EJIPT: Closed Roads, Checkpoints, and Land Mines

Upon picking up our rental car in Jerusalem, we made for the Route 90 highway which runs north to south along the eastern side of the country to visit the fortress of Masada located near the southern tip of the Dead Sea. We were to then drive north to the Sea of Galilee to spend the night and see the sites the next day before returning to Bethlehem.

Our drive through the dry and barren hills east of Jerusalem came as a refreshing change to that bustling city, and our spirits were only marginally dampened after a prohibitively expensive "public" beach prevented a stop at the shores of the Dead Sea.

These as yet still light and positive sentiments suffered a strong blow shortly thereafter, when we came upon a barrier and policeman blocking our progress further south. This sentinel informed us that a segment of the road had been washed away by a storm (coincidentally part of the same system that caused severe flash flooding in Petra just two days after our own visit) and that the only other way to reach Masada was to backtrack through Jerusalem and take another route 10 miles to the west.

Our plans thoroughly disrupted, we decided to visit Masada the next day and proceeded directly north towards the Sea of Galilee.

This drive brought us once more past the Allenby Border Bridge, as well as the Israeli side of the Baptismal Site of Jesus. We had originally planned to see the Jordanian side of this significant location, but had run out of time during our circuitous northern jaunt in that country. Seizing the moment, we diverted our course and made our way towards the Jordan River, which separates Israel and Jordan.

The no nonsense Israeli border security was unambiguously evident as we passed a series of barbed wire fences, watch towers, and mine fields (clearly marked with a liberal use of warning signs) on our way to the Holy site. These interesting distractions did little to detract from that location's merry atmosphere, however, as we found it bustling with eager pilgrims, many of whom were clad in white robes in anticipation of a full body immersion in those ancient waters.

We were all surprised by the narrowness of the river, which is barely 15 feet wide and quite shallow. Visitors are warned not to venture too far across to the Jordanian side, which also has its own Baptismal Site complex. For whatever reason, this bank was quite deserted but for a lone guard reclining in the shade.

While not partaking in the complete immersion experience, all of our party touched the refreshingly cool river water, which the recent rains had muddied to an opaque brown.

Continuing our journey north, we presently came to the border of the West Bank and yet another douse of checkpoint fun. Upon stopping our car and checking our passports, the guard asked where we were headed as well as our starting point. With our perhaps too honest reply of "Bethlehem" to the latter query he seemed somewhat taken aback and incredulous, perhaps because we had admitted coming from a Palestinian city. Asking whether we had spent the night there ("You slept in Bethlehem?"), which of course we had, and receiving our reply, in which we mentioned that we were staying in an Airbnb (nothing sinister there), he seemed to think for a minute and then inspected the trunk. After asking whether we had carried anything in the car for a Palestinian, he finally let us pass into Israel proper.

This being our first time out of the West Bank apart from visits to Jerusalem, we were all eager to observe the differences between these two regions. A lighter, more positive atmosphere permeates Israel, which is perhaps engendered by the more concrete differences between it and the West Bank. Barbed wire and guard towers certainly pay their contributions, but a more dilapidated and rough hewn nature also permeates this region, which reminds us of Jordan or even parts of Egypt.

At any rate our drive north brought us through pleasant scenery and nice neighborhoods, and towards the beginning of late afternoon by the Sea of Galilee (known locally as Kinneret), whose blue waters nearly extended so far as to obscure the opposite shore.

Running low on daylight, we decided to save the local Holy sites for the next morning and instead make our way north of this body to visit the Hula Nature Reserve, where we hoped to see flocks of migrating birds. Despite a slow start to the bird flocking, we presently saw hundreds of cranes alighting from afar for another leg of their journey south.

-Theodore