Saturday, August 18th

On Saturday morning, after breakfast, Frank and I went for a walk along the lake-side, down past the ruined Turkish city walls and along the tree-lined road out of the town. On the stony beach fishing boats had been pulled up and the Arab fishermen were sitting about running through their nets. Out of Tiberias there were few trees but the grass on the steep hillside grows well enough for sheep or goats to feed. By the roadside we saw a Bedouin encampment, square tents of a sort of sackcloth. The men folk were out with their flocks apparently scattered far and wide over the hills.

We found walking very hot work, down there still below sea level and becoming drenched in sweat we stopped in sight of Migdal, a fairly big Arab village where Simon the Pharisee and Mary Magdalene are supposed to have lived. We sat on the rocks by the sea and after some time made our way slowly back in time for lunch.

After digesting my lunch, I spent the rest of the afternoon swimming – this is the only way to keep cool, for although the temperature in Tiberias is probably much lower than Khartoum’s the humidity is much higher. We could not find sufficient people interested, to merit a very expensive taxi trip to the site of Keft Naham, or Capernium.

After tea we explored the town thoroughly. It appears that everybody who is anybody in Tiberias spends his evening sitting on the quayside drinking coffee or something stronger from the French style open air cafes. We passed along the crowded quay and into the (comparatively) deserted Arab quarters, out on to the stony beach the far side of the town and turned upland along the main road, past the Jewish quarters, to the modern shops. We enquired about buses for tomorrow from the National (the Arab firm) Egged (the Jewish) and the Galilee Buses (the local Arab). Then we returned to the hostel and packed our bags, and found that the C. of S. truck would be taking Miss Taylor (the Scots lady from Khartoum) to Haifa at 10. in the morning, and that we were welcome to travel with her.