From Istanbul I marched on south through super friendly Turkey, clocking up over 1000 kms in the country before hitting the south coast near Silifke and catching a ferry to Girne in Cyprus. From here I hiked through the island to the charming port of Larnaka and caught a flight to Lebanon.

In Lebanon I walked south through Tripoli to Beirut and then across to the Syria-Lebanon border (having got caught in a snow storm and seeking shelter in a friendly police station). In Syria, I travelled to Damascus (on wheels rather than on feet – the only place I had to do this) and then down to the Syria-Jordan border, where I walked on to Amman, the Jordanian capital.

From Amman I walked to Jerusalem via Jericho and the West Bank. I finished the Middle East section of the walk at eerily remote Zakim Beach, just north of the Gaza Strip.