A grab shot of a Turkish boy looking after sheep on the approach to the border with Iraq. The mountains in the background are in Iraqi Kurdistan. 01 Dec 2019.
The road south from Cizre towards Silopi was some of the worst road surface that I travelled on in my journey. It was a 25 - 30mph road at best, with lorries able to drive much faster thundering past. Just as I was becoming truly exasperated the road changed and I was sudddenly trabelling on a pefectly surfaced dead straight motorway. At the end of this straigh the signs for the border point to the right. Anyone taking that turn at speed would be come to a sticky end. I saw no other signs that the road was blockled off; just these concrete blocks closing the road.
Miles of lorries line up in Turkey on the approach road to the Ibrahim Khalil Border Crossing, on 01 Dec 2019. Around a thousand cars and 1500 trucks a day cross into Kurdistan.