Three days, two huge blisters, and one sunburnt neck later...I made it! We successfully completed the Jesus Trail last night, arriving here at a monastary in Tiberius where we're staying for two nights. The trail was awesome! Notes from the trail:
Day 1, April 17: We left Nazareth in the morning and hiked about 11-12 miles, up a nice easy hill and through some woods, then back down and along a highway to this eco-goat farm where we stayed the night. Stopped in Cana on the way, the spot associated with Jesus' first miracle of turning water into wine. Reyn stopped to go to the bathroom on a mountain, Amy & Lindsay decided to wait for him...and we effectively lost all three for the entire afternoon. They met us at the goat farm, which was neat, all organic and eco-friendly. Spent the night in tents (a trend of this semester)...which were loud and cold but not as bad as Tent of Nations Night.
Day 2, April 18: Muddy! Shoes turned into platforms with squishy mud. Hurting my knees. Made our own trail through wheat fields...scratches all over my legs...Did Jesus really walk on this old Roman road? Because that would be awesome! Maybe he tripped on these weeds too! Hiked up these little mountains, the Horns of Hattin, where we had awesome 360-degree views of the Sea of Galilee, Nazareth, the Cliffs of Arbel and Jordan. Chatting with people and playing music on Audrey's speaker. Slipping and sliding down the Horns, sunburn on my neck. Got water from the Druze temple...dominated by an Israeli cracker that choked me for like 20 minutes. Made it to these cabins where we stayed the night. Sweet set-up: Senior Year House Dry Run (Amy, Kelsey, Amanda, me & Audrey). Sauna, pool, "hot tub", surgery on my blistered feet, group meeting, ping-pong.
Day 3, April 19: Man my blisters hurt. Shoot. Oh well, up the mountain we go for some SWEET views down the Cliffs of Arbel. Photo shoot. A new member joins the group: LIL FOO, the cutest Ibex ever! Down the mountain = adventure on handrails, ropes, scaling that cliff face. Exploring caves where Herod's enemies hid once in Biblical times. Gorgeous trails through this awesome valley--flowers and green and mountains everywhere. Falafel for lunch...Amy and Audrey bought a blow-up shark pool toy. Audrey = flower child with daisies in her braids. Hiking along the back of some kibbutz's orchard with music thanks to Sarah and Lim. Lim has great Princess Lea buns in his hair. We can see the Sea! Through the barbed wire fence, over more hills...finally we made it to Capernaum! Feet in the pool, making our own pasta dinner, some sort of strange rocket lights over the Golan Heights in the distance across the Sea of Galilee.
Kristin,
ReplyDeleteWhat amazing pictures of your journey. You sure have a better camera than your Dad had when he went on his European trip. But this time the photographer is better too.
I'm following every picture and sentence of your trip with such interest.