Shabbat, 18th June, 1983

During this past week the Ulpan had a trip, which I enjoyed thoroughly. We left shortly after 7:30am and got home at about 7:30pm.

From Degania Bet we travelled north through Tiberius, past Migdal. If you look at the Mediterranean Coastline on your map, north of Haifa, north of Nahariya, you'll see a place called "Rosh Hanikra". Draw a mental line from Rosh Hanikra to Migdal (which is on the bulge of the Sea of Galilee). A little more than halfway along that line, near Ma'alot, is a village called "Pekiin". This village, our first stop, is a Druze village (and some Christians), which has some special significance. It's the one place in Israel where the Jews have never been without a presence. Even during the great dispersion of around 70 A.D., some Jews remained there. Today, only two Jewish people are left - an old woman and her daughter (the daughter is in her sixties) who take care of the Synagogue.

From Pekiin, we travelled through Ma'alot to Rosh Hanikra.

Rosh Hanikra, on the Lebanese border, has some of the most beautiful grottos imaginable. One gets to the base of the cliff by cablecar. We had lunch on the beach nearby. After the picnic lunch (and don't kid yourself about the food - it's quite a spread. that's apart from the candy, cookies, ice creams and fruit that we eat all day on the bus!) we went down the coast to Nahariya and then to Akko.

Akko is something else again. The old city walls along the waterfront are more spectacular than Jerusalem's. It's like something straight out of Crusader days - every little boy's dream. We spent a few hours exploring Akko, then came home via Haifa.

To give you an idea of the size of the country in 'visual' terms, find "Pekiin" on your map. South of Pekiin you'll see a town called "Carmiel". Imagine that when you stand on the mountain where Pekiin is, you can see all those towns down to Carmiel around and below you. When the haze isn't too bad, you can see the Mediterranean from there. Unfortunately, I didn't have a film for my camera .....

Back at the ranch, we're still reaping watermelons. The temperatures are getting pretty high now, but the sun's intensity isn't what it is on the S.A. Highveld. While the sweat pours in torrents off me at seven in the morning, the sun doesn't actually hurt my skin. I seemed to be wrong about the humidity here - it's a dry heat with winds off the desert a lot of the time. These days the air conditioner in our room really battles to have any effect - but it's a real blessing.