Day Three and Four: Betsy

Amazing two days finishing the Jesus Trail! Above you see a view as we begin up the Horns of Hattin. Although the days are cooling a little, we still drink lots of water and sweat like crazy (I taste salt when I wash my hair in the evening!)
Philip loved the wildlife along the way. These reminded us of home and didn't seem to be too skittish - although the multitudes of chubby calves ran from our camera.
Bringing it to the Horns of Hattin! Peace.
Our first real view of the Galilee on the hike... and all the kilometers to travel until we get there.

On the way down the other side of the mountain known as the Horns of Hattin is a small ruined village called Hittin. The Arab town was destroyed in 1948 and now looks like heaps and heaps of stones. Philip found this "underground" olive press. As we walked through the rubble and then the crumbling mosque, we were sobered to be so close to one of the many conflicts that has and does rampage over this small piece of land near the Galilee.


During the two days, we walked through numberless olive orchards, as well as citrus and banana orchards. It is olive season now, "after the first rain." The thousands of olives must be almost picked by hand. Some can be raked off using a rake onto the ground but they all must be picked up by hand and the stubborn ones gathered from the tree. Although they look delicious, we've heard they are super bitter and may stay with you for hours.
For hours we followed a narrow valley with no town or person in sight. The landscape reminded me of Jesus' treks more than anything so far.
A bless-ed spring! Greater understanding of Psalm 23. Cool waters...green grass.
The cliffs of Arbel... to the sea.
An ancient synagogue overlooking the cliffs. We slept in a small Jewish town on top of the cliffs - Moshav Arbel and traveled on the next day.

Day Four. Reaching the cliffs of Arbel -- steep point stretching out to the sea but dropping to the plain far below. Here we saw the many caves where rebels of various kinds have found refuge and sometimes fought to their death from kings and soldiers. There is even a fascinating fortress castle built into the side of the cliffs. Philip was highly impressed!


I was impressed by these sure footed goats.

Look carefully for the horse! Somehow his little hoofs carried him up the rocky slope.


Meet our friends from Holland. They were hiking the Jesus Trail from start to finish and we kept running into them -- even stayed in the same place overnight and ended up walking some of the last kilometers with them. So very sweet...
In the end we arrived at Capernaum - town of Jesus. Wow. The history blows my imagination...
The synagogue at Capernaum -- built on the "synagogue of Jesus".
...and the sea in the evening. We made it.

How often did Jesus feel these refreshing waters?