Desert

The Kidron brook in the desert

The MC sisters told me to take a day out of Jerusalem ... I've been so stressed and upset by the recent attacks I'm getting a nervous breakdown. Remember 2 of the sisters were also attacked. The sisters and I went out into the desert to get away from it all.

It was very very hot. Scorching. But we managed to visit Mar Saba monastery in the eastern desert, and the Herodion fortress in the southern desert. We climbed down the steep valleys into the Kidron brook which was gushing with lots of water. The Kidron valley begins in Jerusalem next to Gethsemane and travels 32 km into the Dead Sea. Midway through the desert it passes below the Mar Saba monastery. The monastery was built 1500 years ago by St. Saba and has been inhabited all these centuries.

Mar Saba monastery

We had a picnic lunch at the Herodion ... the palace fortress built by King Herod the Great and probably died and was buried there as well. We could say we ate lunch at Herod's palace!

It was a pleasant and happy outing ... but the dark thoughts of violence are never far away. Tensions at the southern borders are rising with several rockets fired from Gaza into Israel ... who responded with a barrage of missiles. The PM has promised to annex the Jordan Valley if he wins the election .... and palestnians are furious and ready for war. And of course our situation in Jerusalem where we get attacked and threats everyday.