“Nowhere else on Earth have I so often been physically restrained from leaving the homes of complete strangers in order to stay for yet another meal or another night.” This was the response from Tom, my brother, when I asked him of his experiences cycling through Syria.
In 2009, from it’s northern frontier with Turkey, to the southerly reaches of the country and on into Jordan, Tom pedalled through one of the most ancient civilisations on our planet, on a bicycling journey lasting three and a half years. Syria was just a snippet of his voyage, but it was a memorable one. With the ongoing conflict in the country almost in its forth year, and the much maligned “Geneva II” piece talks beginning in earnest this week, I thought what better a time to share some of Tom’s stunning photography to showcase a beautiful land that is much more than the chaos that currently consumes it, and to hope that Syria will soon start to recover from three years of bitter struggle and more than 130,000 deaths.
Tom Allen set off from rural England on a heavily loaded bicycle in 2007. He came home a few years later with a second citizenship – and a wedding ring on his finger, having cycled across more than 30 countries on four continents. He runs a popular cycle touring website, tomsbiketrip.com, and is also co-producer of the award-winning documentary feature film of his story, Janapar.
