Today we hiked from Jerusalem to Jericho... well we bused two thirds of the way there then hiked the rest. We stepped off the bus into a mountaneous desert. Immediately everyone grabbed there sunscreen and lubbed up because there was no shade in sight. So from here we started our 12 km trek.
Our first stop was at this Oasis with trees, a spring and a little pool area that some decided to go swimming in. The spring ran into an aquaduct that King Herod built. Our path followed this aquaduct for a while, until we moved down the mountain into the valley which is a dried out riverbed. Here we got some glimpses of the wildlife here which was mainly rock badgers, but some of the lucky ones saw a gazelle.
Before we knew it we were at St. George's Monestary, which means lunch break in the shade. Here after eating our lunch we did our daily devotions here aswell. We were hoping to fill up with water in the monestary but for some reason we were only able to get a jug of water for the whole group. But since we only had an hour and a half left until we were done, we decided to push through.
From here we continued our hike on the side of the mountain which overlooked the valleys below. The views were astonishing. The only downside to the afternoon hike was that there was limited water and I guess the scorching hot sun and lack of shade was brutal too. But our hard work paid off when we got to the end of our hike at one of King Herods' palace and some kid sold us some popsicles. They were delicious and well worth the 5 sheckels.
The bus was supposed to pick us up here, but because of construction, we had to walk another 2 km in the hot sun before we got to the nicely airconditioned bus. Once we got to the bus, it would not start, but luckily there was a store down nearby with ice cold water and AC. Soon the bus was up and running we bused to the old city of Jericho.
Here we saw some of the surrounding scenery and some walls that were about 8000 years old. Some of us hopped the fence and ran down and touched it. That was neat. After we had seen all of the excavations we had a chance to go and get some drinks and/or food in a little market nearby.
Some people weren't feel too well, so we had to wait about an hour until we left here. Finally on our way we headed back to Jerusalem. On the way we were delayed about half an hour, but we got through and were happy to be on our way. Once again we were delayed when the bus broke down on the side of the road about 15 mins from our hotel. But after about another half an hour the bus was up and running, but then our bus driver became too ill to drive. So we had to wait for another bus driver to come and drive us back to the hotel. In this time of waiting, about half the people on the bus began to not feel very well, and after a long time, we finally made it back to the hotel.
Most people were too sick to eat dinner, so after dinner we had a doctor come check us out. He gave the suggestion that we go to the hospital, so about 11 of us went to the hospital. Soon after more people came, everyone was dropping like flies. 10 of us checked out at around 1 after getting an IV and some medication. Everyone else checked out by the morning. I think there was about 16 total that got sick. Crazy, rediculous night, but everyone is now feeling much better, and Im sure by tomorrow everyone will be completely better after a good nights rest.
Charles
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