It’s a Small World

I woke up feeling a bit nervous. I knew we had a long hike planned and for some reason it just worried me. My not so normal brain started saying things like “what if the sweet shop where we plan to eat breakfast doesn’t have nourishing enough food and you get weak and shaky and puff really bad on the hills and get thirsty and feel like your gonna die and it’s all horrible and you end up sitting dejected in a valley while the guys have to coax you up and… DEAR LORD YOU WILL HAVE TO PROVIDE ME WITH PROTEIN AND PLEASE POWER ME UP THE HIKE”. And then I arose and proceeded to live.

The journey started with a major disagreement with Waze. I don’t know what kind of a twisted sense of humor it has, but we spent 20 minutes bouncing all over the back side of Abu Dis before we were spit out 1/2 mile from our starting point. Through mud, down narrow streets with blind corners, past a huge horse barn, up a street so steep and slippery it took 4 tries to make it, past 100’s of dogs, scrap yards and kids going to school, new construction and abandoned buildings. It was funny/maddening at the same time.

Our Destination was Jericho with all it has to offer. We swung around to the Baptism site at the Jordan River on the way and watched tourists getting dunked in the muddy water. It’s pretty dirty there! I wasn’t envious.

Quick stops at the Sycamore that Zacchaeus sat in (heh) and Elisha’s Spring were followed by a check to see if the Sweet Shop was open and serving Knafeh. It wasn’t, so off to the cable car where we rode up and over the ancient ruins of Jericho and stood on the mountain and gazed out over the city and banana groves and palm plantations that spread for miles.

The Sweet Shop was open on our return but they weren’t really cooking yet. “Not for 1 hour”. Well, that didn’t suit our timeline so we peered uncertainty down the street and I happened to spy a little sign that looked like a food something or other. We went to check it out and it was a hole in the wall shop selling dough things. I have no idea what they were called. All I know is that the man said “please, let me cook you something, just something” and 10 minutes later I was sitting at a rickety table on the sidewalk with the hugest protein/energy fix I had seen plopped in front of me. I could not believe my eyes and laughed and laughed with joy and amazement! The place had a brick oven (see similar below) where they baked the food on hot stones. Mine was a large dough circle that they baked on one side, pulled out and flipped, curling the edges up to make a ledge and then they cracked three eggs in there and sprinkled on heavy amounts of feta cheese, then poked it back in till it was fully cooked. They made some large Zatar and Feta stuffed triangles for the guys that were delectable as well. Everything was hot, fresh, and super cheap.

Of course after that I was ready to hike. And I needed to be! What a marvelous hike! It went from St George’s monastery upriver, following the path of the Jerusalem to Jericho road where Jesus walked. There’s an ancient aqua duct running the whole way with water flowing down it, as well as parts of others that date from the 2nd century BCE. The hills are full of caves and shepherds and goats and monks. No, not monks. I only saw one. Our trail ran right in the bottom of The Valley by the stream. It was truly gorgeous down there. Wildflowers dotted the hills- tulips, anemones, daisies, little blue flowers, little yellow flowers, little red sweet peas, medium purple flowers. I know, not very intelligent but I just plum don’t know all their names. The grass was a brilliant green and the weather 70* and sunny and I was full of energy and happiness.

We hadn’t gone very far at all when we got to our first water crossing. I took off my shoes but after rounding the bend we realized we might as well commit to getting wet and enjoy it. Back on went the shoes and into the water we went, splashing and slipping our way upstream. We hopped over rocks, scared frogs and had a frog scare us. In between we’d spot a cave that called to us so we’d scramble up the steep hillsides and check it out. In this fashion we gamboled our way upriver for a couple of miles. Our eyes got a teeny bit wide when the walls closed in on us and we suddenly realized that we were entering a canyon and there wasn’t any way out but forward. I mean, we could have turned around but that’s no fun. So forward we went, the water getting deeper and deeper, stopping just below waists. You had to walk super carefully to stay that shallow as the bottom dropped off abruptly here and there. Waterfalls would loom up and we’d slip and scramble up and over and press on. It was so much fun and hair raising. I won’t even describe the area where we had to do some gymnastics to get over a falls. I had a small freak out but my quivering limbs stuck to the rock and we pressed on. Eventually the canyon opened up again and we were free to roam and laugh and marvel at the beauty. We stopped and snacked by a huge waterfall right at the start of the aqua duct before heading back down. This time we took the dry trail till after the canyon for which I was grateful. It’s one thing to climb up freaky spots and quite another thing to fall down them.

The parking lot had four extremely persistent hawkers in it that made us a bit disgusted. We did buy some fresh pomegranate juice but refused the Bedouin head scarves that were repeatedly thrust upon us. The sun was setting as we rolled out and the donkeys were mere shadows on the hills.

We stopped at a little shop in Abu Dis for supper that sold huge hot sandwiches that tasted like Heaven and were decorated with chili sauce hearts. We witnessed a small vehicle crunch right outside the door so that was a bit entertaining tho unfortunate.

A hot shower felt blissful, but it only lasted two minutes. That’s when James turned on the electric kettle and kicked the breaker. My water instantly turned cold and when the breaker was turned back on the water heater made a loud buzzing noise and the water turned scalding hot. I decided I was clean enough.