In mid 2019, Vinci and I planned to make a visit to Israel to visit some of Christianity's most sacred and significant sites, a big shift in direction from my usual pilgrimage to China to photograph their railways. We planned for a total of two weeks travel time within the country which would give us almost enough time to visit most of the highlights Israel has to offer. Asides from a list of 'must-do's from Vinci, I was given a fairly blank canvas and entrusted to devise a trip to satisfy both of us.
Most people who follow my travels to China know that I have a tendency to over plan my trips and Israel proved to be even more so. There is always a risk during this stage to over research a location and ruin the experience, however I found it very difficult to stop and this proved to be quite valuable, negating the need for a guide.
I first plotted all of the points of interest (over 200 initially!) on Google Earth and then the long process of prioritising and culling began. When it was all done, I had come up with four main areas - the north, south, Jerusalem and the West bank. We both agreed right off the bat that there was no need to visit Tel Aviv, Israel's largest city, as there was little of interest to us. I used primarily two YouTube channels and one website to research our locations:
YouTube channel : SNRIsrael , Sergio & Rhoda travel to places of biblical interest
YouTube channel : TravellingIsrael , practical information for solo travellers to Israel
Website : www.touristisrael.com , specific information for locations all over Israel
Only a week away from flying out of Australia, we received news that Israel were considering shutting their borders to international arrivals due to the initial outbreak of the Covid-19 virus. At the time this seemed like a massive over-reaction as there was still only fairly localised outbreaks in Asia and Europe with no reported cases in Turkey and a seemingly small, but contained, outbreak in Singapore - our stop over points. Israel itself was also unaffected at this stage.
Before long, however, the virus slowly but surely through Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand which prompted our airline, El Al, to cancel our return flights. We were left with no option but to change carriers altogether and also decided to leave for Israel 4 days earlier than planned just in case we were to be ordered to leave if things got worse.
Below is the itinerary I had finally settled on some three hours prior to departure from Melbourne. Ultimately we were only able to achieve about eighty percent of the list due to some factors out of our control, however we were able to use the extra time to visit a number of other sites we hadn't included and spend extra time with our new friends, Sergio & Rhoda.
Continue to Part 2 - click here