Now, back to the story...
As I mentioned at the beginning of the last blog, October was a month of holidays. In a regular month, every Saturday (Shabbot/ Sabbath), most everything is closed and public transportation does not run. And the day actually starts at sunset the day before, so everything closes early on Friday evenings or the day before holidays. So on top of the 4 Saturdays, there was also the 2 days of Rosh Hashana (Jewish New Year), the day and a half of Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement-- high holy day, so the preparations start the day before... everything was closed by 2), and the week of Succoth (the Festival of the Booths). That adds up to a lot of days where very little is available. Most of the time, we were on the trail, so it didn't really affect us. But a few times we had to make sure we had enough food/ water to last through until Sunday because we would be coming into a town on a Saturday.
We came into Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee on Monday evening, spent Tuesday wandering around all the ruins of Capernaum and Tabgha and we saw some amazing sites.
[Fishing boats on the Sea of Galilee] ~~ ~~ ~~ [Church of the Mt. of the Beatitudes]
[a quiet place to reflect on Christ's words] ~~ ~~ [a little sign irony ;-)]
[the synagogue built on top of the synagogue Jesus taught in] ~~ [evidence of how much the Sea has lost because they are pumping the Jordan River to irrigate the Hula Valley to the North]
[the church of the 5 loaves and 2 fishes] ~~ ~~ [our own loaves and fishes for lunch that day!]
After a big grocery shop on Wednesday morning, and a failed attempt to see the "Jesus Boat" (it was closed because it was the day before Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), we left Tiberias on Thursday morning. We took advantage of the holiday because it meant that there were no cars on the road, and we just hiked on the road instead of on the trail, which parallelled the road anyway... We came to the baptismal sight in the Jordan River. Now I should qualify this... it is not the sight where Christ was baptised, that was probably much further to the south, near Jericho, but it is the sight that Someone turned into tourist attraction... its where everyone goes to be 'baptised in the Jordan.' It was closed, so we just kept walking and got our (well my) first glimpse of the Jordan River, just after it. It was not at all what I expected, but beautiful, nonetheless. This area was more likely the part of the Jordan where Christ told the Centurion with leprosy to bathe in the Jordan to be healed.
[our hotel in Tiberias] ~~ ~~ [the Jordan River]
After we walked along the Jordan for a while, we diverged away and back onto the trail on our way to Mt. Tabor on the Plains of Meggido (Armageddon). It was a nice day, a very nice hike all the way. Towards the late afternoon, we were hiking up a hill, and the hill just seemed to go and go and go and the sun started setting and we knew we weren't going to make to the top like we had planned, so we found a freshly plowed field and set up camp on the edge of the field. That night, we were visited by jackals again, but on the other side of a fence, so that was nice. We also heard a wild boar, and in the early morning, just before dawn, we heard footsteps and deep breathing and got a little panicked, until Alistair peaked out from the tent and saw it was a cow, meandering by. We rustled around and made some noise and he made a quick exit. What a night!
[back on the trail] ~~ ~~ ~~ [our campsite on the field]
We lost the trail a couple of times (it was the only place where it was not clearly marked, and it was probably because it was marked on rocks that were probably overturned in the plowing of the fields we were walking through), and so it took us about 2 hours to get to the top of the hill. But from the observatory, we could see the Jordan River Valley to the east, the Sea of Galilee and Safed to the North, Mt. Tabor and the Plains of Meggido to the South and West. It was really incredible.
[Jordan River Valley with the Golan Heights behind] ~~ [Plains of Meggido, Mt. Tabor is that pimple in the middle.]
Even though we got a very early start that day, it got hot really fast. We trudged along, and the destination never seemed to get any closer. We took a few shortcuts across fields instead of around them, shouted for joy every time clouds covered the sun and pressed on. My feet were still killing me, unfortunately, the time in Tiberias was not enough to heal them properly. We finally got to a road that we knew took us into Tabor, so we ditched the trail and hitched a ride in. After a coke break and recharge, we walked up to the town and did more grocery shopping, since it was Friday, and everything would be closed until Sunday morning. We read in the guide book that the church on top of Mt. Tabor closed at 3 on Fridays, so as we were trying to figure out if we could get there in time, I had the brilliant idea of taking a taxi to the top. I knew that my feet would not carry me up such a huge hill this late in the day and after such a long day of walking. Taxis were not easy to find, since Tabor is a bit isolated, but finally we found one who would take us to the top. We had a look around, and then sat down at a table near 2 Israeli hikers. We started talking and we found out that they were also hiking the Trail, and the guy's mom and dad were bringing them food. We assumed 'supplies' since it was late afternoon on Friday, but when they got there, it was a home-cooked meal! They brought schnitzel and vegetables, tons of other sides, salad, and dessert! They had pre-cooked the veggies and sides, and the dad got to work frying the schnitzel on the camping stove! It was so funny! They had driven 1 1/2 hours to get there. Then they invited us to join them, so we had a real meal, which was a very nice change! After dinner, they left with the parents (I think they were going to get dropped off somewhere to pick up the Trail), and we found a great place to pitch our tent for the night, just out of view of the monastery, since we weren't sure if we were allowed to stay after dark (it was a National Park). We saw a beautiful sunset over the Plains, and everything turned fiery red. We were serenaded that night by dueling Arab concerts on either side of the hill. When they finally finished, around 2 or so, the cats in residence took up the melody... ha.
[That's me taping up my feet for the journey] ~~ [That's Nazareth way off in the distance]
The next morning, we got up early and watched the sun rise over the Jordan Valley and got an early start. We had to hike down Mt. Tabor, down into the valley below, and then back up the hill to Nazareth. We knew it was going to be a long haul, so we got going right away. The trek down the hill did a number on my toes, being shoved up into the front of my shoes. It took us over an hour to get down the hill (it was deceivingly high!) Then we got very lost in the Muslim town at the base of the hill. We probably walked for over an hour trying to find the road that lead out of town in the right direction. Our guide book was not helpful because we couldn't find any of the landmarks that were described. It was already almost mid-day and HOT by the time we found the road. I was in a tremendous amount of pain and hungry, because breakfast hadn't lasted long... we stopped just out of town for a quick lunch break. Just as we were finishing up, a breeze came, that turned quickly into wind and then strong wind, and then we watched a whirlwind pick up a refrigerator box and dump it about 50 meters away, and then it was dead and hot again. Pretty cool. So we hiked up the hill, and every step hurt. I just breathed deeply and trudged on. By the time we got to the top of the hill, I was near tears. When I saw how far we had to go... down this hill and up another one... I knew I wasn't going to make it, so when a car drove by, Alistair flagged it down and asked if he could take us to Nazareth. The man happened to be going to the hospital in Nazareth because his wife had just had their first child! Perfect. He dropped us off at the crossroads and pointed up the street to show us where to go. We found the hostel and I crashed.
[The Church of the Annunciation (largest in Israel)] ~~ [I don't know if you can read this but it is a Muslim sign right outside the Church of the Annunciation -- "Say O Muhammad: He is Allah, the One and Only Allah, the Eternal, Absolute. He begotteth not, nor was He begotten. And there is none like unto Him"]
After a night in Nazareth, we took a bus to Haifa, where we climbed (yes, climbed!!) Mount Carmel (I wore my flip flops...), saw Elijah's cave and the church on top, and looked around.
[the Naval museum, kind of cool looking] ~~ ~~ [the church on top "Stella Maris"]
[The city of Haifa... and Alistair]After that quick stop, we took a bus down the coast to Ceaserea. That was so cool, and really worth the stop, even if it meant walking 2 km from the main road to get there!
I really enjoyed Ceaserea. I even went swimming in the Mediterranean, which was probably really good for my feet. After a couple hours exploring the ruins of this Herodian port city, we got a ride to the main road and caught the bus to Tel Aviv for a couple days of relaxing and repacking for the second half of our journey through Israel.
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