Wadi Qelt

A wander in the Judean desert.

We tramped down the Wadi Qelt from the Monastery of St George Khoziba to Jericho. This monastery was originally built in the 4th century over a cave believed to have been the cave of the prophet Elijah, where he was fed by ravens.

Above Wadi Qelt

Dan Koski - our Guide

Orthodox monastery of St George Khoziba

This is considered quite green!

A flock of goats in the distance...

The entrance to one of the cells - OSH wouldn't be happy

The chapel of the prophet Elijah

The trail

A happy tramper

One of the hermitages - occupied presently

Jericho in the distance

The trail - lots of vegetation which will be burnt off in the coming weeks

Zachariah's sycamore tree in Jericho - This one is only 400 years old and there is a stump elsewhere said to be the remains of the "real" tree

A modern Orthodox Church, Jericho

The Good Samaritan

The Dormition of Mary

Ceiling of the Church

Down to Galilee

As I mentioned yesterday we had a great meal at the place we stayed on Mt Arbel - it was a little expensive, but it was great to have lamb chops and mashed spud! It was the first meal that approximated something like traditional kiwi cooking I've had in Israel. The wine was expensive and very average - from the Golan Heights - maybe security costs money up there!

Dessert!

There was a nice pudding though. Well worth it after the 24 kilometres we put in today. Most of it was hard slog through mud. We didn't have much rain, but the ground was still soaked from the previous days. We felt we deserved it after the steep climb up the hill from the wadi floor to the Moshav (agricultural cooperative) Arbel. We went from about 120 metres below sea level to about 100 above.

Mt Arbel (right) and Mt Nitai (left) frame the Sea of Galilee

The Ancient Synagogue at Arbel

Facing Jerusalem

Early on Wednesday morning we set off - we were on the road up to the Arbel Mountain National Park at around 7.00am, hoping to see a clear view of the Sea of Galilee. The gate was closed, so heeding the advice of the owner of the lodge we stayed at, we ducked under the barrier and headed on up. No such luck with the view. It was still very misty.

The trail down from Arbel - Sea of Galilee in the distance

We decided to start on down - a steep mountain path, with occasional handholds and steps hammered into the rock at the worse parts. I was reminded of Paritutu Rock in New Plymouth - just a lot higher. Quite steep and exhilarating at times!

The path down Mt Arbel

Eventually we made it to the bottom and met up with the other group who had stayed at another lodge. The temperature and humidity was noticeably higher here in the Sea of Galilee basin. We were soon passing market gardens, banana plantations all under netting and citrus orchards. Our altitude: 200 metres below sea level.

Note the Elevation!

Near the Sea of Galilee

Eventually we arrived at Tabgha, carried on past the Mount of Beatitudes to Capernaum. There we finished our walk. I celebrated by wading into the Sea of Galilee - more to clean the mud off my shoes and pants than any desire to be re-baptised!

Cool feet!

We took a taxi van back to Jerusalem. There I spoke with another member of the programme who had also visited Arbel that day - he wasn't allowed to descend the trail to the Sea of Galilee. It was closed for two days! I did wonder why the park employee we met was a little surprised to see us as we wandered down the lower path!

The End of the Trail!

Some more photos:

See the goats?

More mustard plant near the Sea of Galilee

Rock Hydrax (just before entering the Wadi Haman

Boots off at Capernaum

The goats in close up on Mt Nitai

Inside the geodesic dome at the Goat Farm "Yarok Az"

With Saud and Sami in Cana

Heading for Ilaniya

Leaving Ilaniya - Yarok Az

The Horns of Hattin

We slept the night in a geodesic dome on a vegetarian goat farm - that is; the owners were also vegetarian, and so were we for the night! All very hippy.

Erick on the trail 

We set off early in two groups - part of our group had to travel a few kilometres further to where they'd booked in. The first group were away by 7.00am. We left after breakfast! The weather was overcast, threatening showers all day until the afternoon. And the trail was incredibly muddy - with a mud that clings to your boots adding a couple of kilos to the weight of your feet. A real slog at times.

Our route took us to the edge of a pine forest - not a NZ type forest, rather the quite scraggly Israeli pine forest - smallish trees among large boulders. We walked through a kibbutz farm in a rainstorm. The farm was very well organised - cattle and wheat fields. 

The Horns of Hattin in the distance

The fields, under a volcanic hill known as the Horns of Hattin, are the site of the battle between the crusader King Guy and the Moslem emperar Saladin. The Christians lost. He went on to conquer Jerusalem.

On top of the Horns are the ruins of a Canaanite fort and a later Jewish one. Interestingly all mention of the age of the volcano and the presence of a Canaanite fort have been scratched off the information boards.

Mt Arbel from the Horns of Hattin

There we caught the earlier group - they had got lost! After lunch we descended into the beginnings of Wadi Hamaan and followed it to the base of Mt Arbel, where we are staying tonight. And where we had a great dinner! Well deserved after covering 24kms.

The Sea of Galilee between Mt Arbel (right) and Mt Nitai - the rift is part of the rift that formed the Jordan Valley.

A roil of Caterpillars - there were quite a lot of these

Rock Hydraxs looking at us looking at them