Leaving our hotel in Tiberias, we travelled along the Jordan valley, experiencing a different, less fertile and more rugged landscape the further south we travelled.

We stopped at the site that tradition has it that John baptised Jesus, where we were able to renew our own baptismal vows by the River Jordan and with water from the river.

Qumran was a late addition to our programme. Here in 1947 a shepherd boy looking for a stray sheep accidentally found a cave containing jars full of what we now know to be precious parchments, probably hidden by a community of Essenes. They contain biblical scripts both known and unknown to us. They date from between about the 3rd century BC and 68 AD. The scenery is stunning; the remains of the village that was originally inhabited fascinating. Being so far below sea level it is very dry, but when it rains in Jerusalem, the water flows down here taking sixty minutes; channels have built to funnel the water into giant cisterns.

Onwards to the Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth, where some of our group had a “float” on the sea.

Next a tour of Jericho from which we could see the mountain on which Jesus fasted for forty days and forty nights; very poignant in the week before Lent begins.

Finally we arrived in Bethlehem, where we will stay until we return to England.