Day 32


Tuesday 19th October



After another good nights sleep, we get up as usual for breakfast hoping it will not be humous and gerkins, but it is. we really do appreciate the hospitality of the Syrians but i cant take it any more. so i skip breakfast again and have a smoke instead followed by a glass of water.

Usual meeting is called by leaders Kevin Ovenden and George Galloway to give an update.

we are told that all the vehicles will be getting loaded onto the ferry as some terms have been agreed. the deal now is that all vehicles and only 30 passengers will travel by ferrry and the remainder of all the volunteers will be flying from Lattakia air port to Egypt by air. This is just what happened on the last land convoy, convoy 3. there is a cheer and a sense of relief as at last we may actually be moving.

better news still that all vehicles will be getting onto the ferry today at around 6pm tonight. yeeeeha. and the passengers will be flying out tomorrow. yeeeha. nice one.

At 5 we all get in our cars and leave for the port which is only about 10 minutes drive away.It takes several hours before we get all the vehicles loaded onto the ferry and all the press interviews out of the way.Wow we cant believe that at last we have got our vehicles and all our aid on its way to Gaza, or at least on its way to Egypt initially.

At around 10.30 we all take the special coaches back to the camp for the night and look forward to the next day when most of us minus the banned volunteers can board the planes and get to Al Arish Egypt and one more step closer to our goal Gaza.

Personally i feel very emotional and have very mixed feelings. on the one hand i am extremely dissapointed that it is the end of the road for some of us including George and myself as we will not be able join our cleagues on the planes to Al Arish Egypt from wher Gaza is only around 30 miles away. but on the other hand i am overjoyed that our convoy will once again take the much neede medical aid to the beseiged people of Gaza who have been waiting for us for some time now.

Tommorrow we shal wave off our convoy after travelling together for thousands of miles as one and then make our way back home to London. it will be a bitter sweet ending for us. but it was worth it. and if i had known this would be the ending, i would do it all over again. Everytime. These missions are bigger than any one of us and we must not forget that. well looks like George, Amina, and i shall be going home tommorow, but we shall be glued to our screens and rooting for our colleagues and wishing them all the best and a very safe journey to the end.

i shall be handing over my suit containing hundreds of signatures with messages of support, unity and solidarity to my best mate Hugh. mr not just big, but bigger than big, Mr Huge. he has promised to wear my suit for theremainder of the journey and wear it through the Rafah border into Gaza on my behalf and deliver it it the people of Gaza.