27th October 2013

28th October 2013
(A year and one week since we left London)

Israel.                  

It was never really part of our plan to go as far as Israel. We had all along believed that we would take a boat from Egypt to Turkey. However We received a lot of information that made us realise that due to the political upheaval in Egypt all these boat services had been withdrawn. So we made a plan to travel via Jordan and then Israel.

I was very enthusiastic about visiting Jordan. I had visited there briefly many years ago and found it to be very pleasant country. At that time I did not get to travel around much, I was there as I was escorting a repatriated Psychiatric patient. Even so Jordan left an impression on me. We were both very keen to visit some of the ancient sites, of which there are many including Petra, and Wadi Rum.

We had been warned that  Israeli border checks are very ‘thorough’ but the whole process turned out to be a bit too much for either of us and we were both quite exhausted afterwards.

First of all on the Egypt side the night before crossing we found it to be a very tense area. We arrived near the border mid afternoon and found a queue of traffic that was really not moving. So Ping decided that we would find somewhere stay for the night.

Our (illegal) campsite

There were no campsites and inquiries with hotel showed that they were very expensive and would not allow us to camp. So we started to scout around for somewhere else.

We left the man road and found a track that ran along the beautiful beach  and was hidden from anywhere but the sea. Just before we settled on a nice spot we met a policeman and asked if we could camp there. He said it was fine and even directed us to a precise spot. So we set ourselves up.

Now, a while before this, we had seen several minibuses as the only traffic on this road. They were taking a troop of tourists up to nearby historic island.  A short while later we saw them return empty. Once we had  got ourselves organised I decided it was a good time to have a shower.

It is worth explaining that this is something that generally we are only happy to do when we are pretty sure of not being too public.

In the back of the van there is a shelf where with the back doors open we can place our ‘solar shower’. This sophisticated piece of equipment consists of a large heavy duty plastic bag with a plastic shower nozzle at is its bottom. The idea is that you lay it out in the sun and it gets warm. Lovely!

So, the back doors were opened, bag placed on shelf nozzle pointing downwards and a sheet stretch out between the doors and held in place by clothes pegs. This to ensure privacy and to prevent causing distress.

All set up, Ping pointed out that the minibuses had just returned and it was her surmise that they would pick up said gang of tourists and pass this way again. Further she suggested I may wish to reconsider the timing of my shower, perhaps until after they had passed. 'Good idea', I said and did something else instead.

Having been suitably distracted for a good while, I decided once again that I could have my shower and so set about the task. There follow scenes which some readers may find distressing. I got my loofa, shampoo and towel all set up and had opened the shower to find it just the right temperature. I was quite happy. It was bit windy but I knew my pegs would hold up nicely. On the outside edge of the rear doors by the hinges there is a gap of some 10 cms or for older people 4 inches    (And why aren’t you in bed? Matron will get to hear about this!) This gap did not concern me unduly as anyone outside  could really only see in through this if they were travelling quite slowly. In view of there being so little traffic  and that if they did pass they would hardly notice.

So there I was happily working away with my loofa when a series of events took place in quick succession. You know how it can go sometimes. First those minibuses returned (remember the minibuses?) This did not concern me unduly as I knew they would just drive past. Not so. On this occasion, and for reasons that I do not know, the first one slowed right down just as he was passing. Then Ping in her absolute wisdom stated the bleeding obvious by saying those minibuses are back and they have picked up all their passengers. I had to concede as the first crawled past and allowed me to make eye contact with each and every one of its occupants through the 10 cm gap between the door and the van body. Now, I don’t know if it was due to the presence of the buses that caused the wind to blow in a slightly different direction. I was at this moment doing the bath time equivalent of whistling in the dark! That is to say I was scrubbing even more vigorously with my loofa, lots of suds and so on, basically behaving as if I am quite comfortable to go about my ablutions with an audience  of camera toting tourists.

This is what the minibus passengers actually went to see!

It was as I had commenced the process of making eye contact with the contents of the second bus, that I realised that the third was close behind. It gradually dawned on me that the reason that I was able to know about the presence of the third bus at the same time was because I was now able to, not only see through the 10 cm gap between the door and the body of the van, but also I could see through a larger area that was now open because the wind which had slightly changed direction , possibly due to the presence of the bloody minibuses had blown the sheet up in the air not only threatening to pull the remaining pegs  off it was also exposing my loofa for all to see! Whatever bloody nationality these people were! 

Our shower cubicle

As they crawled past at something rather less than walking pace. I was left with very little to preserve my dignity, other than the knowledge that I by now had very little dignity to preserve! By the time I had managed to grab the sheet and peg it back and finish my nice warm shower , they had all past and I would not be surprised if the first of the pictures was already on the internet.  

A study of Showerboy with clothes

It was about this time that the police arrived.

I had just about got dry and dressed but with soap still in my ears and my loofa still in my hand I found myself having an animated conversation with three Egyptian cops who spoke no English, not for the first time! They were here to tell us very nicely that we could not stay here. I protested that we had been directed here by the police and in any case if they left it for a few hours we would be gone by morning.They seemed happy with the explanation and off they went.

We settled down to have a pleasant evening. Ping had her shower without incident though with me sitting in a folding chair gripping the sides of the sheet to prevent it blowing away.

Just as we were settling down, back came the cops. This time it transpired, through the medium of sign language, that their General had got wind of our presence and required some action to be taken. We again explained that we were British tourists, had nothing harmful in mind and that we just needed to be left alone until the morning. They examined our passports and so on and they were very friendly. They wanted to take our passports which we were reluctant to part with. So we gave them copies and once again off they went. 

This time I predicted we would see them again.

We had our dinner and were in the middle of a game of scrabble when they returned. They were really nice and very apologetic but the boss had spoken and we had to move. They allowed us to protest and to try and reason with them for some time never pushy but we were going to have to go.  I said it is late and dark where should we go. The Hilton! was their swift response. ‘I don’t think so!'

It turned out after much discussion and with the introduction of someone who had a few words of English, that in this area there is a curfew after 9pm and they could not permit us to be out after that time. In the end our English speaking friend had a bright idea. He would come with us and show us the only place that we could legally go. On the way It seemed he was keen to impress us with his English and his western tastes as throughout the 20 minute drive he constantly found another song on his I phone that we would enjoy. The only one I can remember was 'fifty cents' not my cup of tea! 

He took us almost to the border gate where there is a kind of compound which is home to a group of shops. This was in and not out so that was ok.  We would be quite safe and there would be fresh bread in the morning and by the way there are two undercover cops working here. ‘That’s them over there!’ they will watch out for you so you won’t have any problems.

I was reminded of another curfew. When in Ethiopia I was told  of the only time that a curfew was imposed  in that country. The government announced that a curfew would be put in place at 8 pm. When the appointed hour came, it transpired that the whole town had turned out to see something they had never heard of before, and that was they had come to see the curfew!

Anyway back to Egypt. 

So we settled down finally for the night and had a nice easy start in the morning as the first car in the queue for the border.

On the Egyptian side of the border we were subjected to a fairly rigorous search The officer was friendly and quite professional. In fact as we visited the customs, Traffic authority  and then the immigration we got the impression that these were the finest specimins that Egypt had to offer. They were smart helpful mostly they spoke reasonable English. There were a couple of exceptions, one who was assisting with the search who managed to really annoy. We had one item that was well wrapped up. He got all excited and started ripping off the bubble wrap. When I protested he just carried on but was really told off by his senior. Along the lines of  ‘Treat it with a bit of respect or are you going to rewrap it nicely?’ 

Then they discovered that we had a Machete which caused quite stir and more senior people were consulted and it seemed that they were mostly concerned that the Israelis may protest that they were not told. However the ‘wally’ who got told off before started waving it around as if to direct the cars around. I got cross and removed it from him.  I pointed out that this was our property and we don’t expect to see such a display of idiocy. The boss seemed once again to agree with me. I was asked to calm down but I think Mr Silly was made to go and sit on the naughty step for a while.

In the end Ping was asked to drive the van down the queue while I was taken with the officer to consult the Israeli police who took it and insisted that there would be no problem and it would be returned when we leave the border.

I have been very critical of many Egyptian cops however I found the uniformed officers and in particular the man in charge of our search were friendly and professional and still did their job quite thoroughly. Taking trouble to explain everything as well as they could.

There was an interesting interlude between the Egypt side and the Israeli side. As Ping got closer to the gate it became clear that there was a sun canopy over  the gate and it had a height of 2.5m It seemed important to point out that our van is about 2.8 m high. I went to point his out to the office on the gate who would not hear what I had to say and insisted that I wait my turn and go back to my vehicle.

Eventually I was allowed to speak and there was a lot of consultation went on. On the out side of the gate there was and automatic roll up awning. Unfortunately it had been bolted down to the guards kiosk to stop it getting caught by the wind. It took about half an hour to get a maintenance man to remove the bolts and roll this up. Instead of asking me to move over to the other side and wait so that the rest of the growing line of cars could go through.They completely ignored the queue I did not dare to suggest anything. 

Eventually we were allowed through. We were questioned for a few minutes to find out where we had come from and why  etc etc. then we were shown to and area where the Israeli search began. This entailed removing everything, yes everything from the van. It was hot and tiring work. Everything taken out was looked at and then scanned  throughout the staff were friendly courteous  and thorough, but the whole process took about 4 hours leaving us exhausted. From the point where we arrived on the Egypt side to leaving and driving out of the Israel border was about 8 hours and as we left we were given back everything that might be used as a weapon and had been taken from us.

  
Although everyone was polite and courteous but amid this there were several men in plain clothes but without exception wearing ‘designer sunglasses’ and carrying an automatic rifle  and the whole post was overseen by machine gun posts up on a hill. During the process We discussed and decided that we were not willing to go through  this again and so we cancelled our plans to got to Jordan. Which was a great disappointment. When we mentioned this to the staff their manner changed immediately to a more hostile, ‘if you want to come to Israel then this is what you have to deal with’!

Overall I would love to have not bothered with Israel just for this alone.

Eilat beach

Israel is hideously expensive.  We stayed overnight in Eilat which is another place like Benidorm though a little more up market. 

Moonlight on the beach at Eilat

We had the strange experience when we visited a shopping mall. It was bit like being in  place wearing shorts and no shirt in a smart restaurant. We got to feeling there was a particular dress code when in McDonalds we realised that we were the only people not openly carrying a rifle or pistol! And of course the obligatory designer sunglasses. It was quite shocking and a feature all over Israel to see young men and women in everyday clothes walking around dong shopping  or in one place we saw, visiting the beach!

God knows what would happen with all these guns if some incident actually took place. I wouldn’t want to be there!

Although the cost of practically everything being quite high. We did have the very pleasant experience of every night finding a nice place to camp for the night.

The beautiful but smelly Dead sea

There is no water for miles here just desert

We had little time to stay in Israel to do much more than to pass through. Spending the night along the Dead Sea was really beautiful,

though not very fragrant. 






Most people will talk about how interesting and exciting it is that the dead sea is so salty that you can float in it even if you dont swim. I am unsure why they don’t mention that it does not smell very good. But visually it is wonderful.

Passing through Jerusalem

The Roman ruins at Caesaria

Roman 'Smiley face'!

We had a brief stop in Jerusalem and another free overnighter in Caesaria. Not only was  the car park was free and private, but also the roman ruin was free after 4pm and we got to visit that too quite interesting and freeeee! 

We felt rather triumphant at getting away with spending very little in Israel. I regret sounding like we are thumbing our nose at Israel but it is surprisingly satisfying to get away with paying so little in such an expensive place. Along the same line we found something else that really surprised us was that amid all the security consciousnesses  everywhere we went  with one exception it was easy for us to find an unsecured internet connection. Ping especially enjoyed this triumph, but being a terrible loser she was cross at not finding a signal on our last night on the beach at Haifa.

The security conscious Oceanographc Institute Haifa

I was forced to tramp up and down the beach to make sure that we had exhausted all possibilities. I think she is considering writing a complaint to the Oceanographic institute  for not having an unsecured,that is open to the public and there for her personal use, internet connection. I think that she did at one point say ‘I don’t beleeeve it! But I am not sure about that.

Rail by the road by the beach

We arrived in Haifa the port we would get our ship to Greece. The shipping agents were delightful, helpful and easy.

Once we had completed all we needed to get our tickets and instructions from the agent we had a few hours to look around Haifa , which by the way has a railway museum which I did not have time to got to. Shame! What we did see however was a complete surprise. We have not visited the myriad of places of great importance to nearly all the mainstream religions of the world. 

Exquisite B'hai Gardens

We were however treated the most outstandingly beautiful B’hai shrine Here they have used the whole of one side of the huge hill that towers over Haifa to build a temple and ornate gardens that ascend the hill in a series of stairways. This is the first time I have been introduced to the B’hai  a sect which is devoted to promoting peace and harmony in the world. According to what they describe as their aims they should have no enemies in the world. However in both Iran where they started out and in China they are vilified as a dreadful threat. I don’t get it but maybe someone will explain it to me.

The shrine is guarded by volunteers from all around the world who come and do a stint  for their faith. Once again came this startling contradiction. That some of their volunteer guards carry firearms.

Anyway it really felt like quite a privilege to visit this place.

From the top of The B'hai Gardens high above Haifa

Our ship awaits us 

The agent gave the strictest instruction that we should be at the gate of the docks on the dot of 3 pm, and we were. We found an enquiry desk who asked us to wait  a few minutes I think we had expected  a sizeable operation managing cargo. Cars and passengers onto the ship. Then the same guy from the agent turned up arranged for us to have the security grilling which was quite detailed but did include the trick question of (or at least I think it was a question) ‘You haven’t got any firearms or other weapons have you?  ‘Oh no we haven’t!’

Just us on the ship for the first part.

And then we were escorted to the ship to find …….. that we are the only passenger and the only vehicle.

The ship plys between Haifa and Greece stopping at Cyprus in Limassol. We had a nice time with the ship in the sole possession of us and the crew. We had quite a nice cabin and all our meals were provided and they were really quite ok.  

Welcome to Cyprus!

The next morning we woke up to find we already docked in Limassol. We were allowed to go ashore for a few hours, and had strict instructions to be back by 2.30pm (not sure why because the boat wasn't due to leave until 6, but still). So we took a nice long bus ride. The bus driver was very nice and for some time I thought he was talking to me, but it turned out  as he drove on, that he was in fact having a long phone conversation with the phone clamped to his ear with one hand as he manhandled the steering wheel with the other hand. The radio was blaring and we continued to weave our way in the traffic in this way. Unfortunately, he being of Mediterranean heritage, every time he wanted to amplify a point to the person he was speaking to, he of course had to take the other hand off the wheel to wave it around. All this and taking fares from passengers. Quite an art! 

We stopped at McDonalds to use the internet to catch up with email etc then to take the bus back to the port to be in time for our deadline. Unfortunately Ping asked the driver to tell us when we were there. He was happy to do this and when we confidently got of the bus, we were sure that we had plenty of time.

Not so! The driver had assumed that we would want to go to the tourist centre at ‘The Old Port’ whereas we wanted to go to the, not quite so popular, and still working , New port. Sadly the two are about 4 or 5 km apart which was going to be a long walk.  Fortunately we managed to find a taxi driver from Enfield, possibly one of many in Cyprus. He took us to the correct port  and we arrived just on time.  As we approached the ship we found that it was almost loaded with trucks, trailers and containers. 

Shortly after we got underway we went for our dinner to find that we are no longer in glorious isolation. We sat in silence eating in the company of  drivers from the four corners of Europe,  the dinner was nice  As we continued our voyage the company warmed up a bit  but was never chatty until we were leaving the boat and then we couldn't shut them up.

It was actually quite exiting that we pretty much had the run of the boat. We could go anywhere we wanted , The crew were very nice indeed, they seemed to treat us and the drivers as if we were guests. 

I was able to go up and see the ship docking from the bridge which was quite interesting. I have to say we felt like real seafarers for those few days. For most of the trip we stayed within sight of the Turkish coast. Until the land swapped side and we were able to see the Island of Rhodes of the other side of the ship. On the last morning we had the sun rising over a Greek Island as we headed for our destination.

Once docked there were a very few formalities, We are back in the good ol’ EC. Some tearful farewells from our monosyllabic, European Chums and the crew.

Ah the call of the sea for the true mariner!

At last we are truly on the ‘ante penultimate’ leg of our little sojourn.

We have camped last night in the car park of the port in a little Greek town as I type I can hear the mournful chants from the Orthodox church across the road. Two very striking things about Greece so far. One is that along the coast , at least there are truly beautiful views  where ever we go. Not sure why we had to go all that way to see stuff when Europe is on our doorstep. The other is truly remarkable. Nearly everyone we speak to in Greece has a fairly good command of English.  So we now head of toward Macedonia.

We had filled up with diesel in Egypt and with our large reserve tank we bought more than 150 litres at about 10p a litre. This enabled us to drive across Israel where fuel is in the top 5 of most expensive fuel prices in the region of $3 per litre. We and still have enough left for a couple of days in Greece.  Will probably arrive in Thessaloniki before we have used the last drop. It has saved us a couple of hundred dollars. Not bad eh!

Cheers for now !

Noel and Ping

pingbow54@gmail.com
noelbow51@gmail.com