Due to my only occasional internet access many of these posts will be ‘after the fact’ but I’ll do my best to keep things current.

 So we set off on the 9th of December under a Salford hailstorm leaving Manchester airport at 3, after a short stop in Istanbul we arrived at Erbil international 4.30am local time, attracting a £1100 excess luggage fine and a fair bit of attention from the locals.

 From there we drove out to Koya and the Tishk TV headquarters and finally went to sleep just as the sun was rising at 7.00am.