Day 12 - cold and windy start in Jerusalem - on the road south for 1.5hr to Beersheba (Beer Sheva to the locals). The land got flatter and drier, big paddocks of ripening barley and wheat. And then there it was - Tel el Saba - the hill that the NZ Mounteds took at bayonet point on the morning of 31 October 1917. We climbed up to the top of the Tel and our guide Graeme read us the story of the battle - I even got it on video!! We could see the entire plain over...

Day 11 - we were warned there would be a lot of walking - and they were right. It is Saturday - the Sabbath for the Jews, so the road to Jerusalem was quiet, virtually no cars, as it was the day of rest. We left Tel Aviv, crossed the coastal plain and climbed up through the forested hills to the Holy City - about 800m above sea level. It is raining and much colder (11degC) up here. It is an old city but well cared for, buildings in good repair - almost 1mill peop...

Day 10 - a rest day for our tired team travelling Cairo to Tel Aviv - much more security than we cared for. Tel Aviv was the slickest airport arrival ever with the help of Levy, our man in Israel, there to meet us inside the security frontline. Then a quick trip to our hotel, BY 14 - super-modern, minimalist, a shower like a monsoon, a great place to stay. Then Day 12- today, breakfast with fabulous Jewish bread next door at a cafe. Our guide, Graeme Stone (a...

Day 9 - early start for Anzac Dawn Ceremony with the Aussies and Kiwis in Cairo - at the Heliopolis War Cemetery, a Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery. We got lost on the way there but the driver managed to sort it out and deliver us with 3 minutes to spare. It is a beautiful cemetery and such s contrast to the squalor around it. I found the gardner later on and congratulated him (via interpreter) on the great job he was doing. The ceremony itself was small and ve...

Day 8 - a day visiting Maadi, Zeitoun, NZ Army Camps in WW1 (& WW2) and Heliopolis where Grandad Bert was in camp & a Convalescent Home for a while. As you might expect Cairo is a lot different than what it was 100 years ago. I suspect Bert might have recognised the trash in the streets but that would be about all. The city has boomed - especially in the last 10 years or so with a nationwide increase in population of 20mill. It seems the revolution to remove th...