There was a two-hour drive to where we were going. The place where we were going was led to by a long dirt road that was a turnoff from the main road. It went through a herd of cattle (moo to you, too) and by a river. There were also horses and donkeys, too, Simon tripped over a donkey when he got up to pee in the middle of the night. The land there was coarse grass with trees and shrubs scattered through it, and cow poop everywhere. There was a smell of dead cow in the air-yuk!We came to a river called the Jordan River and found that the bridge had been washed away and that we couldn't get the car across it. Of course we couldn't leave the car there while we went across on foot because there were thieves.
After a lot of debating we decided that we would leave the car where it was by the side of the road and camp right on the other side of the river on a poo-free patch of grass within sight and 20 meters of the car. The only problem with our site was that there were people right on the other side of the river with torches (flashlights) and a spotlight, and everything. They made a lot of noise.
After we got set up, Dad, Simon, Batiya, and I went for a swim in the Jordan. It was nice and cool, and very refreshing. Orit stayed behind. Afterwards there was dinner.
We went to sleep around 9:30. All of us had a hard time getting to sleep. There were what sounded like crickets chirping, and the occasional moo of a cow or whinny of a horse. Simon was snoring. The moon was full, and it was like a spotlight, bathing us in it's silvery glow. It was so peaceful, but the mosquitoes were out, and I got bitten a couple times (scratch, scratch.) Right after I finally did doze off, 3 cars with spotlights drove through the campsite and woke us all up. Then the people got out and started shouting at each other. And some person in a different camp was playing this rock music-ugh! The night was still OK, though.
We got up around 5:00, and started driving.
We stopped for lunch in a place called Safat, which is one of the four holy places in Israel. Batiya used to live there, so we got around pretty well.
We ate lunch at a restaurant that had pretty good food. I got some pasta that had cooked tomatoes and herbs in it.We walked around for a while, and came upon a place that had a show about the history of Safat, but it was all in Hebrew so we didn't watch it, but we did look at some old black-and-white pictures. And in one of them was this older lady that looked exactly like my 5th grade teacher(and I am not exaggerating here, they were even dressed the same; it was really freaky). :0
After that we went to a war memorial and looked at a sculpture that had the names and ages of 14 people that died; there were others but they weren't listed. The people were all so young,
ranging from 18 to 24, although there was one that was 36. It was so sad sitting there. On some buildings you could see the bullet holes, and we stopped by the spot where Batiyah's grandfather's house had been before it was bombed because the Arabs were standing on it. All that was left was a big hole in the ground.In the picture on the right you can see all of us except Dad who was taking the picture. On the right in front wearing the purple shirt is Batiya. Behind Batiyah is Orit. Wearing the white shirt is Simon. And sitting on the bench is me.
That was a very successful day in my eyes!
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