I live on a boat. When we are on the move I have no way at all of getting an internet connection. I decided to start a blog ages ago and because we were on the move I just wrote it in Word on my laptop as I went.
Three days and three nights later after our stop in Ismalia on the Suez Canal we arrived in Kemer in Southern Turkey.
I was quite ill in Turkey for a few days with a bad reaction to an antibiotic…and then forgot about the whole thing. Or pretented to forget.
13th June
We went straight into a very busy, and great fun Yacht Rally and sailed to the most eastern corner of the Mediterranean Sea in Iskenderum in Turkey.
Next stop Syria, wonderful.
What a welcome from all.
We had a bet to see if there was ANYWHERE in the towns or cities where you could NOT see a poster, statue, banner, or wall painting of their President Assad. We lost..his image is everywhere. We trained it to Aleppo and spent hours lost in the Souk..wandering through the 15 kms of little shops and stalls. Then an overnight train to Damascus…the highlight of the trip for us all. Again wandering through the Old City was like an enchanted land for us.
Lots of craftsmen with little workshops warmly invited us in for a look. They took such pride in their work and finished products and they proudly took the time to show us the whole process. They didn’t seem at all put out when we bought very little but continued to offer us tea and hospitality. We watched sign makers, inlaid wood workers, silk screen printers, silver smiths and a host of others.
Sad to leave Syria, we hope to return, we sailed south to Lebanon and got a great welcome from the Lebanese people, who spoke so sadly of the ’situation’ at the moment in Lebanon. We felt very safe the one afternoon we spent in Beirut, but there were very few local people about…well, very few Lebanese adults. Lots of Lebanese kids with their Somalian and Philippine nannies.
We were based in a very posh sports club and marina near Beirut, and the car park was like a very posh car sales showroom. Porsches, Range Rovers galore…
We visited a crusader castle on the coast and some stunning caves and loved it. So sad how their country is having such a hard time at the moment. Very interesting talking to the local people and again their welcome was so genuine. Then onto Israel..real cloak and dagger stuff…had to pretend we were going to Cyprus but everyone knew..Now we are in Israel, lots more stories to tell about the Israeli navy and entering Israeli waters.There are lots of kids on the Rally which made it for us. The rally has gone to Egypt now but we will meet up with them again when they return to Israel next week.
Lots of explosion noises in the background here. I hope there is a quarry nearby but have a terrible feeling that the Gaza Strip which is only 5 miles away is having a terrible time.
