After receiving the biggest pat down of all time and 45 mins of questioning we were allowed into Israel and Occupied Palestine. Our first taste of the conflict here was getting on a bus with more assault rifles than bags of luggage. Over our time in Israel we saw thousands of teenagers on their imposed army duty, most still with acne and bum fluff on their faces, holding vicious killing machines. Everyone seems a bit nervous, and overall, nowhere near as friendly as the other middle eastern counties we've been to.

Our first stop was Beersheba where the famous battle involving the Australian Light Horse took place. The Aussie diggers made the last ever successful cavalry change in military history here, and turned the tide of the war against the Ottomans.

As we were looking for a place to stay that night I asked a girl working late in a real estate office where to find a cheap bed. She told us she had a few keys to some furnished houses and we should just stay in one for free! After a night in our own house we jumped on another fully loaded machine gun bus to the disputed capital Jerusalem.

Being in Jerusalem was overwhelming. The history seems to punch you in the face everywhere you look. The amazing different quarters of the old city each hold massive importance to the worlds three main monotheistic religions: Christianity, Islam and Judaism. The epicenter of the Christian quarter is the church of the Holy Sepalcure where the different Christian denominations fight over who controls what. It's not unlike the Roman soldiers fighting over Jesus' garments as he hung dying, only now, it's Christians fighting over who gets the sight of the crucifixion and who dusts the tomb. I was hoping to see some of the frequent fisty cuffs between the various religious priests but rude tourists pushing each other had to do.

We walked around the Mt Of Olives dodging the tour groups to have a look at the Garden of Gesthemanie, the tomb of the Virgin Mary and the place where Jesus ascended into heaven. We also went up Mt Zion and had a peep at where the last supper took place and Oscar Shindler's (ie the Spielberg movie) grave.

In the Jewish quarter we had the best bagels of all time plus I visited my first synagogue. I also had to don a skull cap and put a written prayer in the Wailing Wall. The amount of Orthodox Jews everywhere makes Caulfield look like Fountain Gate. There's a lot of "my curly sideburn tendrils are longer than your curly sideburn tendrils" going on, not to mention little black boxes strapped to blokes heads.

The Muslim quarter contains the Dome of the Rock, a mosque which is the 3rd most holy site in Islam. Inside is the rock where Abraham almost killed his son and where the prophet (blessings and peace be upon him) ascended into heaven. You can feel the immense importance this place has for the religions and also the resulting tensions.

The brilliant holocaust museum is haunted by verses of the Torah proclaiming a right to the land promised to them by God. In a few parts there is a underlining tone that the terrible atrocities committed by the Nazis somehow justifies the forming of the Jewish state, which ironically hasn't stopped to the Jewish nation commuting atrocities of their own in the process.

After Jerusalem we checked out more biblical sights including Nazareth and the Sea of Galilee. We also had a few beach days in Tel Aviv which was a nice rest away from the history and culture.

Another day was spent driving around the West Bank. We saw where Christ was born in Bethlehem and had another float in the Dead Sea. The most impacting part of the drive was some of the Palestinian refugee camps and illegal Jewish settlements. The difference in living standards between the two is sickening. It is easy to see the suppression and expulsion of the Palestinian people together with the injected spreading of the Jewish population and businesses. This was evident not only the occupied areas of the West Bank, but throughout the whole country.

Israel is one of many examples in the world today where religion must be separate from politics. It is not only sad but enraging to see a people with equal ties to the land be treated this way due to their ethnicity. Humanity has fought so many wars, murdered and suppressed millions over our history - will there be an end? Maybe its my own human nature that tells me that there never will. But we and Israel can still try...

Soon we will cross over into the third continent on our overland adventure. The last few weeks will be spent in Egypt and I can't wait for that, then we are flying home on the 24th of November!