Friday, 24 November 2017

Charge! Part 2

And so we headed to the dry wadi outside of Beersheba where the original charge took place and where the re-enactment was to be fulfilled.

Security was, not surprisingly, pervasive and we could see soldiers and mounted police guarding the site where the event was to be staged.


The centrepiece of the re-enactment viewed from the stand where we were seated. The alfresco stand probably seated 3,000 or 4,000 people. We got there fairly early to select a good vantage point and to avoid having to view the event standing. Alas for late arrivals the seats were all taken and maybe several thousand on-lookers had to stand.




To keep us happy while we awaited the (very late) arrival of the pollies, a band arrived and started playing a long series of WW1 tunes. They were very accomplished and much appreciated by the crowd.



After a seemingly very long delay, the 100 or so horsemen ... and horsewomen ... arrived at the site and began to form into a line abreast. As you can see from these photos, the landscape is fairly arid and devoid of trees and grass. Nor did the wadi have any water in it, although I believe it fills with water over the winter months when rain mostly falls.




At last the cavalcade of Priministerial cars arrives - the Prime Ministers of Australia, New Zealand and Israel were in attendance, along with Australia's leader of the opposition. And they made their way to the official table.



Once that happened, the 'charge' began. The disappointing thing was that they terrified no-one. They progressed far slower than I could walk, but I gather that some of the participants were rather elderly and possibly less than proficient riders!




At last the 'charge' halted and four select horsemen advanced on the Prime Ministers.



Turning around, each in turn advanced to the official table to receive awards from the applauding pollies.





And suddenly a small posse of the horsemen went back to the start and duly charged ourselves and the official party. However small and late, we did in a sense witness a 'charge'!


And so we made our way back to Tel Aviv amidst the gathering gloom.

AS

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