Day 19: From Kibbutz Gimzo to Beit Meir via the Burma Road

I was impressed by my hosts, Elazar and Yael, by their devotion to their God, to each other and to their children. During the prayer in the synagogue I could feel Elazar's spiritual commitment. I see them as examples. It seemed that I had impressed them, too, as they warmly invited me to come again with my family. Especially with Ute's Hebrew this would be amazing, since we did have some language barriers.
When I started hiking, I was in good spirits. I had a prayer time, sang some worship songs and prayed for people. I met other hikers coming from the south, later on I ran into a school class that had a project day of doing some cleaning on the shvil. The teacher invited me to give a little speech about my experience on the shvil so far. The kids were really interested.

Then I had an accident. I had to take an underpass under highway Nr 1 and there was no alternative way. I saw a lot of muddy water, so I decided to use my plastic shoes. With my walking sticks I was testing the depth, but I underestimated it and then suddenly I lost ground in the slippery mud. I fell right into the water and lost my plastic shoes. All attempts to get them back failed. At least I finally managed to cross the highway.

I soon arrived in Latrun - a strategic place halfway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem that is well-known from the 1948 War of Independence. In Latrun you find the biggest military museum in Israel with a large collection of tanks and artillery. The other place of interest in Latrun is a monastery built by French Trappists in 1890.

I proceeded to Messilat Zion and enjoyed the landscape. I came to the so-called Burma road, a bypass road built during the 1948 Siege of Jerusalem. The road made it possible to supply Jerusalem with  food and ammunition when the city was controlled by Arab armies. I walked up this road and finally arrived at my destination - Beit Meir. There I spend my night at a quite unusual place - a stable. It was not too warm this time, but I was thankful anyway.

Manni giving a speech

Latrun Monastery

view eastwards to the hills around Jerusalem

In 1948 the Israelis built a water pipeline to Jerusalem within 30 days

Burma Road - the alternative route to Jerusalem