11.9.2001 Back in the UK

Cass writes…

Well, the ride's over and so too is our journey across Turkey, Iran and Central Asia. It goes without saying that these four months have been an experience loaded with challenges. Both the kind that lurk around every corner of this remote and often bizarre region, as well as those that riding a tandem in such extreme environments has evoked. Would we do it again?! Physically and mentally, it's been a tough but incredibly rewarding four months - and we didn't expect it any other way.

Over the weeks, we've crossed the deserts and mountain passes that bridge the Caspian and China, stood in awe before the Silk Road cities of Turkestan, gratefully sampled the force of Iranian hospitality, gamely dined on an overload of grisly kebabs and reluctantly downed copious amounts of vodka. Above all, the freedom of travelling by bicycle has brought us closer to understanding the identity of the new nations of Central Asia, in the throws of redefinition, emerging from their turbulent pasts into an uncertain future. As we settle back in to UK life, there's that sense of emptiness that every road trip leaves behind.

But it's an emptiness that is paled by the horrific acts of terrorism that have struck the United States the day after I flew home: the destruction of the twin towers of the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon by suicide attacks, claiming tens of thousands of lives. Again, a dark shadow is cast across the Islamic world. Having been inundated with kindness during my travels in the Middle East and Iran, I would just like to stress how the vast majority of those I met utterly condemn such atrocities. Travel teaches you to appreciate the diversity of our world, and it fills me with sadness to be confronted by such intolerance.

In memory of the innocent victims in New York and Washington, we would like to dedicate this last diary entry to world peace and understanding.