We had a big decision to make this morning. When we woke up it was raining and our feet were still hurting. We were aware that most of the places along the Jesus Trail offer a luggage service. They will take our backpacks to the next place so we can walk free of that burden. But it meant I had to swallow my pride and ask for help, something that doesn't come naturally to me. Really though, we didn't have much of a choice. If we wanted to to make it safely, with dry luggage, and not permanently injure ourselves, we would have to inquire about this service. It was the best $8 we spent all week!
Feeling much better without our packs, we set off at 8:30 on our 19.7 kilometer day from Ilaniya to Arbel. It started off great with lush green rolling hills. The rain had disappeared and the sun shone brightly down. It was a beautiful day.
We walked through a military gathering spot, maybe a training area. Tanks were everywhere and there must have been 100 soldiers, men and women. Everyone was very nice but since they all were carrying automated machine guns, we kept our cameras hidden, our heads down, and walked quickly by. It was pretty intimidating.
Then we got the the Horns of Hattin, a mountain that turned the flat dirt pathway into a rock climbing expedition. Oftentimes on our hands and feet, we crawled at a snails pace up this mountain and then slowly and carefully made our way down. We were thankful we didn't have our packs on!
By the time we inched our way over, it was 3:00 and we still had 9.6 km to go, another 3 hours or so. But there was a shortcut that was only 3 km. Again, I battled with my pride in "doing the trail the right way" versus doing what our bodies needed. We sat down to eat for 15 minutes to decide what to do, asking for God's guidance.
Just as soon as we sat down, a cold wind started to blow and the clouds rolled in. We didn't even wait 10 minutes until we decided this was the sign we were asking for. A storm was coming and walking 3 hours in the cold wet weather was not appealing. We high tailed it to the shortcut, almost running at times trying to beat the rain. As the wind pushed us on, it felt like God's hand was on our backs gently urging us to go faster. We were only 5 minutes from our bed and breakfast place before the sky burst open and it started to pour. While we were wet, 5 minutes of rain was a whole lot better than 1 or 2 hours worth.
That night we had the best meal ever in Ysrael's Kitchen. Ysrael is a wonderful chef and reservations have to be made way in advance. Thank goodness we had some and we enjoyed a lamb dish that was out of this world. The best thing was that while we ordered the lamb, little side dishes kept coming that we hadn't ordered: green beans, salads, tomato and cucumbers, vegetables, and apricot nectar. Everything was delicious, especially the chocolate cake and homemade ice cream!
We survived another day on the Jesus trail...and made a few friends along the way.
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