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  • Sharon and Grant Macauley

Africa

A 54-day adventure by Sharon and Grant Macauley Read more
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  • Sharon and Grant MacauleyAfricaTraveler

    Panorama Route to Numbi Hotel

    October 26, 2019 in South Africa ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Our driver, Elvis, picked us up at 6:15am, and we drove the long, scenic route to our hotel outside Kruger Park. We stopped at a viewpoint over a valley, lake with layers of mountains behind and three mountains called the three sisters. It was very foggy, a common thing for this area. We walked over bridges over potholes made with water from two converging small rivers, a high waterfall, and then God’s window which is a beautiful view off a tall cliff into the lush rainforest valley below. There was a lot of agriculture along this route, with millions of orange trees, acres of wheat, and some other crops. As we progressed along our route, the hills for miles and miles around were planted with pine trees, in rows, with lower branches removed. The trees grow much faster than at home, and can be harvested after ten or more years, depending on the market demand for size. There were also a lot of gum tree plantations. Pine trees produce soft wood, whereas gum trees produce hard wood, so they have very different uses. Privately owned, they employ a tremendous amount of people and are an excellent crop. They are actually TREE FARMS! Our hotel is fairly nice, but WIFI is poor, but the buffet dinner tonight was absolutely brilliant, it was one of the best meals we have had for years; such a variety and amazing quality.Read more

  • Sharon and Grant MacauleyAfricaTraveler
    1

    First Day in Kruger Park

    October 27, 2019 in South Africa ⋅ ⛅ 33 °C

    We got picked up from our hotel at 5:15am! Our guide, Elvis, gave us a good day, but there was a bit of rain first thing in the morning, so what may have been why we did not see quite as many animals as he usually sees. However, we did see some things that we have not seen before on this trip: a tortoise, wild dogs, turtles, big huge bird with red on its face, and white under its large wings when flying, and a baboon eating a yellow-billed hornbill (yuk). We got some excellent photos, especially of the Lilac breasted Bird, which is a beautiful combination of bright colours, and when it flies, the underside of the wings are an incredible purple lilac colour. The other things we saw were: hippos out of the water, two rhinos (one lying in the shade and one walking in the open), a whole group of elephants trying to get themselves covered in mud, three warthogs taking a mud bath in another mud hole, an elephant spraying himself to get cool, a lot of buffalo, kudu, a couple of hundred Impala, giraffes, blue wildebeests, vultures, lots of baboons, two kinds of monkeys, a group of 7 or 8 small hyenas sleeping in the shade, fish eagle, and tawny eagles. We didn’t get back to our hotel until nearly 4pm...a long day which ended up to be quite hot. After a dip in the pool to cool down, we relaxed and enjoyed the air conditioning in the room, and got to bed early because we have an early day tomorrow!Read more

  • Sharon and Grant MacauleyAfricaTraveler

    Second Full Day in Kruger National Park

    October 28, 2019 in South Africa ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    Our safari guide gave us another great day today. Saw the big 5 before noon: lion, leopard, elephant, rhino and buffalo. We meet him at 5am and headed further along the highway to enter the park at a less used and faster entrance, and to access a different part of the park before it got hot. We saw some thing we had not seen before! A LEOPARD!! It was at a distance, but we got to see it coming down from a tree, waiting in the shade behind some grasses, and then walking a short ways before we lost sight of it. A herd of about 15 Impala took off running as fast as they could once they realized that the Leopard was endangering them. In a nearby tree, was the carcass of an adult Impala, probably from that leopard, who had killed it and carried it in its strong jaws, up to drape it over the branch of a large tree. That had been the day before, and the carcass was beginning to smell; the guides felt that its very close proximity to the road scared off the leopard with so many tourists in vehicles crowded in their bumper to bumper vehicles to watch her eat dinner. The other things that were new to us today were some Nyanga, an antelope similar in size to the Impala, but with vertical white stripes on its torso. We saw male Ervervet Monkeys, who have bright blue balls. We saw two extremely young baboons who were being nursed by their mothers. Another first for us what to see five different sightings of lions, some in pairs, others as a pride of up to 8 lions, lioness and small cubs; but most of the sightings were at a distance, only one was quite close to the road where we could get great photos. We also saw the usual constants: hundreds of Impala, lots of elephants, buffalo, giraffes, baboons, water bucks, kudu, rhino, hippos both in and out of the water, African fish eagles, a spotted hyena, wildebeest at a distance, and of course, quite a few zebras. It was very, very hot by mid-morning and then the afternoon was relentless as the sun beat down and the hot air blew into us as we rode in the safari vehicle; much like we think it would be to sit in a furnace or having a hair dryer on high, held in front of your face. I know it says here it was only 30C but truly it was at least 40C. We had 35 minutes break in mid-morning and an hour at 1pm for lunch and then were back at our hotel just after 3pm, anxious to get back to our air-conditioned room!Read more

  • Sharon and Grant MacauleyAfricaTraveler

    Half day Kruger, drive to Jo-berg

    October 29, 2019 in South Africa ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    Unbelievable morning! We were COLD! The temperature dropped and we needed blankets that were in the vehicle to stay warm! Many animals were MIA because of the wind, cooler temperatures and rain that we had last night. We did, however, still have lots of good sightings, including a lion relaxing less than 20 meters away. We saw two large herds of buffalo at very close range. Half a dozen leopard tortoise were crawling independently on the road. We saw quite a few starlings, which are an incredible metallic blue colour. We saw an African fish eagle, being common throughout our trip.Read more

  • Sharon and Grant MacauleyAfricaTraveler

    Relax and fly!

    October 30, 2019 in South Africa ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    We are pretty tired after getting up at 4:30 for the last 3 days, and being on the go for so long. So we are taking a break! We had to be out of our room by 11am, but they have allowed us to hang out at the room here and in the yard of the Lodge until we are taken to the airport at 6pm. We walked up to the nearby shopping Center, about 5km round trip and very welcome since we have hardly been doing any activity for a few weeks. Our overnight flight to Cairo, Egypt, is at 9:45pm, so we will have another recovery day tomorrow!Read more

  • Sharon and Grant MacauleyAfricaTraveler

    Cairo

    October 31, 2019 in Egypt ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    We arrived at our hotel around 7am; the flight was 8 hours overnight from Johannesburg, and uneventful; Grant got 4-5 hours sleep with the help of a little blue pill, and Sharon got maybe 3 hours of sleep max. We immediately fell asleep in our room for two hours, had breakfast at the hotel (marginal), and then went out for a walk. We met a man who seemed quite friendly and helpful, but of course, he had a shop with ‘family art’ to sell and tickets to a river cruise. We got some advice to go to the downtown market area, so we Ubered there ($2.50), and there were literally millions of shops, and we got lost in an internal maze of clothing stalls. They also sold everything else under the sun, and particularly targeted us tourists with their friendly insistence that we look at their wares, but they were not obnoxious like in some parts of the world (Zimbabwe). A man helped us find the food stall we were told about (GAD), and then stayed with us for the next two hours, showing us where to buy certain things, taking us to a ‘handmade crafts’ area, where one young man ‘made’ wooden boxes covered in various mother of pearl shell pieces and wood. We bought one, but understandably, we are fairly doubtful that it was the real deal. Oh well...win some, lose some. Grant got his hair cut, including getting his ear hair pulled out with floss! It smarted, but was effective, and Grant says he has to google what exactly the guy did! Of course, as we parted ways with the man, he wanted money for showing us around, which we figured would be the case, so we gave him the equivalent of $10, which he complained about, but he was hustling us, so we didn’t back down on his pleas for more money. There are 25 million people that live in Cairo. The roads are unbelievably busy, with cars everywhere, budging in, cutting other cars off, weaseling their way into traffic, etc. Its a wonder more accidents don’t occur. The pedestrians take their lives in their hands crossing the streets, with narrow misses all the time. I guess they get used to it. There are few traffic lights and fewer crosswalks. Apparently they view the lines dividing lanes as ‘suggestions’! We took a taxi back to our hotel and it probably took half an hour, with a maze of thick, slow traffic and cost us $8. Downtown, it was very noticeable that the men are mainly running the shops, and also the ones sitting around smoking huge hooka pipes, drinking tea, playing games and generally hanging out together, no women to be seen; apparently they are at home, doing domestic work and looking after the kids. The goods are brought into the market with tuktuks, carts or motorbikes, or carrying loads on their heads. There was garbage everywhere; its a very messy city, with cats everywhere as well, and a few dogs. Live chickens and rabbits are in cages, to be purchased and taken home for dinner. People were very friendly though, and it felt very safe. The men wore the western clothes, but the women wore anything from western clothes with a scarf head covering, to full burka with only eye slit openings. Apparently most women have a big assortment of headscarves to go with various outfits.Read more

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    Second day in Cairo

    November 1, 2019 in Egypt ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    At breakfast, we met Stan, from Oregon, who had just returned from a G-Adventures trip in Egypt, so he came with us to the Coptic Museum, St. George’s Coptic Church and the Hanging Church. We took UBER, for about $2, and spent a few hours in this area. Coptic churches are Egyptian Christian churches, which make up about 10% of Egyptian people today. The rest are Muslim, and nearly all Muslim women wear some kind of headscarf or even a full hijab. The museum had thousands of artifacts, many from the first centuries AD: some woven tapestries made from linen and wool, and intricate details, mainly from burials. There were also many paintings, limestone and wood carvings, and most were the 4th and 5th centuries, although some were within the past few hundred years. The oldest copy of the book of Psalms was on display, from the 4th Century AD. The Hanging Church was SO busy, mainly with Egyptian tourists, since Friday is a holiday for them. After seeing those three places, we ate lunch and then walked along the road for nearly a kilometer where there were people set up selling many things, but especially vegetables and fruit, and some fish and chicken. An obnoxious amount of flies were everywhere. Sharon got looks constantly, being a tall, white-haired Caucasian, and often people wanted their photos taken with her. It was quite amusing, but everyone was so friendly, especially since we were nearly the only white tourists from the West. Again, the clothing, amount of garbage, and transportation were most noticeable. Donkeys and horses sometimes pulled carts of cauliflower or other vegetables to market. Our tour group met for the first time; our tour guide and CEO is Kareem, or ‘Kimo”.Read more

  • Sharon and Grant MacauleyAfricaTraveler

    First Full Day with Tour Group

    November 2, 2019 in Egypt ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Full, tiring day today! We went to the Giza district of Cairo, where we viewed two pyramids and the Sphinx. There were thousands of people everywhere, it was crazy. We paid extra to take a tunnel and walk inside the second pyramid, but it was not very exciting, and a long low walk down and then up into a ‘room’ with an empty stone casket. The Sphinx was amazing, but somehow not as large as we imagined, although it is huge. There were men with camels who would take you for a camel ride but we didn’t do it today. After shawarma for lunch (chicken and peppers in a wrap), we went to the Cairo Museum, the largest in the world. It had so many artifacts from the pyramids, and they were so amazing; we could not take it all in. Cairo is such a huge city, and although some areas have a lot of garbage, other ares have a HUGE amount of garbage, unimaginable, really. There are millions of unpainted high rise buildings, with an equal number of dishes on the roofs, some of the residences didn’t have windows, so I guess that was their air conditioning. We got to the train station and watched as some trains came and went while we waited. One train which was taking workers from Cairo back to their homes in villages outside Cairo, had hundreds of people, mainly men, pushing and shoving to get on....they pushed and pushed until nearly everyone made it inside; it was quite a sight. We boarded our train at 8pm, and we had a sleeper compartment for two that had seats that converted to a bed, with another upper bed that folded down from the wall. They served us a chicken dinner which was so-so, but we had our own snacks to supplement it. The train and beds were decent enough, but the noise, movement of the train, stopping and starting all night meant a very poor sleep.Read more

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    Aswan

    November 3, 2019 in Egypt ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    We got to our hotel and had a two hour nap and a shower! Then we set out on foot to explore a bit of the city. The hotel was right on the Nile River, with a great view, so we saw how the river wound through the desert, with green on each side, before extending into limitless sand desert. We visited the Coptic Church, which is the second largest Christian Church in Egypt and is massive, holding 3,000 people. We had a brief tour, finding out that men sit on the left, and women on the right. Women cover their heads while in the church as a sign of respect and tradition. It will take another ten years to be fully finished inside, with many stained glass windows being planned and made in Aswan, so it will be stunning when completed. We then tried 6 ATMs before we found one that worked! We met the group at 3pm and went to the Nile River and rode a boat around Elephantine Island, where about 3,000 Nubians live. They are descended from one family, 7 generations ago, and have homes and agriculture on the island and some adults take the boat over to Aswan for work, and the teens for high school. They walked us around the maze of homes and then to a home with an open air deck, where they fed us dinner of: lentil soup, chicken, eggplant dish, zucchini and potato dish, bread, and an olive, Filo and cheese dish. It really was excellent, and great to have a local, traditional meal that was so fresh, healthy and delicious. Tired, we rolled into bed by 8:30pm! Tomorrow evening’s photos are going here a day early where there is room...we took a bus and then boat to the Phelae Temple, built in the 4th century BC, it was being flooded by the Nile, so international efforts in the 1970’s moved the temple piece by piece, about 500m. We saw a one hour spectacular light show; it was a bit hard to get photos but I will include a few for the memory of this event.Read more

  • Sharon and Grant MacauleyAfricaTraveler

    Abu Simbel

    November 4, 2019 in Egypt ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    We were all to receive a wake up call from the hotel front desk at 3:45am, meet for coffee or tea on the second floor, and leave at 4:30am. Unfortunately, we didn’t get our wake up call, until they wondered where we were at 4:35. We rolled out of bed, and checked the time at 4:40, and its a good thing we had all our stuff laid out because we were able to get down to the bus by 4:50. After a 2 1/2+ hour drive, we saw drove across the Aswan Dam, and then got to visit the amazing reconstruction of Ramses II, where in the 1960’s and 70’s they cut and transported two amazing structures that were going to be flooded by the dam. It was easily the most amazing thing we have seen....the actual art and sculptures in sandstone, but also to know that they had been cut up and moved and reconstructed into what we viewed today.Read more

  • Sharon and Grant MacauleyAfricaTraveler

    Felucca down the Nile

    November 5, 2019 in Egypt ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C

    We had a slower start, and drove to the felucca, a type of sailboat active on the Nile River. We were divided into two groups, and each felucca had two men who worked it, moving the sail back and forth as we tacked down the river. We were accompanied by a motor powered boat that had washrooms, and a long table where we ate our lunch, dinner, and breakfast the next morning. We lay around all day on the foam mats, which was relaxing and made a stop at the beach were we waded in the Nile River! We enjoyed our time on the boat. The food on the mother boat was really good, but our sleep overnight was not wonderful, although it was better than we expected.Read more

  • Sharon and Grant MacauleyAfricaTraveler

    Crocodile Museum & Karnak Temple, Luxor

    November 6, 2019 in Egypt ⋅ 🌙 23 °C

    We had to get up just after 5am, it was a bit chilly still on the Nile! We had breakfast and then went by bus to Luxor, a four hour drive. We passed through a lot of rural area, and saw many people farming sugar cane, corn, cabbages and cauliflower. It seems that all work is done by hand with little mechanization. There were many carts along the sides of the roads, pulled by donkeys, and stacked with sugar cane, a cash crop. We saw some kind of smelter from the mining done in the area. There were many villages along the highway, where there were enormous speed bumps to slow the traffic. The men mainly wore the long robes, and the women wore headscarves or complete burkas. Most of the homes were not completed, with one or two floors completed and occupied, with another floor started, but apparently most of them never actually get finished. Again, the garbage and plastic along the sides of the road was very noticeable. When we arrived at our hotel in Luxor, we had a shower and got settled. We went to the Crocodile Museum and Temple which created crocodile mummies, (the whole idea of appeasing the evil gods by mummifying crocodiles can’t be comprehended) and there was a huge temple with excellent sculpting. Again, the way it is at any temple or palace, there are older men who wear their long robe around and try to show us things and then want money for it. Then after a break, we went to the Karnak Temple, which is HUGE, with so much sculpting, and columns, and all kinds of amazing things. Outside every pyramid and historical spot, there are vendors trying to sell things from T-shirts and sculptures to trinkets and sculpted anything. They drive Sharon crazy because they are so persistent and bothersome and rude. We stopped at a perfume and essential oils factory, but after having to listen to the man talk and show us the products for half an hour, our group left without buying anything. We went to dinner on the 6th floor of a restaurant, overlooking the Luxor temple across the street, with a row of amazing sphinx. The history here is quite staggering.Read more

  • Sharon and Grant MacauleyAfricaTraveler

    Hot Air Balloon Ride and more history

    November 7, 2019 in Egypt ⋅ 🌙 25 °C

    Sharon went on a hot air balloon ride this morning with 3 other ladies from our tour group! We took a short bus ride, a boat ride across the Nile, then another bus ride and finally arrived at the start point. The ride was 45 minutes long, and smooth sailing 100% of the time, including a soft landing! We saw temple ruins, Valley of the Gods, agricultural crops, irrigation channels, homes and farm workers. Although nervous at first, the ride turned out to be a delight. (US$85) Afterwards, we met up with the rest of our group and we went to the Valley of the Gods, and entered three underground burial areas, which had lots of sculpting on the walls, including a lot of colour which stayed since it was protected from the sun. They were much more impressive and beautiful in colour! After that we went to the Palace, which again had some protected areas with colour, but massive sculptures and columns. We ate lunch at a local family home: chicken, beef, mixed cooked vegetables, salad, tahini and bread, rice and potatoes. It was the best meal we have had in Egypt. We took a boat back across the Nile, then a bus back to the hotel. The rest of the afternoon was free time so we showered and went for a walk in the local market, but honestly, it is so unpleasant with vendors hounding you, they are so aggressive. We tried walking up a street for the locals, to see if we could find a shirt for Grant, but instead, found 3 young men who Grant struck up a conversation with about our cell phone, which started acting up this morning, only working occasionally, otherwise frozen. It ended up that Carlos, who spoke excellent English, told us he was a Christian, as were his friends, so we had quite an in-depth conversation about the Islam faith of Egypt, the women’s clothing, etc. He went with Sharon and got a new battery installed in her watch for only $2. Then he took Grant in a taxi to a cell phone store that has Apple phones, and it was finally determined that the phone was not fixable, so Grant bought a refurbished one, and they transferred some of the data onto the new phone, total cost was $300. It took 3-4 hours though. While waiting for the data to upload, Grant, his new friend, “Koko” and the taxi driver, had a beer and cigar while in the taxi! Grant says that this may be his most memorable and favourite story from our whole trip! Our tour group was supposed to have a Farewell Dinner but since most of the group was still full from the excellent lunch, that really didn’t happen, so Grant brought some home with his new phone.Read more

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    Flights to Jordan

    November 8, 2019 in Jordan ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C

    Up at 4:30am, a flight to Cairo and then Amman, we said goodbye to Michelle and “Em”. I will include the photos from yesterday’s visits to the Temple and Palace.

    Jordan is amazing! Our guide, Khared, is excellent....more about Jordan tomorrow!Read more

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    Jarash and Dead Sea

    November 9, 2019 in Jordan ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    Today we left the hotel at 7am, and it was well worth the early start because when we got to Jarash, the remains of a city built around 200BC, there was nobody else there. The guide was very helpful in teaching us to identify Roman vs Greek parts of the city architecture, and the highlight was the coliseum, which is nearly fully intact. The sound is incredible; even the smallest whisper carries so far. After locally made ice cream, we took two hours to drive to the Dead Sea. It was hot, so we enjoyed the activities there after a great buffet lunch. The salty Dead Sea is so easy to float in, and in fact its a bit hard to right oneself once lying on your back. Sharon, like many of the people there, opted for a mud covering, which dried in 20 minutes, when she washed off in the Sea, and then showered. The pools at the complex were clean and relaxing, as we visited with our group members. The hot sun today tired us out so we had a low key evening.Read more

  • Sharon and Grant MacauleyAfricaTraveler

    Mt. Nebo, Karak Castle & driving

    November 10, 2019 in Jordan ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    Today we had a lot of driving but it was broken up with some interesting stops. Very cool and windy, we visited Mt. Nebo, where Moses ascended to view the promised land, which he did not enter. There were a lot of marble tile mosaic pictures and floors. Then a stop at a workshop and store of many items made by handicapped people. Lunch was from a clean takeout restaurant in a poor area: pita pockets with falafel balls and vegetables. The Karak castle, built and occupied by various people’s over the decades was an interesting stop; the Crusaders were the main occupants. Only 10% of the castle area remains, the rest has homes on the land. From there, it was a 3 hour drive to our hotel near Petra. With great Wifi on the bus, it makes travelling easy. Our guide is doing a fantastic job. Jordan is dry but has enough water for many crops, numerous plantings a year due to the excellent growing climate. Energy in Jordan is interesting. They have a huge number of windmills and solar panels. The goal is to change to electric vehicles by the end of 2020 to reduce dependence on neighbouring oil producing countries. Garbage is a big problem in 25% of the country that they are trying to address. We were able to catch the sunset!Read more

  • Sharon and Grant MacauleyAfricaTraveler

    Petra & Turkish Bath

    November 11, 2019 in Jordan ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    Today we spent 8 hours at Petra, and walked about 18 km. It was extremely windy much of the time but not too hot. We walked along an old roadway that went through a slot canyon with much the same colors in the rocks as is found in some American national parks such as Zion, Capital Reef and Arches. Suddenly it opened up to a magnificent Temple entrance carved into the sheer rock face. Continuing on, there are many palaces, buildings, tombs and a Colosseum. Most of the group climbed up the 800 stairs to the monastery. It was a very long climb on the uneven stairs and pathways carved into the side of the mountain, and donkeys carried a few people up. The Monastery was spectacular, and the viewpoint beyond it revealed rugged dry mountains beyond the deep valley. Returning to the bus proved to be a long slow climb up hill and we were very tired! A perfect recovery was the 75 minute Turkish Bath which included a steam bath, scrub down, and massage.Read more

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    4x4-ing in the desert to Bedoin tents

    November 12, 2019 in Jordan ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    We went to Little Petra, a site close to where we were yesterday, and saw more tombs and temples. Then we drove to a Bedoin site for lunch and rode in the back of 4 x 4 trucks in the desert, for four hours. We stopped at a Bedoin tent where we learned about their marriage, saw the sunset while we drank tea made over a fire from the sticks we had gathered in the desert, and saw amazing expanses of sand and mountains erupting in colours and textures similar to Arches National Park. We ate dinner at a Bedoin camp: salads, vegetables and a combo of rice, chicken, goat and carrots, cooked underground for a few hours. It was a full moon, which was bright and illuminated the desert but meant we could not see many stars though we were fortunate to see one shooting star very clearly.Read more

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    Camel Ride at Sunrise & Snorkeling

    November 13, 2019 in Jordan ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    Up at 5:30, we left the Bedouin camp for a 45 minute camel ride. The camels were gentle and well taken care of. We rode for nearly an hour, stopping to watch the sun rise. Then we met up with the rest of our group that didn’t do the camel ride; a man from China in our group took the most amazing Photo of the sun rising with our camels silhouetted in the foreground on his cell phone! After settling at our hotel for a while, we did a 4 hour boat excursion with lots of snorkeling on the RED SEA!!! We saw amazing colours, shapes, sizes and varieties of fish, including two puffer fish and two lion fish. The coral was incredible with all shapes, colours and textures. One of the crew did some line fishing and Grant helped but no luck. They served a delicious BBQ lunch of chicken and fish with salad.Read more

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    Busride back to Amman & farewell dinner

    November 14, 2019 in Jordan ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    We had a low key day, with a long bus ride back to Amman. After checking into the hotel, we walked downtown and bought some souvenirs from Jordan. We had a farewell dinner, and at the end when we were leaving the restaurant, there were a long table of Jordanian men and women, singing Happy Birthday to a woman. We sang along, and so they invited us to join them. They were very friendly and the man who Sharon sat beside was American, a project manager with the water treatment plant that they were all working on. It was a lot of fun and an honour to be included in their celebration.Read more

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    Transfer to Israel

    November 15, 2019 in Israel ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    Today we were up early and driven to the border between Jordan and Israel, a very wide strip. Coming into Israel, the workers wanted money to get us through more quickly. When in Tel Aviv, we went for a walk along the Mediterranean Sea. The sand is fine and white, with many people on the beach: walking, jogging; playing frisbee, a Brazilian game with two people hitting a small ball back and forth with wooden paddles, beach volleyball, and a similar game to beach volleyball where you can hit the ball with your head, chest or feet only, which was very entertaining. There were many people swimming, surfing, SUP-ing and kayaking. There was a pedestrian wide sidewalk beside the beach, plus a wide and highly used lane beside the road for bicycles and the many electric scooters. Tel Aviv seems to be a very healthy city for people to live. At 6pm we met the 3 new people in our group and Zo, our new CEO.Read more

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    Jaffa to Haifa

    November 16, 2019 in Israel ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    Our tour guide gave us a 15 minute summary of the history of Israel which is extremely complex to say the least. We visited Rabin Square and the ancient city of Jaffa, part of present-day Tel Aviv. After an hour drive, we found ourselves at the remains of a Roman aquaduct where Sharon walked along the top and also waded in Mediterranean Sea. We drove up Mt. Carmel and had lunch at a Druze family home. The meal was good and family friendly. Stopping at Haifa, we had an excellent viewpoint of the large waterfront and harbour with a rainbow produced by the temporary light drizzle. We looked down on the immaculate gardens and golden roofed Baha’i temple. A short stop at the Stella Marra Monastery, a centuries old Catholic Franciscan Church and monastery was interesting. We stayed in the Bay Club, a very new, spacious and beautiful hotel.Read more

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    Akka & Recovered Crusader Castle, etc.

    November 17, 2019 in Israel ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    We drove to Akka, where the Muslims covered over a Crusader castle before building a Mosque etc on top of the same spot. Prisoners found some remains of the Castle when making an unsuccessful attempt to tunnel out of the prison. The Crusaders built the castle around 1100AD, and the recovery is still underway, but they have made tremendous discoveries in the past hundred years. It was a fantastic view of old castle life, and they still have much more excavation to do. We then drove to a Mosque, which we entered, the women with their head and shoulders covered, for a quick look. Then on to the location where the Virgin Mary was told that she was pregnant, and its the location of a present day Catholic Church. We saw lots of mosaic work. The walk back to the bus involved buying a few Israel sweets, which were good but extremely expensive. At 6pm, the bus took us down to Tiberius, where our hotel was way up the mountain, so that we could have a walk, look around, and bite to eat.Read more

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    Kibbutz & Christian Sites

    November 18, 2019 in Israel ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    We spent an hour at a Jewish Kibbutz where we learned about their communal way of life, based on agriculture: farming avocados, mangoes, bananas and cows. It seems relaxed and affluent. When we visited the location where Jesus apparently delivered the Sermon on the Mount with what we now know as the Beatitudes, there were crowds of big buses and people. We then spent half an hour at a Greek Orthodox Church which was very ornate. Driving to a kibbutz by the Golan Heights, we took a ride on an old wooden ship on the Sea of Galilee. We saw Temptation Mountain, and the Sycamore Tree where Zacheus climbed up to see Jesus. The Kibbutz was interesting, but the rest of the day seemed quite touristy. Our hotel tonight is deluxe, a former casino, where we had a sauna, steam bath, hot tub, and played ping pong.Read more

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    Masada, Dead Sea & Jerusalem

    November 19, 2019 in Palestine ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C

    Masada is a big fortress built by the Romans but occupied by about 1000 rebel Jews nearly 2000 years ago. The Romans surrounded the fortresses for a year and then attacked, and with the luck of a strong wind changing direction that burned the massive gate, the fort would fall the next day. Rather than surrendering, the men killed their wives and children, and drew lots for the last ten men to finish the final suicide, leaving an anticlimax for the Romans. They had huge store rooms of food, weapons and a very elaborate city up on the top plateau of the mountain. Instead of taking the tram up, Grant and I joined half of our group who climbed up the “snake path” which took 45 minutes, a very hard and steep hike. After that we went to the Dead Sea, but since we swam in the Dead Sea in Jordan, we just hung around where the few people new to our group, swam. We drove to the Mount of Olives where we had our first view of old Jerusalem, with the setting sun.Read more

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