Last night in Israel

I had been wanting to have a swim in the sea of Galilee before we left these parts, and we were back from yesterday's excursion plenty of time for a late afternoon dip. Patsy and I were both somewhat intrigued by the sign at the beach (see attached pic) and wondered if it meant we should come back at a time when the 'rescuers' were not there. Happily, neither of us needed rescuing. One of the rescuers did start yelling at her when she went beyond the line of buoys near the shore but she just called back 'no speak english' and kept going. Mike had offered a 'reaffirmation of baptismal vows' (not a re baptism, in case anyone's heresy meter is beeping at this point!) in the lake at 5, which several of us took part in.

At 7 pm we headed to a nearby restaurant for our last dinner in Israel. A very nice meal - the usual selection of salads and pita bread, followed by some local fish. Once back at the kibbutz, we had booked a meeting room for a final shindig, since several of our group are not continuing on to Greece today, so this was our last gathering as a big group. We had some thank you gifts for our bus driver and for Ibrahim, our guide, and a bit of a show and tell session re things we had enjoyed/appreciated/purchased during our time here.

Woke up early enough this morning to get back down to the beach to try and get some pix of the sun rising over the lake. We have a free morning today, and then will get back on the bus about noon for the 2 hours drive to Tel Aviv for our onward flight to Athens this evening. The are forecasting temperatures in the forties today, and even now at 9.30am it is already very hot, so being on an air-conditioned bus for a couple of hours is probably as good an activity as any.Read more