articles/Projects/israeliadventure-page4
Published 01/06/2002
After travelling for some time, up and down hills and round bends I realised that I was getting away from the other traffic and the road began to follow the dividing fence bordering the two the countries. I stopped several times to go up to the fence and glance through to see the villages in the hills on the other side pondering on what my army friends had related to me.
Was it all true, what was life really like for them? After some more photographs of the area showing the "Star of David" flying over the huge fences, I moved on. I was getting low on fuel and there were no filling stations around. I could only carry on and hope that some villages on the map were not too far.
J brooksThe roads became narrower and more hilly By now I hadn't seen a soul for some hours, I was beginning to wonder what I was doing up there. Suddenly as I rounded a bend I found a huge white jeep with very big wheels coming towards me. It seemed to fill the road and as I swerved it swerved up the bank opposite. I remember glancing across as we passed seeing the very cross officer with goggles on his helmet. We missed each other by centimetres. I carried on around the next bend and came upon a group of hundreds of soldiers, with armoured vehicles all over the place. It was in a clearing next to a huge concrete gun emplacement.
It was just like a scene out of a movie except this was for real. I instinctively pulled the open map over my cameras and stopped the car. I wound down the window, surrounded by troops. I explained that I was an English tourist and had taken the "pretty route" on the map I was hoping that I would not have to get out of the car and reveal my cameras as this could have made things a little difficult. With a smile, I asked the way and was politely told that I should turn left at the next junction and head away from the border. Grinning, I drove slowly away but as soon as I was around the next bend I stopped to catch my breath.
I considered going back and asking to take some photographs of the troops and with their armoured vehicles, it would have made fascinating material with all those guns and props. After a few seconds deliberation I thought better of it and drove on to find a refuelling spot.
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