Walking Down to Jericho and into the Jordan

Today was an very early morning start for the group for half the group. We left on the bus at 4.45 am and walked through Wadi Qelt to Jericho, a distance of about 12 km. We arrived in the Wadi Qelt area in time to see a brilliant sunrise over the barren hills of distant Jordan.

A wadi is, for most of the year, a dry river bed, but that in the short rainy season turns into a raging torrent. The surrounding hills were amazing - barren, rocky and amazing formations.

We trekked on and eventually arrived at a point where we could see St George's Monastery hanging on to the hillside. There have been monasteries in the area since about 400 or 500.  Of course we had a man with a donkey wanting to give Leona a ride (maybe it was because she was the only woman of our group present). We could also see the Wadi from this viewpoint before we walked down a very steep road towards the monastery and the dry Wadi. The monastery with about 9 monks does not open to visitors until 9 am so we kept walking towards Jericho. 

Monastery of St George

We saw many caves and evidence of former dwellings as well as the place of a hermit who lives there today. We wondered how they ever built the places and how they got to them. As we walked along I thought of the tramps that we would go on in NZ - we look down at running water and rivers and look up at mountains and walk through bush. This was the complete opposite. 

The hermit's cell stuck in the side of the cliffs of the wadi.

We arrived in Jericho just after 9am after walking for a few hours and around 12 km and the temperature rising towards 40 degrees. The rest of the group arrived a few minutes later by bus. From there we visited a church before getting the cable car up the hill to the Monastery of Temptation. The icons of Jesus and Mary on the iconostasis we're some of the best we had seen we thought. From the monastery and the cablecar there was a good view of Jericho. We were told though that it is a poor town of around 20,000 people.
 

The Monastery of Temptation

 

Our last stop of the day was the baptismal site of John the Baptist. The area has only recently been opened up to the public as the Jordan River is the Israeli-Jordanian border as the sign reminds you

On the left Jordan, on the right Israel. Israeli soldiers are sitting above to make sure you don't cross from one side to the other.

The main archaelogical sites for John's baptism site are in Jordan and the Jordanian government are keen for churches to set up there... you can see a couple from the Israeli side

Just don't wander too far... this is a border area and the Israelis are pretty untight about people crossing into Israel