Day 3: It's all going along spiffingly old chap...
Let's
be honest; mishaps, disasters and fallings out make for better reading.
Otherwise newspapers wouldn't do the business they do without the
constant flow of junkie celebrities having nervous breakdowns or
natural disasters wiping out entire populations. Sadly dear readers (of
which by now I am sure there are thousands ;) ) Day 3 did not contain
any fallings out, near death experiences or mechanical disasters. In
fact one could say (despite one of the roads on our route being closed)
that day 3 of our mission to Jerusalem could not have been any more
perfect.
Myself and Aly were on time for breakfast, the cars looked fantastic lined up along the front of Chateau de Gily
And
we were confident that would could once again squeeze at least 100
miles out of our pitifully small petrol tank. Lunch at Restaurant Des
Gottes in the depths of a beautiful gorge with soft flowing waterfalls
and and beautiful wildlife ( I am referring here to my good friend Alan
the furry Zionist caterpillar I met on a leaf as I walked up the side
of the gorge) was wonderful; made more so by the fact that we no longer
required a round of applause from our fellow rally participants for
coming in 2 hours late looking like we'd run there from London. We
weren't on time... WE WERE EARLY!! In fact even the 1923 Buick which
had reached the chateau at 12.30am the night before, had no problems
getting to our pit stop and a genuine round of applause was reserved
for Mark and Ronny for sitting down for a meal with everybody else for
the first time since the journey began.
I will leave you dear readers with the top 5 things myself and Aly have learned so far.
1. 1948 Rolls Royces need a lot of care and attention.
Especially
when being prepared for 2 complete putzs to drive half way round the
world with. Making sure that fuel can get to the engine is key before
setting off (I'm not bitter about our day 2 experience.... honestly I'm
not / I definitely am)
2. The JNF can not really be classed as a
truly Jewish organisation. Yes of course they do some fantastic work
for Israel and are a cornerstone of British Jewry. However they seem to
go by a clock that I wasn't aware existed within Jewish circles: GMT.
Everyone and everything is on time and sometimes even early! We have
learned that the hard way and as we speak I am hurriedly writing this
to ensure I am not the last one to breakfast again.
3. Myself and
Aly actually get on quite well. I can only speak for myself, but I am
pretty sure Aly isn't plotting to run me over with the Roller during
our quieter moments on the open road.
4. The enormity of making
Aliyah still hasn't hit us yet and neither of us can quite believe that
all this is really happening. To think that in just over two weeks time
we will be starting out on new lives in a new country seems ridiculous
as we wind our way round the leafy foothills of the French and Swiss
Alps.
5. Dudy Starck (the man who made all this happen and to whom
we are very grateful) from Nefesh b'Nefesh is the next star of Israeli
musical theatre
We'll speak to you next from Italy. . .
Yan
