9. Trust me babe, I know what I’m doing

And so we start are journey down toward Syria. It should be an easy ride, a bit in the mountains, a bit highway, no worries at all. We have left the campground only at about noon, as we have more than enough time. Nice not to have to rush down, but just take the time for a check on the internet, last little hand wash, time to say goodbye to other travellers, all nice and relaxed.


On our second day of driving we have already done quite a bit of the way, so we make a tiny little detour toward a lake nearby. By the looks of the area here, it wouldn’t be easy to find a sleeping spot. A lake however is often a place of opportunity. When we arrive there the lake is probably only half of what it is during the winter. Pretty nice though to sleep at and even to drive on the part that in a couple of months will be covered with water again.

Here and there you can see big stones, here and there you can miss them. You won’t see them but you do feel them when the car is declining way more to the left than you would like it to be. And so here goes a conversation in a car hanging towards the left side: “Hmmm, what’s that?” “Just a big stone I didn’t see.” Driving a bit further, the driver (in this case a male) is still looking to his right instead of to the bigger stones ahead. So the passenger says: “Watch out, babe.” Response: “Trust me babe, I know what I’m doing, I really know what I’m doing.” The passenger, in this case a female, has no comment.

As we drive a bit further ‘in the lake’ we spot trees. Good. It is just a bit further up to the right where the lake is not super dry and... where the car gets stuck in the mud. This time the passenger has a huge smile on her face and a comment: “Trust me babe, I know what I’m doing, I really know what I’m doing.” LOL! There is no going forwards, no going backwards.

Time to pull out our little spade. We also need stones to put on top of the mud, to build a little path so to speak. More than enough of that here! And so there I am wearing my ‘I love London’ t-shirt (I am after all a city girl), collecting stones in a dried out lake while Kosta is on all fours trying to dig the car out.

The guide to getting a car out of the mud:

Step 1: take your little spade and start digging


Step 2: put stones on top of the mud


Step 3: try to drive the car out of the mud


Step 4: take the extra weight out of the car



Step 5: repeat step 1 but this time just use your hands


Step 6: repeat step 2 but make a longer stretch of rocks (nicely collected by your assistant, still having a huge smile on her face)


Step 7: repeat step 3 and succeed!