So, our travels have almost begun. Lesley and I have spent the day sorting, washing, organising, packing and repacking and are know doing our last minute checks. The bags are packed and we have an early start ahead of us tomorrow to head to the airport and fly into Tel Aviv. To say we are excited would be an under statement. The internet says its 25 degrees and we are looking forward to getting away from drizzly England and over to sunny Jericho.

We will spend tomorrow night at the Kenyon Institute in Jerusalem, which is a great place for any prospective archaeology travellers. Its cheap, clean and a 10 minute walk from the Old City, I would highly recommend it. We met some very nice people there last year and found a great bar just a couple of drunken steps away. In fact its where we spent New Years last year.

Hopefully we will be up early enough on Wednesday to see the Dome of the Rock. This is one of the only major sites we didn't get to see last year because it is only open to non-Muslims early in the morning and only accessible via one particular gate so it was a pain to find. With the knowledge this year, hopefully we will be more lucky. We also would like to get some falafel for lunch and hopefully do the walk around the Jerusalem city walls which I have been told is a must.

After a bit of social time over, we will head to Jericho in the afternoon and meet up with Mahmoud, the site director, and the new bunch of students. We've been in touch with some of the contingent from last year, who will be there again this year and it will be great to catch up with them. We also have two new UCL students this year who have just completed their masters and sound very excited to go. A lot to look forward to and we won't have even started the project yet!!!

Will post again soon!