Got going at 5:15 to Mosul, sun rises early now and gets hot quick. Quite enjoyed Erbil with all the Kurds and how they dress, so different to Iraq, place is clean and prosperous and they speak Kurdish. Arrived in Mosul which is only eighty kilometers away and stopped to ask some soldiers where to go and then they invited me for some tea and breakfast, amazes me everytime how generous and welcoming these people are.
After tea I headed for the border where I had to pay $30 to exit Iraq and got my CDP stamped and then went to the front of the long line of cars at the Turkish border gate, where they open it and let five vehicles in at a time. Paid $30 for visa and $35 for insurance and that was it, went very smoothly and they really help you, also had to have a passenger list which we made up at the hotel and it got me through. Iraqi took one hour and Turkey took one and a quarter hours which was way better than the stories I had read about how long it would take.
Then I only had 478km to go to Halfeti heading west along the Syrian border. The roads are fairly good and everything is grass green and the entire way besides the town was lush farmland, what a drastic change from the last few months in Arabic Peninsula. Pulled into Halfeti at 7pm after nearly fifteen hours and 738km and had'nt eaten a thing all day and wasn't even really hungry, which is a good sign but did go and chów down on some good food.
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