Mountaineering

By Ed B. -
With daytime highs forecasted to be around 90, we made the decision to rise really early and hit the trail before the heat got bad. Our book told us that the first two kilometers or so would be straight uphill as we would go over Mt. Tabor and that was an understatement. It was extremely hard and to compound the difficulty Joan was not feeling well.  How she ever made it is a mystery.  Serious fortitude.  The one thing they did not tell us was that there would be some rock climbing.  It was brutal. When we finally made it we walked a beautiful trail that circled the top part of the mountain displaying beautiful vistas.  We finally stopped to eat the breakfast we had packed.  We feasted on Cinnamon Babka (Seinfeld reference, not sure what this was really called).  The descent was this twisty switchback on the road leading us to the town of Diboryya.  We had a tough time navigating the streets until we finally found the trail again.  It was a bit sketchy. When we did finally find it, we had another climb to take us over Mt. Deborah.  This was a bit easier but still hard in that it was getting warmer.  After crossing over and finding a paved road at the other side we thought we would be ok to get to our destination near Nazareth. What we didn't know was this road went over yet another mountain. We persevered until we got to the foot of Nazareth where we caught a local bus to take us to the area near our accomodations. (When we arrived we discovered that all three of us had run out of water in our Camelbacks). We procured a decent lunch and then found our hostel. Normal routines ensued but with Joan getting some much needed rest. Later in the afternoon we explored a bit in town and found a place making incredible food creations. Nothing large but very tasty. We went back to our hostel and did some route planning as we prepare to head to Jerusalem tomorrow evening. Tomorrow we will spend the day exploring historic sites in Nazareth. But today was quite a victory for us physically and mentally as we navigated this countryside.  

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