Our last day on the Jesus Trail and quite frankly I was a bit relieved. This trail was a lot harder than what I was expecting. We arranged for luggage to be transported once again (still the best $16 I ever spent) and we set off at 9:00. Another big decision was whether to literally climb over the Arbel Cliffs or take the valley road between the cliffs. Since it has been raining hard all night long, we were told the cliffs might be a little slippery and perhaps even closed, so we took the lower road in the valley.
This also was not an easy path. In order to get to the valley road, we still had to climb down the mountain, over a very rocky terrain. Rocks were everywhere and we had to slowly pick our way down through the loose stones. In addition, everything was muddy and slippery which made climbing over the rocks that much more dangerous. Every ten minutes we had to scrape off the thick mud that had accumulated on our shoes.
It seemed never ending but we finally made it through the valley, with cliffs towering over us. Throughout the centuries, those cliffs have harbored rebels in the caves who revolted against the prevailing government. Many battles have happened on or near this cliff that is so close to the Sea of Galilee.
While we didn't see many fellow walkers, there were companions along the way and we tried to make friends with them. Actually, I let Rose make friends with them first!
Along the road we thought the farmer wouldn't miss one of the delicious grapefruits that was ripe for the picking. So juicy and good!
We caught our first glimpse of the Sea of Galilee, our destination being Capernaum. It was much bigger than what I had imagined!
We trudged through the mud, closer and closer to Capernaum.
We made it to the Greek Orthodox Church at 5:00, 8 hours after we had left.
The church had a gate that led into the Sea of Galilee. We considered this the end of the trail and gave prayers of thanks for a safe trip.
Then we found the official end of the trail and gave more prayers of thanks. The Gospel Trail, the Jesus Trail had been quite a challenge and with a little humility and recognition of physical and emotional limitations, we had made it. Thanks be to God!
No comments:
Post a Comment