Not the introduction.
Because who reads introductions?
“Don't worry Dad, if you do run into militant groups you'll just do what you do, talk to them. You're a Scouser! You'll be fine”!
That was my son’s response when I first showed him my planned route from Gobekli Tepe to Cape Town and considering I was initially planning to walk the route, taking in Syria, Lebanon and Sudan on the way, his faith in me was admirable.
I realise now, having made it safely to Cape Town that my original plan seemed, to me at least, achievable because I was naive.
Not just a bit naive either.
Off the scale, naive.
WTF
Naive.
You see, I was resolute in my belief that we lived on a free planet, inhabited by people who were no different to me except for the minute differences in our DNA that resulted in the wonderful variety of skin tone and accents that our species exhibits.
After all, Simunye. We are One.
Sitting here in the cool, Erekuleni, afternoon sun, I know with absolute certainty that I was right about all but one thing.
In the last, wonderful, tumultuous year, I have met human beings from as diverse backgrounds as you can imagine. Not just from me but from one another!
I’ve learnt to order food, ask for directions, say hello how are you, ask for directions again and crucially, I can now order tea with fresh mint please in 7 different languages!
To be precise, I can now attempt to order tea with fresh mint please in 7 different languages. I do not always end up with a cup of tea with fresh mint please!
Not once did I encounter hostility, suspicion or even apathy from a single person. Not once did I feel that the situation had become dangerous. Not once did I feel threatened.
The reality was, as I expected, something far more wonderful and encouraging.
In each of the 10 different countries I visited on my journey from ancient stones to African shores, I was treated not as a friend but as family. I have been invited for dinner in grand, lavishly furnished family homes. I have been invited for dinner in reed floor covered huts made from mud and straw. I have sat around camp fires with Beduin, Masai, Tigrayan, Egyptian and Zulu elders.
I have drunk tea with or been blessed by Jewish rabbis, Islamic imams and orthodox Catholic priests in at least 4 different countries. I have met monks from various faiths who were happy to pass on a little wisdom or local mythology.
I’ve sat and chatted to young angry, battle hardened ex military officers, wealthy businessmen, people who owned nothing but the filthy tattered clothes they wore. I've talked to farmers, politicians, soldiers, local traders, taxi drivers, temple guardians and, best of all, I have met hundreds of everyday, ordinary citizens across the countries I have visited who were more than happy to tell me their story.
Simunye! We are One
However, we do not live on a free planet. Let’s drop that BS now!
I've been followed, detained, interviewed, shouted at and threatened and moved along by enough armed police, military, militant groups and private security firms to now know that the world is not as open to explore as 12 months of research might cause you to believe it is and here’s the thing;
Either the rules were changed the day I set off
Or
Google has a lot of information that is old, no longer true or was never true in the first place.
I also learnt how the same web search can produce different answers depending on what country you are in.
WTF
Naive.
No.
Misled.
Yes.
Anyway my first encounter with the end of a rifle that goes bang! made me realise that my plans, as extensive and meticulous as they were, were useless. As useless as the tripod I bought to attach my high powered monocular to my mobile phone’s camera!
Both looked great on paper.
Both were annoyingly useless!
Indeed, as the Turkish army officer who was pointing the aforementioned rifle at me said, “if you are caught inside the 30 km exclusion zone around Syria again, you will be arrested and deported to your country of origin. Eventually”!
The way his magnificent moustache bristled as he emphasised the final word in that sentence made it extra clear that there was no guarantee that eventually would be any time soon!
This was a problem that I hadn't anticipated.
According to google, the border crossing between the two countries at Akçakale was open. I’d checked this as recently as that morning as it was the logical point to cross the thousand kilometre or so border stretching from the Mediterranean sea in the west to the tripoint with Iraq in the east. As my start point was Gobekli Tepe, less than 70 km to the North, the Akçacale crossing gave me the shortest route through the mountains to Al Raqa, Homs and ultimately the Knights Hospitaller castle at Krak des Chevaliers.
Turns out. None of the land borders in the region were open.
My meticulous planning, I was by now Mr Spreadsheet, was unravelling.
Who am I kidding, it had unravelled.
Unravelled. Abandoned ship and gone to join the French foreign legion!
It was time to re-evaluate my options.
It was time to return to my base in the 3rd century town of Şanliurfa for a cup of my wonderful host Omar’s delicious tea and to decide on plans B, C and probably D.
I set out from the UK in June of 2024 with 4 key objectives;
Visit as many ancient, megalithic sites in as many countries as possible.
Prove that our planet was a safe place to freely explore.
Meet as many people as possible along the way and listen to their stories and launch my dream career of journalist / author by telling those stories exactly as they were told to me.
Show an increasingly sceptical world that all humans, regardless of nationality, religion or language spoken had the same basic aspirations, needs and human rights as each other and that the differences that mainstream media focus on are nothing more than illusions. False creations designed to keep half of the planet afraid and the other half subjugated.
OK so number 2 was looking a tad doubtful, however, I set off to prove that things like race, religion and class were all man made differences, as manufactured as the imaginary lines on a map that keep us fighting amongst ourselves, when actually, there is only one race. The Human Race.
I set off to prove that Simunye! We are One!
I wasn't about to give up!
