Making Aliyah: Here to stay

It's been a world-wind journey over the past few days.

The feeling of being an 'Oleh Chadash' is not going to sink in for a while, and certainly will not until the Rally is over in a few days time.  Having said that, there's an immediate affinity that I do feel to my surroundings and with the people we meet and talk to along the way. And even on the simplest level, following road signs written in Ivrit after travelling so far and seeing signs in so many other languages has a nice feeling.

I've been an Oleh for a little over 24 hours, and I'm not sure there are many Olim who have started off their stay in Israel as we have. We have a jam-packed schedule until the finale on Wednesday, so I'll just tell you a little about what we've done so far.

We all arrived at Ben Gurion airport on a private chartered flight from Athens on Sunday around noon. The cars had been flown across a few hours earlier in special custom-fit containers on another El-Al plane. I went through the Aliyah absorption process at the airport in world record-breaking speed (thanks to Nefesh B'Nefesh), from where we all went to meet the cars in the cargo area, where a special welcoming reception from soldiers of the Armoured Corps was waiting for us.

From the airport, we all drove straight to Sderot. Hundreds of children came out to meet us in the main square.  The atmosphere as we paraded our cars was so full of excitement and life, I found it hard to imagine that at any moment there could be a 'Tzeva Adom' alarm - when all would have 15 seconds to run for cover at one of the shelters. Fortunately, there were no such alarms during our visit there, and after hearing so much about what the people of Sderot have been through over the past months, it felt great to see that we were able to bring them something so special as we greeted them and took them on short rides around the town. We stayed there for a few hours during which we chatted to the locals and heard from the Mayor of Sderot. From Sderot, we drove south to Mitzpe Ramon where we stayed the night.

After the best breakfast of the trip this morning, we drove a short distance to the local school in Mitzpe Ramon, where we were again met by loads of excited school children. 

Its funny to observe that the most common questions that we were asked in France, Switzerland, Italy were along the lines of "How old is the car?", "Where are you going to?", "How does the car work?", and the first question we are asked by Israelis is "Nice car. How much does it cost?" 

From Mitzpe Ramon we drove down to Eilat, stopping off for some refreshments at Yotvata from where we drove in convoy to and through Eilat, led by the Mayor. This evening we had a sumptuous barbecue at the hotel - joined again by the Mayor of Eilat and his wife. 

We both feel fortunate to be a part of this Car Rally and to be enjoying these once-in-a-lifetime experiences. To avoid the midday heat as much as possible, we have an early start tomorrow, as we drive back up north to Hertzlia via Latrun, so I will leave you with this thought -- Sixty years ago, the British were no longer welcome here - they left the holy land with their tanks, their trucks and their cars. Sixty years on, a couple of Brits have returned in a British Rolls Royce and have received the most wonderful welcome from the people of Israel - these two Brits are here to stay!