There’s always something interesting to see. I went for a walk when I first woke up this morning, walking around the area where we’re staying in Totland. Sunny but a very cold breeze blowing. This is part of a wall of a building, now called The Lookout – part of a housing estate – built in 1863 and there’s narrow slots in the wall to look out over the Solent to see if their enemies are coming. The past is all around us everywhere. Why don’t we ever learn from our pasts?

Nearby in another house garden is this….. A plastic pink little tree with a gnome statue underneath! Maybe beauty is found in different places and different ways for different people? After all, the gnome does “Welcome” us.

Then I walked down to the nearest beach. Very different to Perth beaches! You can’t easily see it, but there are people in the ocean, swimming – without a wetsuit! There are lots of different ways of doing brave things.

Philip and I had a quiet morning at Pam and Nathan’s house, sitting outside in the sunshine with jumpers on and reading. When Pam came home and we had lunch together, she drove us out through rolling countryside on narrow roads with high hedges either side of the road to the nearby Battery and Needles Headland. (Needles is probably the iconic Isle of Wight symbol and photo.) We walked with Molly the dog along a wide path on top of high chalk cliffs to the headland. Far down below boats zipped along on the ocean trailing a v-shaped white wake behind them.

The Battery is a relic and a ruin. The military first built big gun placements on the headland in 1874. One thing about the Victorian builders is that they rarely built just for usefulness. Mostly they also did their building with craftsmanship and elegance. But I didn’t get any photos of this to show you. This Battery was also used in World War One – mostly for surveillance and again in World War Two. Why don’t we learn from the past?

There’s also been a lighthouse here for a long time. One of the stories we read was of a lighthouse keeper’s family from the late 1800s. They had four children who when they walked to school nearly 4kms away (each way) were often roped together because if one of them was blown by the raging winds over the cliff, the other three children could pull them back up!

An old searchlight from World War Two looking out over The Needles.

But we still had higher up to go! Pam and I (and Molly) walked up a steep track through a green cathedral of over-arching tree branches to the top of what is known as Tennyson’s hill. Lord Alfred Tennyson was a famous Victorian poet who lived and walked in this area of the world. (Philip stayed in the car at the bottom of the climb.)

A gloriously exhilarating cardio workout! Wonderful views looking out far below over the little towns and farmlands, across the Solent to Dorset on the English mainland.

This is from about half-way up the hill.

And this at the top of the hill! You can’t easily see it in the photo but there’s Celtic carvings on the cross. Being on top of a hill always gives a grand perspective and if I’m looking for symbolism, there is a way forward of hope, grace, love, forgiveness through the Cross. Not in wars, battlements, guns which cycle through endlessly down through the centuries with nothing much ever changing in the human heart and condition. There’s a better and more lasting way higher up through the Cross!

We’ve had such a wonderful time on the Isle of Wight. Tomorrow we head for Heathrow in London, then on to Italy.

When I first got up this morning and went outside for a short walk, it was cloudy with a brisk, cold wind blowing. I was very glad I had my coat on. Gradually over the day and into the long summer evening it’s got warmer and warmer, and I even got to take my jumper off for a while!

We had a slowish start to the day before we set off for the day’s expedition. Pam had forgotten that the annual Isle of Wight music festival is on now. It’s a huge event, nearly up there with the Glastonbury festival and thousands of people at it. People camp out in fields and go to see the music acts. We even got caught in traffic jams!

We didn’t go to the music festival – we drove on to Osborne House on the northern coast of the island. It was built in the mid-1800s as a holiday residence for Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and their growing family of nine children. (It’s a history part of our holiday for Philip’s benefit.) We had lunch there in a cafe so Philip could have scones, raspberry jam and Cornish clotted cream – a special treat for him.

Philip went inside Osborne House to see how royal people in those days did holidays. He forgot to take any photos.

Pam and I chose to explore the gardens, starting with the Walled Garden, (reminding me of the children’s book The Secret Garden) and walking round the parklands with magnificent, huge trees. I found it awe-inspiring looking up and through these thick, high-arching, dense green forest giants from different parts of the world. Long, sloping swathes of meadow grasses and wildflowers for the bees and the butterflies.

The Walled Garden – for flowers and vegetables

We walked down the valley to the pebbly beach (no waves) where we saw the bathing box used by Queen Victoria. It was winched down to the sea where she would slide into the water with her arms, legs and body carefully covered with her bathing costume and a mop cap on her head. When she was finished, she would go back into the bathing box and it was winched back to the shore.

Queen Victoria’s bathing box

There were deckchairs by the shoreline. My stereotypical picture of an English seashore is people sitting in deckchairs eating ice-creams. So we jumped into the stereotype – and sat in the deckchairs while Philip and Pam ate ice-creams from a nearby ice-cream van, while a gentle sea breeze blew over us. I put my hands into the water to see how cold it felt. Far too cold for me. But there were a couple of people in swimming.

Wandering around the royal residence grounds we also stopped at the Swiss Cottage which was built by Prince Albert for his children as a playhouse! He wanted the children to learn some practical skills. Not sure when they would ever use these skills in real life! Nearby were garden plots where the royal children learnt to grow vegetables. Inside the “cottage” were different rooms like a kitchen, scaled down so they learnt to cook.

The Swiss Cottage – the children’s play house

We live in very different times, and it’s easy for me to see from my angle what a privileged, pampered and (to my eyes) irrelevant life it seemed to be. But so much of how we live nowadays would be put in this same category.

We did have a great time there. The gardens were a feast for all the senses – the colours, the smells, the sounds, the grandeur. I revelled in it.

Driving back to Totland, Pam took a different route back to their house to avoid the music festival crowds. We went across the River Medina at Cowes on a “floating bridge”, also called a chain-link ferry, where the small ferry with cars, bikes and passengers is pulled across the river by a thick, clanking chain to the road on the other side. Back to a wonderful dinner which included home-grown rhubarb and apple crumble!

Bikes and cars coming off the ferry. You can see the thick chain on the right side of the ferry.

Be very careful what you ask for! I said beforehand – with some smugness – that I was looking forward to this holiday because holidays can be a great opportunity to have your mind and heart stretched, to be stimulated creatively so I can better do the work God has for me to do in my corner of the world. I realise now I was thinking mainly of the fun and imaginative things that can happen on holidays when I said this.

Already we’ve had interesting “stretching” times. Starting before we even left. But not the ones I had been imagining! Our direct flight from Perth to London was cancelled at the last minute and we were re-routed to fly via Hong Kong. Six hours layover there then two hours sitting in the plane on the Hong Kong tarmac, then a long haul over Asia, over Europe to finally arrive in London. It’s a bit harder to be grateful for your “stretching” experiences when you’re overtired but can’t sleep, all your muscles are tight and knotted, your mouth feels like it’s full of cotton wool! Instead of 17 hours it ended up 30 hours travelling. But I got what I asked for!

Our dear friend Pam was there as soon as we walked out of customs at Heathrow (although there’s very little customs checking) – what a blessing. We arrived in London too late at night to make the ferry ride across to the Isle of Wight. So Pam took us instead to her brother-in-law’s place in the London suburb of Richmond where we gratefully fell into bed after a shower – a comfortable, quiet and restful night. Bliss!

Next morning Pam drove us out through London suburbs, through the New Forest (it was called “New” in the Domesday Book in 1086) where ponies and deer have right of way.

Pam drove us down to the coast to Lymington where we caught the car ferry across to the Isle of Wight at Yarmouth, and then on to their house on the west side of the Isle in Totland.

Coming into Yarmouth by ferry.

So much to catch up on – I don’t think our tongues have stopped wagging! We’ve seen some blue skies and sunshine, but I still often have to often put my jumper. It goes constantly on and off.

After lunch outside in their back yard, we went for a long walk (1+1/2 hours) along a nearby coastal path and through woodlands, looking out across the wide blue Solent to the English mainland. Wildflowers everywhere – wild roses and other flowers that I specially “coddle” in my Perth garden. Molly, a golden labrador is being dog-sat by Pam and she came with us on our walk. This is a beautiful part of the world – so much greenery, huge trees, beautiful flowers. Such a contrast to parched Perth!

White wild roses on our coastal walk, looking across the Solent to mainland English.

Blue skies in England, a lovely coastal “ramble” and great company! What a great start to our holiday!

Time to dust the cobwebs off our travel bags, check our passports and tomorrow head to Perth airport for our next overseas adventure. It’s been seven years since my last one! And taken me a while to figure out how to open up this blog site! Goodbye to Perth, hello to Europe!

Did you know the Last Paradise in the World is the Denpasar domestic airport in Bali? Here’s the proof!

We’ve got our faces turned towards home now. Adam and Elijah joined Rosie and I at the hotel for breakfast together this morning. It’s very, very slow food service so while we all waited, Elijah patiently  observed a bug slowly crawling along the window sill, and updated us regularly on the bug’s progress along the sill.

We spent the morning with the Martins. Adam took me for a tour of Charis Academy where he works. It’s near to where they live. Charis has 750 primary and high school Indonesian students. And taught by Indonesians. And in the last few years they’ve started training teachers at university level so these students can go back to remote villages throughout Indonesia to open and teach schools. It’s a wonderful vision and lots of hard work. It helped me get a clearer picture of the work they’re involved in.

Adam and Elijah took Rosie and I to Malang airport through the crowded jostling streets of Malang. We sang lots of nursery rhymes as motorbikes and trikes, vans and cars whizzed around us. Elijah didn’t want to say Goodbye to us. He’s a very happy, gregarious boy who really loves his Auntie Rosie.

We had a long wait at the airport. We waited in line for a while. This photo doesn’t show it but there’s eleven workers waiting behind the desk. Not doing anything. But the sign on the desk says “Open for boarding at 12.30pm”. And so even though no-one had anything to do, and us as customers waited patiently in line for 30 minutes, we all had to wait till exactly 12.30 before we could be processed! Rosie and I thought it very funny.

And we ended up leaving an hour late anyway. But Adam and Felicity have had delays there of 5 hours! So one hour’s delay is quite reasonable And because we knew of this possibility, we didn’t even try to book a connecting flight back to Perth tonight.

And now we’re in Denpasar overnight. Staying at a backpackers type hostel. But we’ve got our own room and it’s clean – and cheap! But also very noisy! Rosie really bargained the taxi driver down – drove a hard bargain. But she knew what the ride was worth and he laughed and laughed as he bargained with her.

But I find Denpasar oppressive. As we were driving along the narrow Denpasar roads, trying to find our accommodation I noticed right in front of us a little girl on the back of a motorbike. They turned into a very high end hotel and the little Bali girl trailed along behind the man. My heart broke at what I’m imagining her life is most probably like.

We’re up at 5am tomorrow morning for the last leg of our mini-adventure. I’ll finish with some of the “interesting” and fun signs I’ve noticed on this trip.

This is our toilet roll holder in our room tonight!

So said a sign at the cafe where we had lunch today. Sometimes life is a beautiful ride, and sometimes it’s also a very difficult ride. And sometimes it’s both at the same time. But this trip to Malang has been a beautiful ride. And a wonderfully inspiring and challenging ride.

This morning Rosie and I went with Karen (the Canadian lady) and Ida and Lila (the founders, entrepreneurs and leaders of House of Diamonds which gives women at risk a future of hope and dignity by training them with sustainable sewing skills) on their weekly shopping trip for fabrics for their business.

We drove to Arab Street. Where there are lots and lots of shops with fabrics. And not just fabrics – myriad rows and stacks of beads, ribbons, zips. Piles of rainbow coloured fabrics everywhere you look. I’m glad they knew what they were looking for. The whole experience was fascinating. No bargaining – the price was fixed.

We went to several shops, so they could pick their fabrics. Choosing materials for quilt tops and their backing. Materials for kimono dressing gowns which are becoming very popular in Western markets. Going to a hand-made batik shop – as opposed to machine-made batik – and hearing some stories behind batik. Rosie and I felt like conspicuous giants wherever we walked.

We got to hear more of Ida and Lila’s stories. They are the most amazing, courageous and inspirational women you will meet anywhere. Despite the hardships and setbacks, how they keep pushing forward slowly with their vision. And they have even bigger dreams. Wanting to make a wider difference. Amazing women of God.

Later this afternoon, Adam, Felicity and their two children Elijah and Isabella took Rosie and I for a drive outside Malang into the mountains close by. They live in an outer suburb of Malang so it was fairly easy to head out. The road was narrow, windey, very patched and lots of motorbikes still whizzing around. Hazy conditions so we couldn’t see the really high mountains around us.  Through fields of sugar cane and citrus trees and green, cropped land.  A vigorous soccer game with men on a green paddock. I sang songs with Elijah as we rode along.

We ended the day with a wonderful dinner with them and some Indonesian friends tonight. A wonderful end to another inspiringly wonderful day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rosie and I had breakfast this morning at our hotel. We had communication problems with our waitress and there’s no working internet, so we couldn’t use that to explain ourselves. So it was exciting to wait and see what we would end up eating. And it was perfect! Omelettes and fresh papaya and watermelon. Wonderful.

We wandered round some streets looking for an ATM and came across this wonderful street graffiti on an old abandoned building.

We were picked up from our hotel by a Canadian lady Karen and an American lady Emily who drove us to a kampung – a traditional community, usually with slum or ghetto overtones. Where we met two amazing Indonesian sisters Ida and Lila who have founded a company called House of Diamonds. By asking lots of questions we heard their story. Their mother left them when they were toddlers and babies to work in the Middle East and they didn’t see her again till they were in their late teens. They ended up working in sweat shops where they experienced abuse and mistreatment and forced to work 13 hours with unrealistic production quotas day in and day out.

One day when Ida was a teenager and home in her locked house, lying on her bed she was visited by a man who touched her feet and filled the room with light. She wondered who it was and how it had happened. Many years later, her mother came back home and was very sick in bed and couldn’t get better. Ida heard about a lady who lived nearby who would pr*y for people to get better. So she asked her to come to pr+y for her mother. So this lady did. Her mother fell into a sleep and woke up several hours later completely healed. Ida talked to this lady to learn more about how this happened. And after about a year, decided to change her spiritual allegiance.

By this stage, she was learning how to be a seamstress and was very good at it and had a great clientele, especially among Westerners. Ida’s sister Lila was also a seamstress and after a few years also changed her allegiance. And together they have creatively  worked about finding ways to employ marginalised and at-risk women in their community. A couple of Western friends have given them some business skills – like marketing, budgeting, business plans.

But the rest is theirs. They are amazing women! It is organically growing. They now have 16 women working for them. They have taught them sewing and leadership skills. Some of these women are now becoming respected leaders in their communities.

We drove on to another kampung where we walked up and down and through the narrow streets, along the little river running through, to visit in their little cement houses some of the ladies who are working for House of Diamonds. Ida and Lila teach them their skills and then they can do it in their homes so they can still look after their children and families.

With a mixture of Indonesian, English, mime and laughter having wonderful visiting times with these women. Hearing some of their background stories. Some of them sold by their father or husband into prostitution. Drinking hot and sweet tea (Felicity says they put about 7 teaspoons of sugar in each cup.) Eating Indonesian sweet treats. Having my hand henna painted. Having just a glimpse of what daily life is like here for these women. Seeing why Ida and Lila are so passionate about empowering at-risk women. They really are amazing women.

Then Rosie and I went with Karen and Emily, Ida and Lila for lunch and talked and talked. About their lives, their past history, their vision, the future. So much to process and think about. How can Rosie make it feasible in Perth?

We’ve had a wonderful evening with Felicity and Adam. We had dinner with them. Ate blue-coloured salty duck eggs. I got mine down. But Rosie didn’t! Elijah who is 2½ years old told his Daddy, “I’m going to ask Auntie Rosie to play with me and she’s going to say Yes!” He was right. Rosie had a great time playing with him. We’ve had a wonderful day.

We are so blessed and challenged to have this opportunity to meet such amazing people. What a day!

You can check out House of Diamonds and the work they are doing here http://hod-indonesia.com/ 

This is my first blog that Mum won’t be reading!

We’ve arrived! A mini-adventure for me. Going with Rosie to the town of Malang in East Java for her to source some supplies for her business.

Up early – very, very early this morning and riving through the first grey light of dawn. Going through the rigmorole of airport preparation and then a 3½ flight on a fairly small plane. Heading north flying over the sparse outback of Australia, then over the deep blue sea to Denpasar in Bali. I don’t know why but I never think of Bali as being a part of Indonesia. It always seems so different somehow. We saw the threatening volcano as we flew in. There were a few wisps  around its cone, but I’m sure they were wisps of cloud, not smoke.

Through lots more checks and queues, and walking 10 minutes, despite the offer of a lift, to the Domestic Terminal for the next flight. This is what did surprise me!

 

I thought I’d escaped to Indonesia to skip this. The Halloweenisation of my world! It’s not like there’s many Westerners in the Domestic Terminal. We’r a rare breed.  Maybe in the International Terminal…

A slight delay and a change of gate. It’s very good for me to be in a place where I can’t understand what the person is saying to me, despite her saying it often and frequently. I’m still not sure if she was speaking Indonesian or English with an accent that I didn’t recognise. And I never did understand what she told me. But we did get on the right plane. A much smaller one with propellers. Can’t remember when I last flew on a plane with propellers! Fifteen rows of seats and not a lot of leg or head room.

Flying over the blue-green ocean and some green islands. Flying over the top of a volcano, looking down into its black flat top. Over more land, lots of green hills and towns scattered along winding roads and square fields. We think we circled around Malang a bit before we landed.

To land at a smaller airport with a distant ring of green mountains. Adam had been waiting for us a while. I forgot where I was and was culturally inappropriate when I gave him a hug! Lovely to see him again.

Then a 45 minute slow drive along a crowded road with bustling cars and motorbikes and scooters. Along streets mostly lined with the small Indonesian shops and business. People wandering around, or patiently sitting around.

Then gradually the town changed into nicer, bigger shops and houses, but the roads just as crowded. Adam took us straight to our hotel. Much bigger and flasher and nicer than I expected. It’s so cheap too. I had been expecting a very third rate hotel.

Not many people at the hotel. Adam says they are normally busy on the weekend with conferences. A really comfortable room with two single beds, looking out through trees. We were quite weary and lay down for a rest, listening to the wind in the trees and a hundred dogs barking.

After our rest – I still can’t believe I had a rest in the afternoon! – we walked to Adam and Felicity’s house for dinner tonight. It’s a flat attached to the school they work at. Elijah who’s now 3 years old, had apparently been excited that we were coming. But was overcome with shyness when we arrived and it wasn’t until he was ready for bed that he was prepared to interact with us.

And now we’ve had a wonderful dinner. I’m doing a quick blog to you because they have good internet. And now we’re going to head back to the hotel for a very early night.

 

 

Only 24 hours left of our time in Israel.

Had another boat ride on Lake Galilee. Same blue-green lake. Same sunny calm morning. Different boat.

Instead of creating a quiet, reflective space, they played loud Christian music as we rode along. I respond more naturally to calm and quiet than loud music. So it had a very different impact on me.

One of the reasons why we joined this tour was for doing lots of walking in the Galilean countryside. But it hasn’t quite worked out that way.  There hasn’t been nearly as much walking as I’d hoped. Despite being one of the oldest in the group, both Philip and I leave them way behind when we do go on walks. And I don’t think we’re fast walkers. They also enjoy shopping at gift shops and drinking at cafes more than we do. So that part of our trip has been a bit disappointing.

The best and most fun walk that I did do was the challenging one I did myself on Mt Arbell the other day – down the cliffs to the caves and the fortress. By the way, next day I had sore pectoral muscles in my chest from hauling myself up the cliff from that one. So I still had my fun!

But I can’t speak highly enough of our first tour with Oak Hall.  I highly recommend them for their professionalism and tight organisational management. We found it fun, fascinating and very interesting. Learnt so much. The people who run it, run it very well. And we enjoyed the people on the tour. From so many different backgrounds.

After the boat ride on Galilee, we did a short walk to Magdala. Which is a recent archaeological dig near where they found the 2,000 year old “Jesus boat”. They are still working on the digs. But not today. They’ve uncovered a synagogue and houses and a marketplace.

Mary Magdalene was from Magdala. Her name means Mary from Magdala. Jesus would have travelled through this town when he went from Nazareth to Capernaum. It was the normal route. He may even have been to that synagogue. Although there’s no mention of that in the Bible.

This is how they sift through the rubble at a site. Long, back-breaking, painstaking work.

The Catholics own the land of this archaeological site and they’re developing it. They’ve already built a beautiful chapel. Right on the edge of Lake Galilee.

They have a boat sculpture at the front of the chapel and it looks like the boat is floating on the Lake. A beautiful contemporary chapel that is one of those places where it’s easy to focus on and worship God.

Because we didn’t do much today, I’ll post some photos I took of flowers on the walk we did!

Then it was back on the road. Back down south to Jerusalem. Following the Jordan River Valley with the country of Jordan on the other side of the river. Back through the barren Judean wilderness. Back up to Jerusalem.

It was interesting to listen to the guide as we drove along. He’s a Jewish Christian. A very tiny minority in his country. But it was encouraging to also hear him say that there’s room in Israel for everyone. Not to divide and partition the land. But to learn to compromise and get on with everyone. We have to all stop saying that “we have it right”. Or that “we have got the right”. Everyone has to stop saying that, he said. The Jews. The Palestinians. The Christians. We have to listen to each other and work out compromises.

A complicated, complex and multi-layered land with so many issues. And no quick fixes.

We’re here overnight in Jerusalem. Not far from the Old City. It’s Sabbath today so the streets are quieter. We’re planning on having a quiet morning tomorrow on our own. Probably wander through the Old City a bit. And then it will be time to take off to the airport.

And back home. We’re ready to go home. More than ready. It’s a sign of a great holiday when you’ve had a wonderful time. Thoroughly enjoyed yourself. Learnt many new things and concepts. Thought deeply about lots of things. Been changed in the process. It’s time to turn our faces towards home. And we’re really looking forward to that.

After breakfast, we headed off in our shuttle bus to Mt Arbell. A dominating 400 metre mountain overlooking Lake Galilee and with 360 degrees views all round – to the Golan Heights and beyond.

Mt Arbell on the left, overlooking Lake Galilee.

Dug into the mountain on the cliff side are cave dwellings expanded from natural caves. There are Jewish cliff dwellings dating back to the Second Temple period in the area.

Herod the Great with the help of Roman soldiers, defeated some of the last Jewish rebels who had taken refuge in the cliffs there. Some say they lowered the soldiers down in baskets as it was the only way they could do it. And then slaughtered them all.

Many of these caves have been used down the centuries and millenia by different groups of people. For refuge, escape, as a fortress.

On the slope leading up to the mountain are the ruins of a Jewish synagogue probably used from 4th to 8th century.  So it would have been in the centre of a village here once. Our group looked over the synagogue ruins.

Then walked up the road to the top of Mt Arbell. Magnificent views. Looking down over wide Lake Galilee. Mountains beyond.

The tour plan was to then take the bus back to the kibbutz for lunch, and then back again to Mt Arbell for another walk.

But I needed to do more than that. So I twisted Philip’s arm to let me do a really difficult trek from the top of the mountain down the very steep sides of the cliff, using metal pegs. Down to a path part way down the cliff that that then wound round past the caves and a fortress.

It was fun and challenging. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I clambered down the cliff face and walked right round the path, walking past some of the caves that were high up the cliff. Other caves were lower, so that you could walk up to them and look in. Often with cows in them now. Obviously very agile cows who’d walked up from the ravine at the bottom.

I walked on the path all the way to where there was an ascent back up the cliffs to get back to the car park. This cliff ascent was again using metal pegs.

But there were scores and scores of high school children coming down the metal peg ladder as it zig-zagged down the cliff. Some of them moving very slowly. I waited at the bottom for a long time. One of the teachers told me they had 200 children. But after waiting so long, and no end to the children coming down, I finally asked if they could call a short halt to let me and some other hikers ascend. But the teacher said there were more schools with their kids to come down. That they wouldn’t halt the kids and that these kids had to come down. And that if I wanted to ascend I would have to retrace my steps and go all the way back  from where I came to I came to get back to the top of the mountain.

There were a few of us hikers waiting to ascend. But we had to turn round and go back the way we came. Back along the steep path. Now going uphill. Back up the cliff face using the metal pegs. By this time I was worried that Philip would be worrying about me because I was gone for so long. Waiting for me at the top. So I was going as fast as I could. I’d run out of water and it was getting hotter. It was tough going. Praying that Philip wouldn’t think to worry.

Huffing and puffing. Heaving and panting. Hauling myself eventually up to the top of the cliff. To find that Philip wasn’t worrying at all. So that was wonderful. But the cafe at the top in the car park only sold soft drinks and ice-creams. Not appealing enough for my hunger. But there were water taps so I could drink lots.

If you look, you can see the parts of the fortress, circular towers & a wall.

Then Philip and I walked back down the sloped mountain to the path to wait for the tour to return from the kibbutz. Then we walked down a different path. A steep descent down a stony, rocky path with lots of thorns and prickles and huge stone outcrops. Some rectangle holes were chiselled out of some of the rocks for dead bodies. It was an old abandoned Jewish cemetery. From the nearby Arbel village of the synagogue ruins.

A difficult path down a steep hill with ankle-turning loose rocks and scree. Down, down down. To the bottom. To a narrow ravine or Wadi with just a trickle of a muddy stream, sometimes just a puddle. Thickets of trees growing along the mud and puddles with cattle happily grazing and tramping in the puddles of the stream.

All the way back to the waiting bus. Tired, sunburnt, hungry, thirsty and with aching muscles. But with such an exhilaration surge. Sometimes I think I need a challenge as much as I need to breathe. I loved it. It was a great adventure.