London to Darwin #4: The Silver Crusader explores the Holy Land.

I landed in Haifa with an hour to spare before I was due to start my dinner talk, alas, I was in the end an hour late - a thorough search of the plane was needed including all bags as I’d come from Cairo, then my passport needing some scrutinising... but it was all kind of entertaining and fantastic to see Yigal and Amir again. I was very impressed that the lady from Israeli security was wearing Blundstone boots, and it was pretty funny when she exclaimed “explain it again, I don’t understand why you have so many envelopes” !!! Well, you see…

Amir drove me over to local Ein Vered airfield (LLEV) where over a hundred well fed Light Sport pilots and members of AOPA Israel were waiting in the clubhouse. iPad plugged in I jumped into the presentation, frankly high on adrenaline and low on energy, but so pleased to back in Israel, one of my favourite countries, for the incredible history, sights and especially the people. I was so pleased to have made it after it looked so unlikely several hours earlier. We had a wonderful night wwith lot’s of chatting afterwards, and I found out the guys had a surprise planned for me the next day.

After a big home cooked breakfast with Amir and Sima, a day of adventure was planned. We headed off to Haifa to pick up Southern Sun, and head to nearby Megido airfield, where after topping up with some MOGAS on tap, we were joined by aerial photographer Guy in his Sierra, and joined by David and Doron - a tour of Israel had been arranged, with special permission for me to fly an Australian registered aircraft VFR around the country at low levels for sightseeing by Yoram. I wasn’t quite sure what was planned, but in my talk I’d explained I’d hoped to get an aerial photo of Jerusalem to match the one in the Nat Geo magazine that I shared around the audience. They had so much more in stall for me….

We first headed north to the Sea of Galilee, and flew right along the shore of Tiberias, which is where Qantas Empire used to land back in the 30’s to refuel, and where I hadn’t been allowed to fly to in 2015 - cool! It was the weirdest feeling as we got closer to descend through sea level on the altimeter, ultimately skimming just above the surface of the lake at -600’ !

That was seriously exciting, and felt like unfinished business from my circumnaviation! Next we flew south, over Jericho to the Dead Sea, down the valley of the Jordan River, which marks the boundary between Israel and Jordan. Lower and lower we descended, until we flew along the salt laden waters at -1200’, the waters edge crusted salt with many people seen bathing. This was surreal, the water looked oily and heavy, the landscape stark, we were cleared down to minimums so made the most of it, with Guy in close tow getting what would turn out to be incredible footage.

At the end of the sea we climbed to fly over the Masada, the rock top fortified Palace built by Herod the Great, accessed by a cable car today, back then it must have been quite a trek! Overwhelmed by all I’d seen in just a couple of hours of flying, we descended to land at the Masada airfield - the lowest airfield on Earth at -1240’. A pitstop for coffee and a chat, before heading north west…

Our route home too us past Jerusalem, positioned with reference to the original photo, and captured the photo I’d hoped really well. Amazing how the old walled city looks pretty much the same as it would have for Ross Smith and his Vickers Vimy crew - it’s been built up for centuries…. but the surrounding area has filled out substantially over the last century!

Back at Megido field, the whole team pitched in to assist - refuelled SS to the gills with gasoline, did an oil and filter change with Alex’s help and gave the engines a really good look over, as tomorrow would be the longest over water stretch of the trip en route to Pakistan. Took off full but till 100kgs under gross, amazing bird that he is, for the short back to Haifa, ready for the morning departure.

Simply - one of the most memorable days ever. An incredible experience of so much history and striking scenery squeezed into such a compact country. Thanks all who helped and made it so.

That night, I shared a lovely local dinner with Amir and Sima, friends and their daughters Dana, Anat and 21st Birthday girl Hadar. I was really chuffed to be included and I’d love to bring Anne back some day to pend some time here. In the meantime, we started hatching a plan for a flying tour of Australia for this group of pilots - and I know they will hold me to it!

An early departure the next day sent me past Syria, Iraq and Iran, with an overnight stop in Bahrain, then picking up the Vickers Vimy route in Pakistan… which we shall pick up en route next time…

Cheerio, M