Well, I'm sitting by the lake at the Ron Beach Hotel. Its 10.15 pm local time and the temperature is lovely... we're drinking local beer and just had a delicious supper.

But let's go back to this morning! We went through the check-in procedure at the airport and then headed for breakfast. Traditional English breakfast was the order of the day... the last time we'd see bacon and sausages for a while....

The flight was great, clear skies over the UK meant we saw more of it than normal, well saw it actually! The inflight meal was kosher I know because I found a little certificate to tell me so.

Then our very first impressions of Israel, albeit from a bus. I was struck by how familiar it all looked and yet everything was different. Birds were recognisable, like kingfishers and crows but they were different colours. The sheep had those big floppy ears and looked more like goats. The flowers were vivid colours and abundant in their blossom. The trees were dusty.

At one point the defence between Israel and Jordan came close to the road. We learnt that for the most part it is uncontroversial. We also learnt that the Jewish day starts and ends at sunset, not midnight. So travelling as the Sabbath approaches is good news, less traffic.

I think that's enough for now. Tomorrow the trip REALLY begins

The first photo is of sunset this evening from my room...