13th January – We explore the borders with Syria and Lebanon before cruising on the Sea of Galilee.

One thing about touring in a group is that you don’t tend to meet many people outside of your group, but off course you get to spend a lot of times with friends to share your experiences. In fact the larger your group the less new people you are likely to meet. This is a problem I first noticed with my first SNA study some 15 + years ago. The bigger an organisational unit was the more insular it was. So no new connections today. 

Today is a little wet and misty. Apparently Israel gets virtually no rain in Summer, so we can’t begrudge a little precipitation here in the Winter. While driving we see many banana plantations on the flat, in contrast to Australia where they are always on hills. We were told that bananas are grown on hills because of the drainage required. Have we been misled all this time?

Anyway we head into the mountains toward the borders of Lebanon and Syria … perhaps not countries that we would feel comfortable visiting at the moment. Effie put our fears to rest by informing us that if we hear gunfire it will just be the Syrians shooting at each other or the Israeli army practicing!

Walking near the Syrian Border

We then make our way back toward the Sea of Galilee or lunch, a quick walk on water and then a boat ride across the Sea. For lunch we are eating the famous St. Peters fish. It famous because it is only caught here.

St Peters Fish

It was ok, but nothing to write home about. Today I had worn my special moon boots for the walking on water exercise. Having successfully executed this we join the boat which is taking us across the Sea of Galilee. The sea is eerily quiet and misty. A boat with a capacity of about 100 has been arranged to ferry the 8 if us. They welcome us by playing Advance Australia Fair. We get into the religious soul music. Noelene entertains us with some table top dancing and Kate Winslett impersonations.

Our Boat for the crossing of an eerie Sea of Galilee

On the Boat

Have Moon Boots, Can Walk on Water

We finish the day’s touring by visiting an ancient boat found only in the past 30 years. It dates back 2.000 + years and was uncovered during a period of drought. I think I can see what its problem was…it had a big hole in the side.

"Holey" Ancient Ship

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