Saturday brought Heidi and I up to the Sea of Galilee. It is a very “vivid” feeling to know that you are crossing the footpaths of your Lord.

Driving up the Sea of Galilee, we passed 10 km north of Nazarath (another trip) and came out to the Sea of Galilee at Tiberias. While the middle of Israel is not dry like the Negev desert, neither is it lush. As one drives north however, the vegetation in the valleys becomes lush and green with palm and eucalyptus, while the hills are tremendously imposing and rocky. If you have ever been to St John’s, it reminded me of Signal Hill. Imagining the Lord walking north from Nazareth to the Sea of Galilee is quite a thought.

Imagine hills as steep as the backside of Green Hill, covered in rocks, for dozens of kilometers. Up and down. I’m sure the footpaths wound around the hills and through the valleys, but it would have been a difficult walk, no matter how you travelled the countryside.

Arriving at the Sea of Galilee, we drove south (counter-clockwise). We stopped first on the eastern side at a kibbutz, Ein Gev, where we had lunch. First and foremost on the menu was St Peter’s fish. The sea of Galilee obviously still yields tremendous amounts of fish as the kibbutz actively ran at least a dozen fishing boats. Cast your nets on the right side …

“And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes.”

We drove north from here to Kursi – the supposed location where the Lord cast the devils out of Legion (Mark 5). Whether this was the location or not, I’m not sure that anyone knows, but seeing the “steep place”, it wasn’t difficult to imagine the 2000 swine running violently down and into the sea.

You can see the remains of a Byzantine Monastery now in the pictures. Preserved in the mosaic floor of the Monastery are depictions of baskets of bread and fish fins. Mark 8?

Driving north around the northern tip, we crossed the Jordon river. We actually got out here and I walked down through a grove of Eucalyptus trees. The smell is incredible an beautiful.

We missed about three or four places that I wanted to stop at, so the Sea of Galilee is a definite repeat in our books. 🙂