This morning I went looking for the mountain pass that runs from Serghaya, north of Damascus, across a couple of valleys to the road that runs north of Seidnaya. I've had mixed reports of whether this road actually exists, from both locals and expatriates, but when I look closely on Google Earth there's clearly a well defined track at least.

So, today I found the road and it looked very promising... until I reached a military check-point where I was informed I needed a visa to continue. How annoying. It seems though that the cycle track that I uploaded a couple of weeks back runs up this road for a good distance so I'll have to ask the guys who rode it whether it was blocked then... maybe it's only cars that they stop?

So instead I drove some tracks back down the valley towards Damascus. I've mapped one of them, but rather frustratingly my Nokia phone software (Sport Tracker) decided that it had had enough, so the extra tracks and routes I drove are lost... I'm really annoyed and think I will ditch using my phone for tracking and get a Garmin unit instead.