I resumed yesterday evening's walk by the tree lined river, between yellow wild flowers and green fields. As warned by my trusty guidebook, I needed to take off my boots to cross a river, however I had not expected another river crossing soon after. My feet are very sensitive so I do not normally attempt a river crossing in bare feet, but for these two crossings, as they were used by vehicles, there was a concrete ramp each side and hopefully under the water. My assumption was incorrect for the first crossing, there were pebbles and rocks under the water which made my balance precarious. The second crossing was easier.
I followed a diversion published on tapatalk up a grassy valley, it worked out well, apart from being stabbed in the head by a thorn as I pushed by a tree trying to avoid mud. I could not stem the blood with my hanky as I had used it to dry my feet, it would not have been hygienic, I had to dig out my toilet paper instead. Fortunately today was warm and sunny and the mud was drying out ever so slightly. I hope I was on the intended diversion, there were no waymarks...
Rejoining the original trail, I slowly climbed to the top of the hill, passing a some stones marking where before 1948 there was an Arab village, and (unrelated) a party of hikers with red jackets. I keep two metres away from them to comply with Coronavirus precautions, and avoided saying anything beyond "shalom" so they did not think I was bringing in the infection from some foreign land. One the other side of the hill the trail led to the Elot nature reserve where there should have been a good view, including the Sea of Galilee. I peered through the haze but cannot say that I saw it.
The path then led me down a stream bed, with a layer of volcanic rocks and on through some dense vegetation, fortunately beaten down by earlier hikers. I eventually reached the River Jordan, subject of bible stories and several songs. After some major pumping works I lost the trail in mud, a half completed construction project and a high water level. Working my way around through farm tracks I reached the Yardenit baptismal site, where you can be baptised in the River Jordan, but not today as the site was closed (presumably due to Coronavirus) although I managed to buy an ice cream and coke. On the walls at Yardenit there was a quotation from the bible in every language you could think of, and some like "Fang" you would not think of. Could not find the English version through. The river was lined with eucalyptus trees, which looked pretty, although not something that Jesus would have seen as they were introduced from Australia in the 20th century.
The final section was by some lakes (fish farm?) and up the road to my lodgings for tonight at "Kinneret village". There I spent a while going through 200 odd channels to find Sky news and the latest on the pandemic. Restaurants have been ordered to close in Israel so it is tea from the local supermarket.
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