Plan B

The thought process

I had to knock Iran on the head. With Iran you can't simply apply for a visa at an Iranian consulate you have to first have an authentication code. Which is supplied by an outside company. With this code you can go to a pre-determined consulate (but only the one that has been decided prior with the outside company) and then apply for a visa from there. Really this whole process should have been done in good time whilst in the UK. But as I ran out of time I thought I could do it on the road. With Iran thats a big mistake. It would take far too long to explain the difficulties I had with them so in short: 

Authentication code cost me 50 and was sent to Cyprus. They took 2 weeks longer than expected to deliver. That was supposed to be the easy part, the next part is the applying for the visa which takes 5 days. But the lady who sorts the visa's is on holiday. It will take a minimum of 7 days and there is no guarantee of that (Meaning it will take 2 weeks again). Its 140 quid and it is not refundable. There is also no guarantee of getting the visa accepted in the first place. Even if I got it, once I got to the border its only a 50/50 chance I will get in as I don't have the correct bike papers. I have already spent two weeks in expensive Cyprus, spending all that exrta time I could not bear. Thus Iran will have to wait for next time.

The Dutch boys option was out. They're racing through and I don't want to do that.
 

Riding in on my own was my preference but seemed futile as I would not be able to see all, any even of the places I wanted to. Access to the country had become difficult and travelling through too dangerous for a solo biker. 

So.... with Syria and Iran now out of the picture... what next.... I have to, I had to do at least one Middle Eastern Country where I could flex my Arabic. It was the point of my trip... as the title goes. The furthest Eastern corner of Turkey could not satisfy my thirst. 

The only other Middle Eastern Country to border Turkey is Iraq. I had no choice. After doing some research into Northern Iraq and the Kurdish controlled semi-autonomous region I decided to make that my new destination. 

The Road to Iraq