Karbala, Iraq

 Karbala, Iraq 

We were up early to get to the border.

It was a lovely morning sun rise.

It took an hour to get to the border. It was the longest border crossing for me for a long time. We left after a false start at 5pm. 

We got ten minutes down the road and were stopped at the army check point. They didn't want us to go any further without an escort. Therefore we had an escort for the next 400 kilometres.

We arrived at Marami at 2am...one of the interesting roundabouts...but ouldn't fina a hotel. But our escort found one for us.

A view out of the back of the hotel in the morning overlooking the Euphrates.

A view of the downstream side of th barrage at Ramadi.

Our hotel...

The back of our hotel. We drove all day towards Baghdad and then turned south to reach the Shia holy city of Karbala towards sunset.

The Ali Hussein shrine at Karbala.