After our week on the luxury Island of Cyprus where most people save hard to afford a fancy holiday and there we were squatting on the beach impatiently waiting to get out of there and further on our journey south. Thursday finally arrived and we went in search of our ship, we were sent down to the deserted terminal with a piece of paper and a mystery name, a bit like a treasure hunt. after searching everywhere up and down the fishy port we finally came accross our 'treasure' sitting in his office doing a puzzle and obviously quite upset that we were to disturb him. Went to Immigration and sure enough, nobody there, after locating the sleeping greek officals we got our passports stamped, signed the dotted lines and rode off in search of our vessel that was now actually waiting for us. This was not a fancy cruise ship by any standard, this was a smelly cargo ship "Trader 1" and what an adventure it was, just us and the greasy ships crew, about 10 guys and us, and I think I was the first female to probably have ever step onboard. was quite an experience, got to hang out alot of the time up in the bridge where the captian taught us all there was to know about the sea and driving the big beast through the open ocean, think I could have got us there myself after my lesson, and finally Adrian could really pretend he was a pirate.
So arriving into Haifa and what we thought was going to be a standard security and customs check was quickly thrown out the window, arrived at 10pm and were finally allowed off the boat and onto dry land at about 9am the next day after nearly a full nights worth of questioning and interrogation, found out that my last name is Arabic at 5:30am when they got me out of bed to question me about my families arabian history, first I knew about that, I thought I was a german! was nearly sent on my way back to Cyprus all because of my name. So yahy allowed off the boat and ito the hands of some more security officers where they went through everything, swabbed our bikes for explosives and asked us all the same questions again, amazingly enough they didnt find anything explosive apart from lots and lots of dirty gear that was probably close to self combusting. Working on the Glacier for years and having guided probably hundreds of Israles up onto the ice, and sure enough one of our guards had been there and was guided by "the big blond guy!!" wonder who that was! had a good laugh about that which at last relaxed the atmosphere. so anyway security, customs, immigration and passing many machine guns we were escorted through the gates and our very very heavy bikes lifted over the barrier for us and just like that we were officially in Israel about 10 hours after getting there, and I thought it was difficult getting into Americia!
Every Israelie I have met, mainly while working on the coast told me that "it never rains in Israel" well they all lied, we had NZ west coast rain for 2 days here!! horrible. but having spent over 2 months on the road in the middle of winter, we have had only 3 days of rain!! cant complain with that. amazing!!
Headed up north to the sea of Galilee and to what was sapposed to be a lush green national park, maybe when you live in a desert it is lush but for Adrian and myself it was brown and scrubby and a bit of a dissapointment to what we were expecting, but a nice chance to ditch the bikes and go for a big hike for the day, something we havent done in months, good to use some different muscles.
The roads are good, but drivers again pretty shocking, people look at us more with a look of confusion spread accross there faces, as if to say " what the hell are you doing!" nobody invites us in for tea and I havent been kissed by anyone yet when I buy my veges, however we have met some great people who have given us there house to stay in when we couldnt find anywhere to camp, invited into a kabutz to hang out with people, and hearing all about the issues of this country from there view not just what CNN and the media tells us.
Fighter jets fly over constantly, they also do in Switzerland but it does make you a little nervous here, biked yesterday into tel aviv and rode over 1000's of bullet shells and what I think were hand grenades, ive only ever seen them on TV, found out later it was one of the main areas of the recent attacks with Lebanon, amazingly though everyone here is relaxed and happy. I think. Currently in Tel Aviv which is an awesome city, so alive and full of energy, is actually right up there with my favourtie cities of the world, planning on heading down to Eliat and the red sea, but really not sure at this stage. enjoying eating all the hummus and fallafel I can while im here.
Will update again soon
Peace
