into Lebanon, for less than half the price of a single on te Heathrow Express (which takes 15 minutes)!

In between time, we saw two fantastic crusader castles, drove through pretty green countryside, steep mountains and grey drab coastal plains met and had fun with the local people, got frustrated with certain minibus drivers and all we had to eat all day was biscuits. Fred, because his stomach was playing up and me because there didn't seem to be any time to pick up anything else. The crusader castles were great, with round towers, square towers, cellars, dungens and beautiful views from high.

It was fun spending the day with Clair and Sarah, although Clair ended up with a bad stomach. We wish them well on the rest of their respective travels and thank them for being such good company.

Latakia and Tartous are the two main towns on the Syrian coast and Banyas is in between. Syria will never develop as a prize Mediterranean beach destination, as the towns are ugly and industrial, the coastal plain is uninspiring ribbon development, worse than what Sicily can provide and the people seemed a lot less friendly than in the rest of the country. Damning, eh? I will just say that the mountains just inland from the coast are beautiful and very green.

That said, the people we met at the castles, either working with donkeys, cement or on film sets were all very cheerful and welcoming. Had a good view of the declining moon in the deep blue morning sky in the clear mountain air.

Hope you enjoy ther photos of the best parts of the day.