Jericho

We are up before dawn at our Bedouin camp and the bus leaves promptly at 6 am. We watch the sunrise from the coach and a few of us have a bus-nap to make up for the short night! We have a long ride ahead to the Allenby Bridge to return to Israel today. We travel on the King's Highway which is 5,000 years old - it passes through a string of ancient sites. One of them is Madaba, "the City of Mosaics". We stop and have a tour of the Greek Orthodox church of St. George. On the floor is a wonderfully vivid, 6th centry Byzantine mosaic map showing Jerusalem and other holy sites. Some of the map is missing, but there is enough there to be colourful and impressive.

Ten minutes to the west of Mount Nebo where Moses looked out over the Promised Land. God said to him that he would see it, but not live to cross over, this is the presumed site of the Prophet's death and burial place. The view is breathtaking and we can look across into Jordan one way and the other way over the Jordan River and Dead Sea into Israel and the Mount of Olives, and Jerusalem which are not far away.

We hussle back into the bus and make haste to the Allenby Bridge because it is the Jewish Shabbat (sabbath)and the bridge will close at 12 noon. We arrive and it takes the usual 1 hour and 45 minutes to get through all the security checks and line ups. Our organized tour guide Dicko is waiting for us along with our friendly bus drive Sharif, who is very sweet with his winks- universal language!

Even though we are on our way to the hotel to freshen up before our flight, Dicko has a full day planned for us. We go to the city of Jericho dating back to about 7,000 BC. In the area cave dwellers have also been found (Carmel) dating back to some 600,000 years before Christ. That is beyond comprehension! We also see a sycamore tree that is some 2,000 years old, said to be the one that Zacchaeus the tax collector was sitting in as Jesus came by. It is a large, gnarled tree, like a big bonsai!

In Jericho we walk to Elisha's spring - and taste the fresh water. Water is such a crucial part of the survival of the people's of Jordan and Israel. Right now a 1 billion dollar pipiline is being run through Jordan and it is estimated that fresh water will be supplied for about 45-50 years - after that????

On we go to our hotel in Tel Aviv to rest and shower before our Farewell Dinner.
What a day - what a trip!