Changing tack

I'm going to change tack - moving away from a day-to-day diary to a general impression sort of record.

The greatest strength of FTW for me was to break down the barriers and dilute the alienation that exists between me, as a 'Westerner', and the Middle East. Now I have personal connections throughout the Middle East making it a more familiar and welcoming place. I want to go there again, want to reconnect and spend more of my life there. And so, for me, Follow the Women was an immense success. Yes, it was different to many of my expectations and sometimes I felt very uncomfortable with the set up (as expressed below) but that's all superficial. The depth of the experience, the cross-cultural learning, was something special. And so, I have to thank everyone who was involved! Especially, of course, Detta, the founder.

Syria, Lebanon and Jordan were all incredible and eye-opening, but it was when I was standing on top of Mount Nebo (where the Israelites first sited the Holy Land and Moses died), having just ridden there with the group from just outside Amman, that I remembered what had called me to this area in the first place: Palestine.