After the
flat tire (hopefully the last for this expedition) it took me about two and a
half hours to reach the Egyptian border with Israel at Taba. Security here is
pretty tight and this was the slowest border crossing of the trip… by far!
It took
me about an hour and a half to get through the Egyptian side of things (Immigration
and Customs and police security check and number plate return etc), and that
was done by mid-day. Then I rode about five hundred metres to the Israel border
building and then commenced a very polite but very drawn-out entry process that
didn’t end till 6pm!... I had never been to Israel before so apart from the
physical security checks for myself and the bike, there was a security
interview where particulars were taken and then a very lengthy wait while I
assume those particulars were all validated… or something like that.
Anyway,
as I said, it was all very polite but did take a very long time. Then I rode
out into the “promised land” and I have to say it was probably the starkest
difference from one side of the border to the other for all the borders Ive
crossed on this trip (14 countries now)…
It
suddenly clean and modern and efficient…. It seems like in a hundred metres of
roadway you cross a time-span of about 50 years J… Israel is definitely a “developed world” country
and nowhere in Africa is even close (not even South Africa)… though Israel is
in Eurasia not in Africa (Egypt being the only country in the word to straddle
two continents!).
And so
now my priority objective is to ship the motorbike… Hmmm!
