Down By The Sea
We hit the pillow last night, armed with all our instructions for the morning of our last day. We were to have our bags packed and outside our door by 8am and report to the lobby, dressed (and preferably awake) at 10am sharp. Deb and I underwent our customary packing frenzy, gathering our various belongings - scattered to the four corners of the room - into our jumbo bags. I’d like to say we are a well-oiled packing machine by now, but no. Jim and Jane, a beautiful retired couple that joined our group, from Townsville, put us all to shame with their thrifty packing skills. Each of them travelled with a few essential items stuffed into a backpack each…and nothing else. Nothing to check-in at all. They were not the kinds of over-the-head-down-to-your-knees backpacks you might see glued to the back of a gap-year adventurer or ‘round the world traveller, hiking the Himalayas. No, their backpacks of choice were compact and small. How did they do it? I have no idea. I wanted to watch their little bags go through the security x-ray machine just so I could see what was (and what wasn’t) in there. It’s one of the Great Mysteries Of The World. They should run seminars.
Seated for our final buffet breakfast this morning it hit me that this was the last time, for a long time, I’d wake up to the choice of 7 different cereals, eggs 4 ways, 15 different types of toast and fresh fruit salad, not to mention a swag of non-breakfast-y foods like raw Spanish onion, curried fish and dim sims, to try. I’ll have to go and buy myself some heavy silver cloches just so I can pop my Vegemite toast under one and my Weet-Bix under another, to continue this lifestyle to which I’ve become accustomed.
With Moses at the helm one last time, our bus took us to the Valley of Elah, in Palestinian territory, named after the beautiful shady pistachio trees (terebinths) that grow there. This little valley, between 2 peaks, was also the site of the epic battle between David the underdog and his terrifying foe, the giant Philistine, Goliath. The brook where David knelt down to choose his slingshot ammo of 5 smooth stones was still there, though not running. Sue read the account of David & Goliath to us all, under the shade of a pistachio tree and then without a word, every member of our team strolled down to the dry creek bed and started looking for their own handful of slingshot-ready smooth stones. We’ll all be going home tonight with some souvenirs in our pockets.
After the Valley, we made our way to cosmopolitan Tel Aviv the seaside town of Jaffa (Joppa, from Bible times, from the story of Jonah). Tel Aviv had such a different feel to Jerusalem and the little port on the Mediterranean had a really summery vibe; colourful flowers, trendy cafes, fountains and a palm lined promenade down to a busy beach. There was a pretty lighthouse on the point and the city skyline with modern apartment blocks and resorts along the sand. We wandered around sampling the local cafes and ice cream shops and farewelled Barbara and Doug, from our team, who will be staying on in Tel Aviv for another week. Fadi rounded us all up and we boarded the bus one last time, bound for the Tel Aviv Airport.
Some of our group were continuing to travel - Cielo and Manuel were chuffing off to Switzerland, Bella, Lachie and Amy were winging their way to Cyprus, Megan and Bella were set to explore Turkey and Linden and Viv, Sue and Katrina would be leaving us in Dubai. The rest of us - the faithful remnant - settled into our cattle class seats for our relatively short flight to Dubai and then from there, on to our marathon leg to Sydney.
We have all become very close over the course of the last couple of weeks and have bonded like a little family. Scattered all over the plane, we would wave and stop for a chat when we wandered the aisles for a stretch. Will had paid a fee to access the Emirates wifi as he was finishing off a last-minute uni assignment and being connected to the internet, had seen some disturbing up-to-the-minute news in his feed. A barrage of rockets (over 2000!) had been fired at Israel by Palestinian group Hamas, from Gaza. Sirens and explosions could be heard in Tel Aviv. Molly had been wandering the plane and had heard the news. She rushed back to let us know and before long, news had reached us all and we were huddled up the back of the plane, worrying about Barb and Doug and our other group members who we had left behind at the Tel Aviv airport and amazed at what was taking place so soon after we had left. We tuned into the live CNN news feed on the plane tvs. It was so hard to believe what we were seeing! We had only yesterday been commenting how safe we had felt whilst in this country, despite the warnings and the bad rap it had. Little did we know….
Thanks to Will’s wifi, we were able to send messages to the missing group members and also to Fadi, to see how things were unfolding and find out how they were. The planes bound for Cyprus and Switzerland made it out safely but Bella and Megan reported their eventful day, where they awoke to air raid sirens and bombs going off. They could see the smoke on the horizon and were called into bomb shelters twice, once at the hotel and then again at the airport. Everything calmed down when they checked in for their flight and they were safely deposited in Turkey shortly after. Fadi also let us know he was safe and sound; so far, so good. Phew!
Barbara and Doug checked in with us to say they were locked down in their hotel in Tel Aviv after a swift shopping expedition to stock up on supplies. They also heard sirens and bombs but are grateful for food in the fridge, power and communication with the outside world. They have registered with the Australian Embassy and await further instructions. Barb, who is always up for an adventure, said being in a war zone was a good thing to tick off her bucket list and even sent us a beautiful photo of the Jaffa sunset. We are so grateful that God has kept them all safe so far and continue to pray for their safe journey home and for the terrible situation as it develops.
This certainly wasn’t how we expected our trip to finish but we are super thankful for the timing in getting out safely, for all the amazing things we’ve done and seen and for the absolutely wonderful time we’ve had away. Thanks for reading along with us!
