Coming to a close...

Yes one is beginning to feel that the tour is reaching it's conclusion. That and one of my roommates keeps reminding me.


Yes this was our destination for the day. The Israel museum. And the Shrine of the Book. At least I can now say I have been inside. Not being able to take pictures is annoying. Something I just realised now is that there is no justification for preventing photo's in the museum except for greed. You must buy the book. No you say, the flash might damage the documents. Not actually. Most of the documents there are copies. Faximilies. Fakes. So no damage would occur. And if it did it would be easy to fix. The model of Jerusalem they had just inside the entrance was very good. The model was of Jerusalem in the second temple period just before it was destroyed by the Romans in 70AD. The temple conpound is huge. It takes up a significant portion of the city. Herod's palace was on the other side of the city and one theory puts Jesus' trial before Pilate there. This would mean that they would have only needed to march Jesus across the courtyard to take him to Herod instead of across the city. They had an arrow on the wall to indicate where the modern Western Wall where the orthodox pray is. Isn't that nice of them :)

Was able to pick out the name of God from the Isaiah scroll. Facsimilie. Fake. Yes I am just a little annoyed. I bought a book at the shop called "The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English" with not a biblical scroll in sight. Not one of the biblical scrolls are included. Fortunately I bought a critically marked up version of the biblical scrolls in English. So it was not a total loss. I am more offended over the title than anything else.

Our next stop was the Anglican International School in Jerusalem.


It was a hospital first. But as in Zefat the Jews did not want Christians ministering to sick Jews so they built their own. So it was changed into a school. There was a pulpit in the waiting area of the hospital and people who came in got to listen to a gospel presentation while they waited. Much better than the usual magazines I think :) We were given a short message on evangelism to the Jewish people with a few moving testimonies by the head of Shoresh tours. He was also so kind to give me back my baggage tag. So considerate of him. Thanks we have done all we can now it's your problem. Not that it's actually their fault. They did what they could and technically it was above and beyond so I guess I can't complain. Guess I'll have to put in an insurance claim. See if this global travel insurance is all it's cracked up to be. They had better not want to take anything from me at the airport this time. You will be reading about me in the news if that happens. Nuff said.

I guess shopping was not completely banished from the menu for this trip. The bus driver had the rest of the day off and so we had to walk back to the hotel. Not too far but we had two shopping options. Didn't want either but had to choose one as I would be walking either way. Had food at MacDonalds again. Actually tried Burger King but the service sucked so badly that I rather went to Mickey D's.

Took a leisurely stroll back to the hotel.


Took a short detour into the Jaffa gate as you can see :)

The longer the tour continues the more I realise going on your own, even when part of a tour group, is not for me. It's not that the other group members are nasty to me but there is a distance. Each person has someone close to them experiencing the tour with them. I feel like the extra wheel. It is a feeling I am very familiar with but it still sucks. And no Terri that doesn't apply when you are with me, just in case you were wondering. ;) Next time I take a cheaper ten day tour and bring someone along. Even if I have to pay. It's worth it :). Well enough pity parties. No one likes them anyway.

After that it was a beer at the hotel and a very insightful article about the whole Ergun Caner debacle that is about to break. Ask me later.

Then a trip to the turkish bath. Big mistake. It's unisex. So lots of barely clad young ladies pouring water on themselves and rubbing themselves down with some weird sponges. I felt similarly when I went to Clifton beach for the first and last time. Decided the empty jaccuzi was a much better prospect. Which it was!

Supper and then bed!

Tomorrow is a church day so lots of walking and covered knees.

-- Post From My iPhone

Tunnels

Here we sit in traffic in Jerusalem. We have had a very early start. I am not completely awake yet. We are headed for the Western Wall tunnel. And we seem to be taking the long way round.



This is the view of the Mount of Olives from the bus.

Time warp. We are at the end of the day. I sit here on my hotel bed listening to some music and feeling my legs. Boy did we walk a lot today. But I am sure you want to hear all about it :) Well at least I hope so. However once all is told you will understand why a blow by blow option would not work!

Back to the bus. Early morning traffic. Well fighting that meant we got to the Dung gate early. The line to enter the Kotel was very short and we got to the Western Wall without much of a fuss. But that was not our destination yet! We were going under the ground. The Western Wall tunnel. I am still amazed at how Herod managed to get those stones in there. Inside the first building we looked at a model of the Temple Mount. The mount was then modified to show what Herod did to expand the hill itself. The temple was then placed on the platform. Then of course it was removed and replaced with nothing to indicate that it had become a rubbish dump. And then last of all the Dome of the Rock was placed on the model. Now we had a view of how the temple mount had changed over time. Then as is common in Jerusalem we began our descent. I can never get over the fact that to see back in time to what was built in a previous era we have to dig. And not a little bit either. We looked at a few underground arches that had been above ground once. We went down to Herodian times and even lower to the time of the Hasmoneans. Who were they you ask. They were a Jewish kingly dynasty that was set up for a time after the Maccabean revolt. So they predate Jesus.


We were shown to a model of the temple mount that was more ornate than the one at the entrance. It had a remote that controlled the lights so that one could light up sections of the mount to point them out. Yes the area we were in at the time was a little dark. So some creative tricks had to be pulled to get decent photos. Which of course explains why there are no iPhone shots. Not enough light for the poor camera. :( One particularly interesting thing we saw before reaching the tunnel was a mikva that was two small for anyone to wash in. They suspect it was a ritual bath for dishes. Weird huh?

Now it was time to face the tunnel. It took us all the way along the wall away from the Kotel. There were some places where it was fairly low and the authorities had kindly provided cushioning so that one would not hurt ones head. We headed for the surface through what looked like a water cistern. We heard how the Muslims had kicked up a fuss when the extention was build claiming that the Jews were trying to undermine the foundations of the mosque. Which was nowhere near the tunnel. But it started riots that ended in many deaths. Which were reported as "Those horrible Israelis suppressing the peaceloving Muslims" Yeah right.

Our exit was surprising. It was surprising because I recognized where we were. Outside the entrance to the Church of the Flagelation on the Via Dolorosa. Since it was still early we encountered little pedestrian traffic in the city. Heck most of the shops hadn't opened yet. One Arab seller who didn't buy our excuse that we were coming back later (we were in a hurry) started to say that "all South Africans are liars" I called back to him that he wouldn't get much business from us by calling us liars. Anyway. We did a quickstep all the way back to the Kotel. Through the metal detectors yet again! :). Now we had twenty minutes to look around before our next stop. Since today was not the Sabbath I could take photos for which I am very grateful. I think I got a few good ones. It was very special for me to wear Dad's kippur on the temple mount. I wish he could have been there with me! Even now I cry just thinking about it. I think he would have really liked being there. Today was a special day as many boys were having their Bar Mitzvas. So there was a lot of rejoicing and singing and dancing and such. Quite a few broadcast quality video cameras on the scene too. All the moms were at the dividing wall between the men and women looking over the partition watching their boys go through the motions. I even took some video. I'm sure you will want to see it :) In many ways this iPhone really has been useful for this trip. Will have to upload all these videos to Youtube as well. Just need some editing. I also got the priviledge to go into the synagogue at is right at the wall. Got a few pictures there too.


After all that writing one would think we were done. It's only 9am. So we leave the Western wall plaza to climb temple mount. Problem. By this time the line to go to temple mount has gotten rather long. We enter that line but before long Shela our guide is jumping out of line. As David one of my fellow travellers noted later, one hour in a line is a really bad idea when you are on a schedule. So we changed our plans and went to the excavation museum


( I forget the name) and check out some of the excavations made at the one corner of the Western Wall. Here again there was violence in the past as the Muslims maintained that the work was undermining the Al Asqua mosque although it is more than 70 meters away. John told us that he was at that stop when an Al Jezeera reporter was telling lies about the site while looking at it and knowing she was lying in front of all the other media outlets. He called her on it and her attitude was how dare you tell me what to report. Anyway we see again an example of how the land has risen over time. After much digging they actually found rubble from the Romans destruction of the temple. It was depressing to look at actually. Here was visible proof of the fullfillment of Jesus' prophecy. Here was something of interest. High on the wall there was some Jewish graffiti from the Byzantium era. One problem. There was no Jews allowed near Jerusalem at that time. Except for two years when one of the emperors who hated Christians tried to encourage the Jews to rebuild their temple which would prove a prophecy of Jesus false. Poor bastard. He was assasinated and the next guy in charge was not anti-Christian but anti-Jew and the window was closed. They think the graffiti happened in those two years. Near the corner you can see what is left of Robinson's arch. It must have been magnificent when whole but there is little to see now. It led to one of the entrances to temple mount that was closed up. Following along the wall we came to a set of steps on the south side of temple mount. There were two entrances to the mount here. It is believed (And I concur with this idea) that the pouring out of the Spirit at Pentecost happened here on these steps. The street below the upper room would not accomodate 3000 people let alone more but the steps outside the temple would. Also it says they were in the house and one name for the temple was "The House" Possible. I think so :) We then went to the museum on the site which houses old coins, ancient artist impressions of what they believed the temple looked like and another model of Jerusalem.

Lunch was now fast approaching so we left the museum and walked up to the Jewish Quarter and made use of the excellent options there. I settled for a burger chips and a coke for R108. It was a big burger :) Kosher pizza didn't appeal to me as that means vegetarian pizza. Remember that kosher means no meat and dairy and cheese which is an integral part of pizza is dairy. Found some free wifi which was handy for downloading a few things. Checked out a bookstore but there was little that appealed to me so I didn't buy anything.



Guess where I was. :) yes I was on Temple mount. We waited in a much shorter line after lunch and made it to the mount. This is where I received a most unwelcome phone call informing me that El Al cannot find my stuff. So that is a flash and battery charger down the drain. I am really angry about that. Not sure where to go from here.

So we explore temple mount, get a view of the mount of Olives and discuss various possible sites for the temple. Now we have to rush to make our next appointment at the City of David site and we exit the Temple Mount from a different place to that which we entered it from. Again we find ourselves in the heart of old Jerusalem and again we hurry. :) We end up back at the Kotel, cross it quickly and exit at the dung gate. We pick up our wet gear at the bus and walk a block to the City of David excavation. This is on the site where Davids original Jerusalem was outside the walls of the city of today! We look at various ruins but are distracted by a rowdy bunch of school kids. They make it reaaly hard to hear our guide and so we miss much of what is going on. The wet gear was for Hezekiahs tunnel. Boy was that a long dark walk. That place was not made for someone as wide and tall as me. But I got through ok. Where we finally exited the tunnel we reached the Pool of Siloam. This was where Jesus told the blind man to wash the mud off his eyes. I really enjoyed seeing and photographing the pool. This concluded our day in Jerusalem. On to the bus and back to the hotel.

Here since my legs were really sore I decided to make use of the jaccuzi and a massage. Both felt wonderful. Then to dinner and to bed. I finished the last few drops of my wine tonight. Ah well, it was good while it lasted!

Now with sore legs I will bid you all good night and look forward to seeing the Dead Sea Scrolls tomorrow. Sweet dreams.

This is Robert le Clus reporting from Jerusalem, Israel!

-- Post From My iPhone

On the way to Jerusalem

This morning broke with a beautiful sunrise as we bid adue to our home for the last few days.


I was able to download a whole hour of James White this morning and had a good time listening to it on the bus ride.

The main event for the day is Neot Kedumim. However you spell that. I saw at least three spellings. One on the itinerary, one on the map and another on the street sign. No matter. At the biblical garden as it is called we learnt a few things about the time of the Bible. Did you know that there are seven native plant kinds in Israel. Olive, fig, grape, pomegranate, date, barley and wheat. Did you know that there are some interesting similarities to the dress of the high priest in the temple and the coverings and related paraphanalia associated with the Torah scrolls in the synagogue? We were shown how threshing, sifting and all these processes of getting the wheat out were done.


We also met a scribe hard at work copying the Torah. He even sang/chanted while reading the scroll. Yes I have video :) The scroll was supposedly five hundred years old. Not sure if that is true since it was outside and not in a museum. Could have been an embelishment for effect.


The metal device sticking out the side was for pointing at the appropriate place as he did not want to defile the scroll by touching it. The passage is from Exodus where Miriam sings her song after the destruction of Pharoahs army in the Red Sea. Some very interesting processes for fixing a mistake in a scroll. The scribes name is Zechariah and he comes originally from Yemen.

At the date palm we were told about date honey which has nothing to do with bees. This I found very interesting.

By this time we were hungry and so we went for lunch. The lunch was subsidized and we paid only 10 shekels. Well I always say you get what you pay for and we sure got our moneys worth. Remember that most of our lunches were in the region of $10. We got a shepherds lunch. Half pitas with humus, sour cheese, and two other strange things as well as pieces of cucumber. Well I had paid my money so I ate. One pita. While fighting the flies and boy were there alot of them! Had two cups of mint tea. One without honey and one with two teaspoons of it. The honey mint tea was very good. A highlight of the meal was the dessert. Plain yogurt with date honey. Excellent. I nearly went for seconds but we had to catch the bus. Didn't even have time to finish my watermelon piece. Then on to Jerusalem! We took a short detour to a place that overlooks Bethlehem. It was one of the front lines of the 1948 war. We walked over the trenches. Hectic. We walked past a memorial that has three very tall pillars with two live olive trees growing on top. One interesting thing that we learnt there was about the shepherds that the angels met to announce the birth of Jesus. They were no ordinary shepherds but worked for the temple and were raising lambs for sacrifice. So what the angels were actually saying was "Good News. You're fired!" Donald Trump would be proud! The Lamb who takes away the sin of the world has come!

Well our day was fast winding to an end. We stopped at a lookout point for five minutes to see the Old City. Then it was on to the hotel. Turns out our three person room had only two beds. But we sorted them out but quick! The wifi was not free, mores the pity but this we can also manage.

Took a short walk on my own towards the old city which is very close to the hotel. Had to turn back as it was getting close to supper time :( well we will see her tomorrow God willing.

Time for me to go to bed now as it is an early morning as our visit to the Western Wall tunnel starts at 7:40am

Good night for Mt Zion Hotel in Jerusalem!

-- Post From My iPhone

In a mirror...

Today was a day of reflection. We didn't actually do that much. A 9am start meant we could sleep a little later than usual. On the bus we had a summation of the Galilee leg of the trip, the good the bad and the dodgy.

Since this is a CMJ tour we stopped the bus at Beit Bracha which means House of Blessing. It is a retreat center and guesthouse run by CMJ as an outreach to the local community. They are situated in Migdal the town from which Mary Magdelene came from. The guesthouse is self sufficient and thus does not depend on outside funding to operate. If you remember from the first day in Jaffa we went to Beit Immanuel. This place is similar.

From there we took the drive up to Mt Arbel. This mount is famous or should I say infamous because many Zealots were thrown off the cliff here by the Romans. This part of the blog I am actually writing from the summit. From here one gets a good view over the whole Galilee area and is an appropriate place to sit and think over this part of the tour.


One amazing featur of the device I have in my hands is that with the map program and all the places I have geotagged over the trip so far I can immediately establish where everything is in relation to where I am now. From where I sit I can see Zefat in front of me with Migdal below. My biggest problem at this moment are the flies and the miggies. Small little blighters but very irritating.

From here it is on to Tiberius. More on that when I get there.

So here we are in Tiberius.


Since we only get just over an hour it is little more than a lunch stop. Had some of the obligatory MacDonalds which has become a tradition for me. When you do something once it's revolutionary, when you do it the second time it's tradition. Or so the rabbinic sages say. Big Mac meal. Costs R60 but it was worth it!

Took a short walk through town. A lot of high fasion shops, the odd appliance shop and one or two toy stores. Not much else where I was walking anyway. Saw a cool little shop. Full of radio controlled devices. Almost bought one. But since I dare not take it through customs I decided against it. Maybe when I get back. I sit here at the meeting point waiting for the others to arrive and it hits me again that this tour is fast coming to a close. Not long from now we will be on our way back to South Africa. Tonight is packing night. It has been good to stay at one hotel for so long even if Galilee got a bit much at times. Next stop Mount Zion hotel!

How I am looking forward to Jerusalem.

As I type we are on our way back to the hotel. If all goes according to plan I will finish yesterdays blog before bed tonight and then I will finally be up to date. Then God willing you can get the blow by blow account of Jerusalem!

Tomorrow is the Biblical garden place which should be interesting!

And with this entry I am finally up to date! Yay! So tomorrow evening God willing you will learn what I did yesterday!

Good night from Ramot Resort Hotel in Galilee Israel!

-- Post From My iPhone

Stuck in Galilee

Don't get me wrong. It's great to be in Galilee. But too much of a good thing... I really want to go to Jerusalem. And today we have been informed that we are spending one less day in Jerusalem and one day more in Galilee. I am so excited! Not! One gets tired of old ruins and Talmudic sites.

In all my homiletics training I have been taught to be careful when talking to a congregation about the original langauges. Don't give people the impression that their translation is useless if they don't know the original langauges. Our tour leader did that the other day and I saw today that it through some people. Which is just what I had been learning. Glad I didn't do it.

Small interlude. As I sit here writing in the lobby of the hotel I find myself listening to some 90's music. Brings back the odd memory. I guess they like American music in Israel too. Small interlude complete.

Back to the tour. The day was spent in the upper Galilee. Our first visit was the center of Kabalism in Israel. A place called Zefat. The actual name in Hebrew is pronounced like spud except replace the d with a t. Sort of. I am not the Hebrew perspective. Here we learnt an interesting piece of history about CMJ. They had a place here that was a hospital. The Jews there did not want Christians in contact with sick Jews so they built a bigger hospital across the road. So CMJ turned their hospital into a school. They sold the building to a Scottish mission society for £1. The problem with this was that they did this in good faith but in the end it ended up in government hands. The place is now rather delapidated and falling apart.

Having never been in a synagogue before (that was't a ruin :) ) our next port of call was facinating.


I got my first opportunity to wear my dad's kippur. I think he would have approved. We learnt a few things about Kabbalism specifically that you cannot begin to learn it unless you are over 50, have a very good knowledge of Torah and are invited. I don't think Maddona or Britney Spears have any of these qualifications. But it makes them look good and that's all that counts these days especially in Hollywood. They also claim some truths similar to Jesus' teachings as their own. In that part of town we saw many men in the very traditional orthodox garb. The whole nine yards. The only other place I have ever seen it was at the Wall where we will hopefully be going very soon! From the synagogue we did some quick shopping for lunch and then hopped onto the bus to reach our next destination. Well you don't expect us to walk there do you? :)


In case you weren't sure that is a ruined synagogue. What's so special about it. Well it's the best preserved ruin in Israel. Joy. We stopped there for a teaching on the parable of the sower. We were told that the parable of the sower has links to rabbinic teaching concerning types of disciples. The comparisons were tenuous at best. Here is another example of using the Talmud as the hermeneutic for interpreting the Bible. Bad bad very bad. After that we had our lunch and were on our way. I didn't eat lunch as I hadn't found anything at the shop I recognised. I found a shady tree to lie under and read a bit. This turned out to be a mistake as when I was on the bus I felt a pain in my neck and discovered that a rather large ant had decided to munch me. Ouch!

Our last stop for the day was Mt Meron. Why did we go here? Cos it's a nice nature walk. And it was. Although our tour leader needs to study the correct definition of flat. He seems to have got it wrong the whole trip so far. Got to see the border to Lebanon and our two previous stops from that height. After a lecture I gave to one of my fellow travellers on the use of the P setting on her camera and how to adjust exposure in that mode we reached the bottom.

In the bus and off to the hotel. I was too tired and decided to forego the pool. That afternoon we had a repeat of the teaching on Torah that was done on the summit of mount Sinai. This was of course for us lemmings that didn't make it to the top. Again some good points were made mixed with some Scripture twisting. This is never fun. I was too tired to ask a question.

Had a nice glass of wine before bed. Really enjoyed my sweet dessert wine. Will continue the tradition till the bottle is empty.

More in the next post!

-- Post From My iPhone

Golan Again

We still find ourselves in the Golan. First stop, Qasrin.


So what is the biblical significance of this site. Well none actually. It is another Talmudic site and gives us insight into the life of Jews in the second century which should give us a look into Judaism in Jesus' time. The more I hear this stuff the more I tend to disbelieve it. The Talmud was codified post-Jesus. That much is clear from our visits to Zippori and Beit She'arim. Was the codification an accurate reflection of rabbinic tradition in Jesus time? Who knows. Supposedly the Dead Sea Scrolls provide the answers. Well I have a good book on the scrolls now so I will let you know. But as I have stated before I am concerned that non-inspired writings are being used as the all encompassing hermeneutic for interpreting the inspired text. This is not good!

One thing of interest that I did learn is that the second century Jews were midgets. Most of the doorways required me to duck to enter the very small dwellings. I missed much of the teachings inside as having twenty people in such an enclosed space where I could not stand upright made me a little claustraphobic. I did learn about the roller they used to flatten the roof of their houses and rabbinic rulings on what happens when your roller falls off the roof and kills someone. The decision they came up with was nothing new as any modern exegete can come to the same conclusion by just applying the Bible to the problem without consulting the Talmud. Another thing that came up was that when your child married and then came to live with you with their spouse an extra room would be added to the house. This was then applied to "In my Fathers house there are many rooms. I go to prepare a place for you". As if God is unaware of how many rooms he is going to need and makes a new one when someone gets saved. How ridiculous.




Yes you are looking at another ruined synagogue. Boy there are a lot of them! One interesting thing I learnt here was that in an earthquake the columns fall in the direction of the epicenter of the quake. This helps archeologists to track which earthquake caused which ruin! There was also a lens at the site that when you look through it it puts a roof on the ruin. A little gimmicky but fun none the less! And yes I have a picture. As long as those morons at the airport don't confiscate it I can show you!

And now for something completely different. Wine. We went to the Golan Heights Winery. No there is no historical significance except of course it could not exist when Golan was part of Syria. They don't do wine.


We were given the standard tour. When you come from wine country it's same-old same-old but at least we got to see it. The lady leading the tour mentioned that the wine needs to be kosher. Not sure what she meant by that and forgot to ask. I was starting to feel a bit under the weather at that point so I was not thinking straight. We also has the obligatory wine tasting. We had three wines. One white, one red and one dessert wine. The white tasted good, the red didn't strike my fancy and the dessert really hit the spot. So much so that I bought one.


Not really sure what to do with it. Don't want to take it home. Too much pt. So I will need to drink it before I leave. Will have to share. :) Tastes amazing though:)

They even gave us a free gift of a bottle opener. Very handy tool!

Now we were ready for lunch. We made a quick stop at a museum to give us an introduction to the afternoon program. This was interesting because Josephus mentions this place called Gamla and tells of what happened there. It was one of the Jewish strongholds that the Romans destroyed in 70AD. I would actually like to read his account and since I have it on my computer I might just do that.

At this point my stomach was really bothering me so I skipped lunch and made do with a coke.

The drive to Gamla after lunch was not long and we made it there in one piece.


Just before we started our walk to the lookout point over the site, we encountered a small whirlwind. Very interesting. The site of Gamla is on a steep hill. The buildings were so constructed that the roof of one was the porch of the upper one. Thos caused the Romans some problems as their weight with armor and all was enough to colapse the roof killing many of them! They eventually succeeded in sacking the town and noone save two women were left alive. One other feature of Gamla is it's birds of prey. Particulary a vulture. It is believed by some that the passage where those who wait upon the Lord will rise up with wings like eagles, the eagles were actually in reference to these vultures. While the Hebrew word in that passage can be translated as such I am unconvinced that this is the correct translation in this case. But who knows? The darn birds would not comply and come closer so we could only see them from afar at the vulture lookout. There is a waterfall at the site that some wanted to walk to. Since I was not feeling 100% I decided to wait behind. I was not the only one. The excessive heat of the day scared off many of the others. It was a small group that made the journey. A beer and a bunch of photos of small birds later and the intrepid adventurers had returned. After that it was onto the bus for the ride back to the hotel.

Since as I write this a day later I have fully recovered so there is nothing to worry about. Tomorrow I will tell you about yet another synagogue we visited. Oh Jerusalem how I long for you!

Good night from Galilee.

-- Post From My iPhone

Bunny Donkey

We went to the upper Golan Heights. The finger of Galilee. Or the panhandle of Galilee. Interesting factoid. The hotel we are currently in is actually on the bottom end of the Golan Heights. So were it not for the Six Day War I might be in trouble.

We had a long bus drive as we were traveling to the upper part of Israel. In fact in one place we were within a literal stones throw from the armistace line. We took a walk in the Tel Dan nature reserve.


The water was flowing much stronger than the last time I was there. Very beautiful. The story we heard was not. The tribe of Dan didn't like their alotment and killed a whole bunch of people to get the land where we were. There was much idolatry there and it got worse in the time of Jereboam. We saw the remains of a pagan Jewish altar. Pagan because it was made with cut stone. Jewish because it had four horns. One interesting feature we saw later was the place the king would sit at the gate of the city to listen to the cases of the people. Davids son Absolom used that seat to undermine his father.

From there we did the short hop to the Banias waterfall.



Then we went on another short hike similar to the one we did earlier. What I didn't know at the time was that our destination was the other Banias site where all the idols are. Last time we took the bus from the one to the other. This time we walked. What was really cool is that we walked through a palace ruin of Herod Agrippa 2. Who was he? He was the Herod before whom Paul made his defense. We had a teaching at the site based on the passage where Jesus makes his confession. Again I heard things I don't like. Jesus did not ask the question he did ("Who do the people say that I am?") to learn something. God does not ask questions to gain information. He asked to make a point to us. Adam where are you? As if He didn't know. Why why why. I seem to be stepping from one false teaching to another.

Anyway. It's not all bad. We had lunch at the same place at the extinct volcano lake. $10 for a small snitchel pita and coke. Not cheap. I was so tired I bought it anyway. After lunch we took the trip back to the hotel. On the way we stopped at the lookout point into Syria below the listening post. We got back to the hotel early enough so that a swim was possible. It was very refreshing. Then off to supper and bed! Not an incredibly informative day but we sure did a lot of walking.

And that's all I have to say about that!

-- Post From My iPhone

Hey, Old guys...

I have been trying to catch up on blogs but still find myself two days behind. So instead of telling you what I did today I need to tell you what I did yesterday. Trouble is we have long busy days and I find myself increasingly tired. By lunch time I am yawning so much I think I might have swallowed half of Israel by now. So I can hardly think let alone write. Which of course means that I can about one and a half(if I am lucky) entries in per day and thus I am still behind. Hopefully however you still find the entries useful. Sometimes I wonder if anyone is reading the blog when I see the comments standing at zero. But at the very least I get to make a record of my exploits and it helps me to remember what I did. Sometimes however I need more help. In preparation for this entry I was going over in my mind what we did yesterday. I remembered Nazereth and Zippori but where on earth had I been in the morning. Couldn't remember. So I pulled out my camera and started to look through the pictures. When I got there it was obvious. Kfar Nahum or Capernaum. Today we had a later start time. 9am. This meant we could sleep till 6 am Cape Town time! Yay! Then we were off to the ruin that was Capernaum.

The trouble with starting later of course is that you hit all the other tourists that started later as well. The early bird catches the worm and all that. But we made it there and it wasn't too bad :) It is interesting how the guide's can differ on the details. The last one was convinced that an earthquake had swallow the town in fullfillment of the curse Jesus spoke over it. Our current guide was not so confident. I suspect the first guide was right in this case. Unfortunately I say that because I am biased towards the first story. It sounds better. More research is required here. The synagogue ruin is not from the time of Jesus but is built on a previous ruin that possibly dates from the time of Jesus. People over the centuries were forever demolishing things and little has changed today. So in my photo's you will see many ruins. What fun!


Other than that we had another Bible reading from Mark I think and another teaching. And just like that we were off again. For some odd reason I wanted to take a picture of the Peter statue again. Had to wait because there were a ton of other people who had the same idea. Terri, if I take you to such a place I will not be taking a picture of you posing at some statue or artifact. Just so you know up front:) I do not understand peoples preoccupation with such things...

On to Zippori. Why? Cos it's there... Well I guess that would be one reason. Another is that this was where the Mishna was codified. The Mishna is part of the Talmud and explains how Torah should be applied in practice. Again this gives you insight into the Jewish mind. Something here that was startling for me was that in the mosaic on the floor of the synagogue there was a pattern of the signs of the zodiac and other Greek mythology. It was weird to see how they had incorporated paganism into their worship. But is this not the story of Israel from the beginning. "This is Yahweh who brought you out of the land of Egypt" they said of the golden calf. At Zippori we also looked at an amazing water storage system. I am asounded at what the ancients were able to do without the tools we take for granted today. Sorry, no pictures here, all on the main camera!

Last stop for the day, Nazereth. And where do we go? That abomination called the church of the annunciation. I really dislike that church. We took a walk through a market to get to it. It felt like Jerusalem :) I took no pictures. Went in and came out as quickly as possible. Waited for everyone else to ooh and ahhh over the place.

Some people like to spend money on things one can get cheaper at home which is just as good so we made a stop at a nougat shop. No comment. Then we went to a shop of a friend of the bus drivers. Best shop in Nazereth, we were informed. I hope not. The place was full of useless trinkets. Would never buy there. Didn't even have a book section.

On the way out of town we went to the place where supposedly the people of Nazereth tried to throw Jesus off the cliff. Had a great view of the Jezreel valley from the other side. Using the iPhone I could locate Mt Carmel and Megiddo. That was fun! We had a reading from Luke 7. The story of the widow of Nain. Jesus raised her son from the dead. It is interesting that Nain is very close to Shumen where Elijah did a similar miracle.


Next stop, home. Well at least the hotel. And it's been quite the day for walking...

More tomorrow!
-- Post From My iPhone

The lament of David

We had a lot of ground to cover so early morning it was again. One thing to note about all this is that Jerusalem is currently an hour ahead of Cape Town. So if the wake up call is at 6:30 am it's actually 5:30 am on our body clocks. So one gets rather tired after a couple of days of this. Leads to a heck of a lot of yawning. But we press on!

First stop was Beit She'arim. This is a not very well frequented tourist site as it is not biblical. It dates to the second century AD and is a Talmudic site. So why go there. Well one reason is to get perspective on what Judaism became after the destruction of the temple. Remember that these were Jews who rejected Jesus but no longer had a temple to worship at. Never forget that Jesus was Jewish and his life did not exist in a vacume. There was a culture around him that we need to understand. One of the most interesting features of this site is the tombs.



There were on some of the tombs depictions of animals. This is strange as the Torah forbids the making of graven images. This indicates a corruption of culture due to outside influences. However a carving of a minora is also there. Here I discovered that the small chair we brought along to sit on also makes a good makeshift tripod. Got some good shots in the darkened tombs as a result of that.

We spent a little time at the section above the tombs themselves which was put there for the services when people were entombed there. We received some teaching on John 3. This was the interaction of two rabbi's who were equals in many ways. We were taught that in Judaism at the time there were 5 ways to be born again, your bar/bat mitzva being one of them. Jesus was adding a sixth. So from that perspective Nicodemus was not asking a stupid question but was saying "I have experienced all the possible born again experiences in Judaism". The only possible option left is going back into the womb. Whether I agree with that will have to wait upon further research but it does sound interesting. We needed to hurry along and while there were many questions we needed to get to our next destination. Mount Carmel. Last time I was there the church was closed. Not this time. I actually got to see the Elijah statue in the courtyard and got some good pictures of it. We had a reading from the story that took place here which was the killing of the 450 prophets of Baal by Elijah when Baal could not bring fire but Yahweh could. Then we went up to the viewing deck and looked out over the Jezreel valley. With the aid of my iPhone maps and compass I was able to place many important events. Discovered that Ahab had a summer palace in the area and this is where many of the events recorded in scripture took place. I could almost see Jehu driving his chariot like a madman to go kill Jezebel!

Came down from the platform and bought a great panoramic photograph of the valley, with key places marked on it for $3. And then on to Megiddo.

Har Meggido. Armaggedon. A place of battle, past present and future. This was where King Josiah was killed by the army of Pharoh Neco. This is the staging area for the final battle before Jesus returns.

We stopped for lunch first, visited the museum and then acsended the Tel. For the most part it was the same old same old.


What was interesting was how they added these wire frame horses at the stable ruin to help visualize them as they were. There was also a wireframe chariot. I posed for pictures there :)

I also got a very good picture of the underground tunnel that led to the water source outside the city. You will have to wait till I return to see it, as it requires a long exposure that the iPhone does not excel at :)

From Megiddo we went to Beit She'an. Part of the reason we went there was because John, our intrepid tour leader had to make a trip to the Jordanian border to pick up his bag which he had left at the Petra Palace Hotel. Well actually the idiot porters were more interested in strong arming him for an extra tip than getting his bag onto the bus. Since this site was close to the closest border post we stopped here to wait for him. This site was where Saul's body was taken to display on the walls for the sport of the Phillistines. As you may recall, the men of Jabesh Gilead rescued the body from the walls and saw to his proper burial as he had saved them from Nahash (the snake) all those years ago. This is where the title of my blog entry originates. I was asked to read the lament of David when he heard of the death of Saul and Jonathan in 2 Samuel 1. The site itself houses the ruins of a Roman city. It is supposed to be one of the best excavated sites in Israel. Turns out the guy who organized the dig had some clout politically and got the government to do his bidding in this respect. There are some interesting features such as a theatre, an intact road, bathhouses and even a few communal latrines. Nice.


After we had explored the place for a while we waited for John to arrive. This he eventually did, with his bag in tow. All in all a good ending to an interesting day.

-- Post From My iPhone

The wheels on the bus...

We leave the Dead Sea area. From sea to shining sea as the song goes. We are on our way to Galilee. Galilee of the Gentiles. The land of Zebulan and Naphtali. Jesus' stomping grounds.

So we drive up the Jordan valley. We learn some interesting historical facts about the region and it's relation to the country of Jordan that is ever on our right hand side. It is interesting to note that we are traveling through the West bank, which the Israeli's took partially as a barganing chip for peace. There is a small island in the Jordan river, that was given to Jordan. This island was a meeting place for families who had people on both sides of the river as it was much cheaper to get to Jordan on the island. This arrangement ended after a group of Jewish school girls were shot at by a Jordanian guard killing nine of them. The king of Jordan when he heard of it immediately got into his plane and flew to Israel and sat with the families. If an election had been called then he would have won it. Unfortunately his son who rules now is not quite the statesman that daddy was. Or so they tell me. So now the island is closed.

Since we left early and Israel is no bigger than the Kruger Park, we reached the Sea of Kineret/Tiberius/Galilee by before 11am. Stopped at a shop that specializes in dates, or so they say! For thos who are interested it is just above Yardinet the baptismal site at the exit of the Jordan river from the sea.

We had to travel swiftly from here to make our boat ride on the sea. We went to the usual boat ride spot just beyond Kfar Nahum or Capernaum, and quickly jumped on the boat.


This particular boat guide ran the SA and Australian flags up the mast and played our respective national anthems. Then we had a Bible reading and a time of reflection on the boat. What was interesting here is that we did not return to the same jetty we left from. We docked at the Jesus boat museum at Nof Ginnosaur. Was great to see that place again as I have many fond memories of being there before. The museum tour was abreviated and the food expensive. A banana for a dollar is too much. I'd rather go hungry.

Almost bought something at the bookshop but was able to resist the temptation.

Next stop. Mount of the Beattitudes or so I thought! Well we did go to the mount. And we could see the church over the fence. But we did not enter it. It was decided instead that we walk down the mount and thus experience something more of how Jesus and his disciples would have experienced the mount. This is a good thing. We stopped at a small
monument under a tree and had a teaching on the semon on the mount. While we had had this sermon before it was interesting to hear again.


From there we climbed down the mount to the road and went to the church of the primacy of Peter which was just down the road from there. It is called this because this was supposedly where Jesus restored Peter in John 21. We went to the beach there and after reading from John 21 we had a short teaching on the passage. Something I had not noticed before was that the fire that Peter used to warm himself at (John 18) was a charcoal fire. The fire Jesus made on the beach was also a charcoal fire. Almost as if Jesus was trying to recreate the scene of the betrayal at the place of the restoration. We then had a few minutes of quiet contemplation at the waters edge.

This is one thing I appreciate about this tour. We actually spend a lot of time in the Bible. When we get to important sites we actually crack it open and read. Sometimes we even have a short teaching. This is how a tour should be!

From this church we again walked down the road to the church of the loaves and the fish. Last time I was there I spend all my time at the pond there photographing the koi fish. Not this time. I ignored them and went straight to the church itself where there is a very famous mosaic at the altar that I had not seen the previous time as I had not been in the church at all. Here my 250mm lens came in handy as I could not get close to take the picture. I got a few good ones I hope :)

Our last stop for the day was the hotel with a quick side excursion to a shop for supplies and an ATM for those who needed it. Then it was supper and the wind down to bed. All in all an excellent day!

And yet there is so much more to see and we haven't even reached Jerusalem!

-- Post From My iPhone

Location:Israel

Old, new and muddy

Another day breaks in Israel. I find it interesting being the only non-couple besides the tour leader. Makes me wish that I could have my girlfriend with me. Ah well.

Early morning breakfast and on the road again! To Masada we go. I was actually glad when I discovered that Masada was on the itinerary and disappointed when it was added back. That was the tour guides fault. We came to the site and an executive desision was made that we would all take the cable car. We took the standard tour but I bowed out of the tour early on. One of the ladies on the tour had already been there four times so she also wasn't keen to go again. So we sat at the entrance and chatted till the rest had completed the tour.



The view from the top. Unlike the last time we did not linger there. We got off the cable car at the bottom and jumped straight onto the bus!

Next stop was Qumram which interestingly enough was very close to the kibbutz. Again I had been there before but I was able to get a few more pictures and learn more about the scrolls themselves. One interesting story was that of the first scrolls. They were found in 1947 just before the British mandate ended and the archeologist who wanted to buy the scrolls from the bedouin who found them had one hour to do it. He made it but only just.


Found two great books at the bookshop there. One was on understanding the significance of the find and the other book contains English translations of all the biblical scrolls with notes on what parts were missing, how they compared to the LXX(Greek translation of the OT), masoretic text and others. Very detailed and incredibly useful for text critical studies! Didn't buy any lunch there as the options were too expensive.

Mud. That is what I encountered next. It was so bad I nearly lost my shoe. Let me explain. Kalia is at the top of the Dead Sea.


This is important. The kibbutz has it's own beach front. So after Qumran and lunch we went there. The entrance is far from the beach so we changed there and then made the long trek to the water. Now I expected salt crystals on the sea floor which is what I had last time. Mud. Sticky gooey mud. The salt content at the top is also much less than at the bottom so you are less boyant. Yes it is different from a trip to the Med but not quite the experience I had expected. So I tried to avoid the mud on the bottom and float for a while. What was fun was the shower afterwards. Tried one shower and it was so weak it wasn't funny. Walked closer to the entrance and the pressure improved. Got quite a nice massage from the shower higher up. Eventually had to let go but it was fun while it lasted. Had a Gold Star local beer while we waited for everyone to finish up and then back to camp.

Got back in time for a swim in the pool. Yes two swims in one day. I must admit I liked the second one more! No mud! Met a young lady at the pool. She was the lifeguard I guess, and I mention this specifically because she was carrying an automatic weapon. At the pool! She is an IDF conscript and as such must carry her weapon at all times when on duty. Nice duty sitting at the pool! :) She wanted to know where we were from and then said she wanted to visit South Africa once she had finished her service in a years time. Interesting experience.

After that is was the usual getting ready for supper and the off to bed. Since we were leaving the following morning we also needed to pack.

Good bye Kibbutz Kalia. Hello Galilee. Stay tuned tomorrow for the next exciting installement of "Away in an Israel" :)
-- Post From My iPhone

Whata lota Musa

Musa who? Well Musa is the Arabic for Moses. And we had a lot of Moses today. While mostly a traveling day we did pass Wadi Musa on the way out of Petra. We had an early morning breakfast and then on the road. Wadi means valley so Wadi Musa means valley of Moses. There is a spring in the valley that is called the spring of Moses. This not because Moses had anything to do with the spring but since he had been in the area they named the spring after him. One of the reasons we left early was because there was a potential problem with the Allenby Bridge crossing and we wanted to ensure that if we couldn't cross there we had enough time to get to one of the other border crossings. Our first stop was Madaba. We went to a Greek Orthodox chruch that had a biblical map of the Holy Land done in mosaic art. Very interesting. I also found it interesting that when the pope visited in the 60's he refused to call Israel Israel. He called it the Holy Land. Fortunately things have changed in that respect.

Lunch. I had a banana and a coke for lunch. And free wifi. When one has been off grid for two days you take free Internet whereever you can get it. Someone did't want their tinkie so they gave it to me. I did not complain :) I also discovered on the way back to the bus that the Mesha Stela that I have taught about in Bible school was found in the area. Unfortunately I would have to go to Germany to photograph it :( The Mesha Stella records the revolt of Moab against Israel which is also recorded in Scripture.

From there we took the bus to a mosaic factory that makes many of these mosaics into very many uses. Table tops are fairly common. One of the Australians was wondering where to get rid of his dinars and I told him to wait for this spot. He ignored me and later when we got to this point I heard him lament that he could have gotten rid of his cash here. No comment.


They usually employ disabled people who then live off the work that they do. Not my scene though.

We started the day with Moses and we ended our Jordan visit with Moses. We went to Mt Nebo where Moses saw the promised land before he died.


The site was in a similar state to the last time except that there was much more construction scaffolding on the site. The small chapel that I took pictures inside was closed. The day was even more hazy than the last time so there was little to see. We didn't stay long. I noticed a picture of the Mesha Stela that I had not noticed the last time and I took a picture.

We're off to see the border, the wonderful border or Jordan. Yes, we got the paper we needed and could cross at the border we wanted to. Drove down the pass to the border post and encountered a place where the magnetic field of the earth allow it to pull the bus up hill while it is in neutral. That is unless it's a trick :) Who knows?

The border was a piece of cake. It was what I had come to expect from my previous trip. We then went straight to Kibbutz Kalia which was our rest stop for the next two nights. We had dinner at the usual time and it was a decent spread. Nothing has yet beat Nof Ginosar for food but it was very good none the less. We had a good evening chat outside one of the rooms before bidding the place a good night and making our way to bed.

On the flash business I was told that the airline had no idea where my flash was because I had not reported it as lost property. Which it wasn't. Seems the baggage tag I was given wasn't worth the paper it was printed on. I really hope the travel insurance will cover it because I hadn't had time to insure it myself. I doubt I will see it again. El Al are a bunch of theives. I hope I can get the chief of security arrested when I get home but I doubt it.

More tomorrow!

-- Post From My iPhone

The Rose Red City

Yes today was Petra. Well since I am a day or so behind it's not strictly true but let's go with the illusion shall we! :)

We had an early breakfast so that we could maximize our time in Petra. First breakfast in Jordan was decent. Nothing to write home about (tee hee) but definitely not to be missed. And as a bonus there was coffee on the house. One thing I forgot to mention in the previous post was that I ordered a Turkish coffee after dinner the night before. This cost two dollars. The morning coffee was free. One thing to remember about Turkish coffee is that it is strong, there is not much of it (comes in an expresso cup) and do not stir it. The grounds are still in the cup so you need to let it settle and have short sips.

Now our hotel is literally walking distance to the entrance to Petra and to prove that we walked into Petra from the hotel. Before we started walking I got a 1.5 liter bottle of water for one dollar. And in we went. When we entered the main road (this is before you hit the Siq) we made a stop in the shade for a short lecture on Petra. The Nsbateans being the most well known residents. One thing that stood out to me was that the single hump camels actually originated from China. Now who in their right mind would associate camels with China. But there it is.

After that we continued walking and reached the Siq. I didn't take quite as many pictures this time as it is a bit of the same old same old. Interesting walk none the less. We were given short lectures at each idol in the Siq. We also learnt that there was one Nabatean queen who was much loved by the people. She became queen because her husband died and the son was too young to assume the throne. She was later deified and there is a shrine to her in the Siq. In the Siq I also learned that our guide was the same guide we had on
my last visit to Petra. He says he remembers me. I don't remember him but such is life :) I doubt I will forget this time! :)

I tried to stay up front with the guide as I knew what was coming. At this point we were very close to the Treasury. One of the ladies in the group comes up and asked how far we are. Jambra our guide says "Half way" He then ammends his statement and says "Maybe a little more than half way" I say "just a tiny bit more" He looks at me and puts his finger to his lips and tells me not to say anything. This is when he tells me that he remembers me from before. He has an interesting way of making the first look at the Treasury memorable. He distracts the group by getting them to look here there and everywhere except down the Siq. Finally he points down the Siq and everybody goes wow! :) Very clever. Except I didn't fall for it either time I was there. We come out of the Siq and see this


Quite the site no matter how many times you see it. From there we moved along and checked out the other tombs. This time we went a lot further and saw the theater and the royal tombs which are at the end of the main wall. We had lunch at the main lunch stop in Petra. One funny incident that happened just before was when we had stopped to rest while some of our group were checking out the stall of a woman who had married a bedoiun and lived there. She had written a book about it and everything. So there we sit and a guy comes up to us wanting to sell us stuff. We decline and he walks away saying, "No problem. You don't want to buy, you don't have to. This is Jordan not Egypt!" At which I cracked up laughing. Having some experience with Egyptian Arabs and their "persistence" I found that comment hilarious :)

So we eat lunch. I get some of the overflow as I did not order a lunch box. At $9 it was a bit pricey. After lunch we could decide what we wanted to do. There was the sacrificial high places, the monastery or one of the closer places to visit or just walk back to the hotel. I chose to visit a ruined church with mosaic floors. Don't know why they would have bare breasted women in a church floor but there you have it. Then it was the long trek back to the hotel. Boy was I tired! Eventually made it back to the hotel. Wanted to go for a swim in the pool but was too tired so I lay on the bed till just before dinner time.

Had a decent supper which included a local Petra beer. From there straight to bed and prepare for the next day.

-- Post From My iPhone

Attention Blog readers.

Hi all. Just a kind request. If you are reading this blog could you leave a comment on this post. I'd like to get an idea of my readership which is probably very small :)

Thanks


-- Post From My iPhone

In transit

So I am a couple of days behind in the blogs. Part of that is because I am tired from all the walking and so on. Plus when you get behind it takes a while to catch up.

So where we left off last entry I had failed to make Mt Sinai again, and had gone to bed tired, sore and disappointed. So I wake up the next morning a little less tired. Breakfast at 8am and we leave at 9am. And now we must make the long trek from Sinai to Petra. If you check the map you will get an idea of the distance that needs to be covered. We were supposed to take the fast ferry bu for some reason it was not running that day. So through the border posts we go. Got some great photo's at the Israeli border. Had Internet access for the short hop from Taba to Eilat to Aquaba. There I wrote AND posted one blog entry. The border crossings went very smoothly. Now we are in Jordan. Bought a DVD of Petra at the border. Saved $5 on the price. Am not complaining. Will have to wait till I get back to see if it was worth it. Discovered that my gps does not work in Jordan either. So had to depend on the old fasioned way. At least the maps were still there. Just had trouble figuring out where on the map I was. :) Finally got to the Petra Palace Hotel at 6pm.


Had supper at 6:30pm and it was fairly decent. Particularly liked the chicken :) after that it was a interesting theological discussion at the pool and then off to bed.

Not much to relate as most of the day was spent sleeping on a bus!

The next day was Petra and there is much to tell! :)


-- Post From My iPhone

A waste of time...

So a new day begins. I discovered that one of my roommates is reading Rob Bell. And his son, my other roommate is very fond of the heretic. But since our tour leader thinks Heretic Bell is great what can one expect. It is so disappointing that no matter where I turn there is bad theology. Some bad, some ignorant, some stupid and some plain heretical. While I think the 'Hebraic understanding' can be useful to provide context in interpreting certain passages. However using it as overarching hermeneutic to sit above all scripture is not only dangerous it could even be heretical. Why? Because suddenly the non-inspired rabbinic writings are used to interpret the inspired text. Are they useful? Yes. In the same way a commentary is useful.

Anyway. I digress. We start the day with breakfast. The breakfast was decent although certainly not spectacular. It is Egypt after all. Then we have a break before devotions. In the devotions we discussed the calling of Moses. The importance of the event over the place was discuss. This means that in the 'Hebrew understanding' an event like the calling of Moses is more important than the place where it happened. The western understanding means we build churces on places and declare the place holy. But it was the event that made the place holy and once the event has passed the place is no longer holy. Makes sense to me :)

We could not go to Sinai without visiting the monastery, which is what we did next.


We were told that the museum was closed and we could see the church and the "burning bush". I was very disappointed as I was hoping to see some of the ancient documents on display. So we get to the line for the church, people jostling and pushing in. It got so bad that at one point I was ready to hit someone. The monastery was open for one hour only and so every Dick, Tom and Harry was in there. Suddenly the guide pulls our group out of the line and tells us to follow him. Seems the museum would be open after all and we could see the documents.


I was truely excited! There were many ancient relics there. And of course every element of every picture had a meaning. Then we got to see the documents. The oldest one was a Syriac translation of the Codex Sinaiaticus from 778 AD. Absolute wow. Just wish I could read Syriac! There were a couple of other old documents and Bibles and the like there but that one was the best. I learnt that according to the monks Tischendorf stole the codex from them and sold it to someone else. I thought he had bought it fair and square. I guess more research is required :) Oh and the actual Codex is on display in London at the British Museum so I will have to organize a trip to the UK sometime :)

So I got to see what I really wanted to see. Saw the church again. Still couldn't take pictures, mores the pity. And the bush is still there. Someone pointed out the mosque in the monastery to me and I got a picture of it.



So now came the big task. Climbing Mt Sinai again. We decided to leave at 2pm Egyption time (which is the same as South African time) to have enough time to reach the summit before sunset. Just as an aside, I had downloaded an app from the app store the day before that gave sunset and sunrise times anywhere in the world. Which is what we used to get the right time. When we got to Sinai we had had a mix-up because of the hour difference between Israel and Egypt (Israel is on daylight saving at the moment) but by this time we had sorted it out.



So we start climbing and people are dropping out fairly quickly. I am getting tired but am determined to get to the top. I reached the spot where I had turned back the last time and while I was very tired at that point I decided to go on. We had not gone to much further than two of the ladies decided to turn back. The message also came down at about the same time that at the current pace we would not make it to the top before sunset. John needed to speed up to catch the rest but did not want to leave me behind so he asked me to escort the other two ladies down the mountain. This I didn't want to do but felt I had no choice. So again Sinai had defeated me. I felt like Moses who was shown the promised land but could not enter it. So I reluctantly trudged down the mountain. Halfway down my knee started to hurt. Nothing serious but it was there. The ladies didn't seem to notice and kept stopping every now and again to take pictures, which forced me to stop which made things worse for my knee when getting up again. Eventually we were close to the bottom, and they had stopped again. My knee was really paining so I sat down to take some weight off it. The two eventually passed me and went on oblivious to my discomfort. This time I just let them go as the walk from there to the hotel was very short and my duty was fulfilled. So as I am sitting there four people from Thailand, I think, saw me in distress and wanted to know if I was alright. Their English wasn't good but I told them my knee was hurting. Suddenly they bring out medicine and they just want to help me. I was so moved by their concern, but politely refused the medication as I have no idea what it is and if it's safe for me to use. They then offered me water which I accepted. I really pray that God will bless them for their kindness to me.

Now here I am sitting with a sore knee and the sun about to set and I decide to stay until it has set and check out the stars. I was able, once it was totally black to make out quite a few new constellations one never sees down south. It was a lot of fun!

Had I known that I was going to be turned around at almost the same spot as last time, I would not have bothered climbing at all. So in a very real sense the climb for me was a complete waste of time. The one redeeming feature of the whole debacle was that my camera got to the summit. Jeremy, one of the fittest guys on the tour offered to carry some of my stuff for me so that I could climb lighter. And being the fit guy that he is he was nowhere near me when I was turned around so my camera went to the top. While there his wife used my camera to take some photos at the summit. Thus I have seen the view from up top through the eyes of my camera.

So to cut a long story short I arrived back at the hotel, stiff, sore, tired and depressed. I waited for the summiters to get back and had dinner with them. Then it was off to bed as the next day we were leaving for Petra.

More on that in the next post.
-- Post From My iPhone

Eilat for a day

I am two days behind on the blog:) Today is a traveling day so I have much time to write. I will be sending these blogs in the short hop through Israel to Jordan. There I will be off grid again for two days (probably, depends on if they have free wi-fi in the hotel) so those entries will also be delayed. Now without any further ado (and everyone knows, this show has plenty of do) let me tell you about our morning in Eilat.

Had our usual early wake up call, and that morning I struggled to get up. Because we did not have a hectic travel day we had a free morning in Eilat. On the way through the crater I mentioned before we saw much in the way of rock formations and such. I have so many pictures of those from the previous trip that I decided to forgoe the pictures.

We made a stop at a kibbutz that is well known for it's dairy products. Bought some chocolate milk. Very good!

Our options for the day in Eilat were snorkeling, visiting the mall or going to the aquarium. I obviously chose the mall! Just kidding :) I decided to snorkel. I really wish I could have taken pictures of what I saw. The fishes were amazing. The water was very clear. An amazing variety of fish. I even saw an octopus. It was being hassled by two fish and it moved. So I got to see it. Some of the fish came up close enough to touch. I really enjoyed it.



The lifeguard tower at the beach.

From there we went to the border. It was actually quite painless. I was surprised. From there we took the two hour drive to St Catherines Guest House.


It is across the road from the place I stayed last time. The new hotel was definitely an upgrade, but still spartan.


The rest of the day was spent relaxing. There is not much to do in Sinai except visit the monastery, and climb the mountain which would happen the following day. Had my first good nights sleep. More in the next post.

-- Post From My iPhone

Quick entry

Have entered Egypt. Will probably be going off grid for two days. Will submit blog when we get to Israel again!


-- Post From My iPhone

Location:Egypt

Wine in the desert?

The desert. Cruel. Forbidding. A place where new members of the IDF can be tested to the ultimate. A place of harsh extremes, where only the strong survive! A land where vineyards grow... What? Vineyards? In the desert? Well that was the dream of David Ben Gurion, first prime minister of Israel. He wanted to see the desert bloom. Just like in the Bible. He honoured God's Word (at least the Old Testament) although if I understood correctly, he was not religious. What he wished was for Israel to be strong. So today was mostly Ben Gurion day.

We started the day at his house in Sede Boker.


Here we discovered that while Ben Gurion was a statesman he was actually very down to earth. He resigned as prime minister twice simply because he wanted to live simply on the kibbutz in the Negev and make the desert bloom to benefit his country. This is his house.


Very basic. But that is the way he wanted to live. No pretentiousness. He wasn't perfect, but he helped make Israel the country it is today.

From there we travelled to Ein Avdat. There is some connection to Moses which John promised to tell us about tomorrow. We did see water from the rock which is supposedly how Moses did the striking the rock trick. Yeah and I'm the Easter bunny. While this trip has been better on the facts there are some places where weird stuff slips in. More of that later. The canyon we hiked through was beautiful. Makes me wish I had studied geology. From a creationist perspective of course.


I have a few even better pictures on the main camera but I was so tired after the walk I didn't want to take any more pictures. I can still feel it in my legs :) No matter. Good practice for Sinai in two days times.

Food became a priority after that and we went back to another part of Sede Boker to get a bite to eat. I bought snacks and also learnt that it is ok in Israeli culture for kids to jump the queue and push in anywhere. What we would call incredibly rude they consider normal. At that site there was also the graves of David Ben Gurion and his wife.

Our last official stop explains the blog title. We went to a superb wine farm in the Negev. It is run by a family and no machines are used. Picking and sorting and all the rest is done on the farm by hand. The wine there is very good. If they had had any port I would have bought some but they were fresh out of stock. Ah well.


Vineyards in the desert. Who would have guessed it. The farm also has guest houses for holiday makers. The owner tells us that neither the government nor the banks would give them money because they thought he was crazy to start a wine farm in the desert. Well he built the farm up without their money and has been going for 12 years. Did I mention the wine was very good? :)

Then it was back to base camp at the hotel with a short detour to the rim of the crater that Mitzpe Ramon is built next to. We saw a stupid video telling us about all the millions of years and a heck of a lot of nonsense. Not being a geologist it was difficult to pick out the good from the bad. It seems that the crater is formed by erosion.



Back at the hotel I had a swim in the pool and spend some time in the steam room. Then came down to do the blog. Will have to take a picture of the pool if I remember.

So that is all for today. I must say I was really excited tonight when I went out and spotted Orion and Canis Major constellations. And Orion was the right way up. That was so cool!

Tomorrow we go snorkelling in the Red Sea and take the looooong drive to Sinai.

This is Robert le Clus reporting,from Israel :)

-- Post From My iPhone

Location:נחל האלה,Mitzpe Ramon,Israel

In the Negev

I write this from the Ramon Inn. These people think that R50 per hour is an acceptable price for wifi access. They are wrong.

So what did I do today after the last entry? First off I must apologise. No photos. I took a few. But with my main camera. No way to transfer them till I get home. Hopefully I won't forget tomorrow.

One place we visited was Yad Mordeciah. It is a kibutz named after a Jewish man who made a big impact in WW II. He lead a rebellion against the Nazi exteminators. The visit had two parts. We learnt about the history of the place, how the place got started and how it was run. Started with very poor people who got a meager daily food allowance. Was populated with Jewish people from all over the world. However this kibutz was very secular even liberal. The part of the tour I really enjoyed was when we went to the 1948 war of Independance memorial. There was a decisive battle fought there against Egyptian forces. The Israeli forces retreated after six days but this gave the other troops a chance to get ready to win the war which they did! They fought with the strangest of weapons (I have photos) some home made. That part of the tour was really good because I had watched a documentary that included that battle. I have it on my computer at home if you want to take a look at it sometime.

Then we had lunch. Had a swarma and coke for $9. Not cheap. Then off to Be'er Sheva. If you are wondering why that sounds familiar, it's one of the places Abraham stayed in and dug a well there. There are excavations that go all the way back to the time of Samuel. Not to the time of Abraham as he didn't build any structures. We also saw a pagan Jewish altar there. Jewish because it had four horns, pagan because it was made of cut stone and God had said that only uncut stone could be used! The last thing we looked at at Be'er Sheva was a cistern that was dug to store water inside the city in the event of a seige. Man was that thing deep.

Then we were in the bus for the trip to Mizpe Ramon. The town is near the edge of a large crater . The crater is not created by a meteorite and probably wasn't volcanic. Haven't had a closer look yet but hopefully tomorrow.

No coffee included with the meal at this hotel. Incredibly cheapskate if you ask me! Still have one more night here so might have a coffee breakdown :) Just kidding!

It is interesting to note that on my first day of touring I visited no places that I had been before. So it's a truely new experience!

And there was one place where the flash may have been useful. I think I should send someone a bill for every photo I miss!

One final thing before I sign off and get some sleep! In Hebrew the 'b' and 'v' are often switched! So if you switch the 'v' in Be'er Sheva with a 'b' you might recognize the place name better *grin*

Till tomorrow then!

-- Post From My iPhone

Location:נחל האלה,Mitzpe Ramon,Israel

On the way to the Negev

Spent the morning exploring Jaffa. This, for you bibliophiles, is the ancient city of Joppa. This is where Johah went to catch a ship to Tarshish when he was supposed to go to Nineveh. This was also the place where Peter has his vision of the animals in the sheet.

Started the morning early. Called at 5:30. Now you will ask why so early? Well actually it was at 6:30 but Israel is on daylight saving so they are an hour later than we are. So ZA time it was 5:30.

First stop was Beit Immanuel. It is a CMJ ministry site in Jaffa. We listened to a talk on the history of the place which is very German. I recorded this talk but mobile blogging has its limitations and a 100MB audio file would be expensive to upload. There is a beautiful church there.


CMJ has a great ministry to the Jews here and we were told that the attitude of Jews to their Messianic brethern is changing. This is very good news!

From there we went to the traditional site where Simon the Tanner lived. Yes, it was his house where Peter had the vision.



We are now on our way to the Negev. Passed a few Phillistine cities, notably Ashdod. Check your concordance or appropriate software.

The next Phillistine city is Ashkelon


Not much to see but that's what happens when you ride past quickly in a bus!

More to blog later. After we actually stop!

-- Post From My iPhone

Location:Rishon LeZion,Israel