A long hot summer………...

This past summer has been long even by Haifa standards, and although the number of really humid days seemed fewer than usual, the clear hot days seemed endless—especially with two late khamseen periods in October—a hot dry wind from the North African Sahara—bringing a fine choking dust with it.

However, a very welcome change with the advent of November has really settled us into Autumn weather and this past weekend has witnessed an amazing couple of days in Haifa. The air quality is the best we have had in the nearly four years we have been here—the test is Mount Hermon (the highest mountain and only ski fields in Israel)—it straddles both Lebanon and Israel. It can be clearly seen maybe 10 days a year, usually in winter, and when it snows in January and the sun is shining, the top of Mt. Hermon can be seen from Haifa in its spectacular brightness. For Israel this snow is so important - it feeds the Sea of Galilee and the river Jordan. Like so many countries, Israel is short of fresh water. This weekend it rained on Friday morning, and the wind blew in the right direction, so that on Saturday, we saw hills, valleys and villages scattered on the horizon that we have never seen before. And Friday and Saturday night we saw lights from villages we have never seen before. But enough about the views from our lounge room windows!

It has been a time for family visitors as well. Firstly, came Fareed, Muna’s brother who is living in Kunming, China. He stayed for a week overlapping with our son Munib who came for a month in August. Both were able to serve while visiting us—many a person was grateful for having Munib treat them with his Chiropractic skills. Munib loves the food in Israel; it is inexpensive and very tasty! One of the best places is the Wadi, the Arab market place. Our niece Lena from the USA also visited during this time and we had a lovely breakfast with other friends and this family photo taken. Even though the weather was hot Munib and Allan were able to visit Caesarea (very extensive Roman ruins) and Beit She’arim, an amazing old necropolis not far from Haifa. Shortly after Munib left, Allan flew back to Australia for his father Jack’s funeral. Norma and Jack were very happily married for nearly 66 years. In the final few weeks, Jack had to be moved to an aged care facility, and so it was a blessing that his long innings—nearly 90 years—and eventful life ended with dignity before he became bed ridden. He is buried in a delightful lawn cemetery in Wagga Wagga, and here is a photo of the lovely gum trees near his gravesite. Norma loves flowers (there was always a vase of garden flowers on the dinner table at home) and she received several beautiful bouquets from friends which meant a lot to her. Our daughter Allison and her husband John (JJ) came to Haifa while Allan was still in Wagga, and upon Allan’s return, we spent a lovely week seeing the sights and sites. It was lovely having these visits and have them all get a glimpse of our life here.

Of course summer is too hot to go exploring the countryside; but we did manage to visit Rosh HaNikra in October—this is as close to the border of Lebanon as one can get, literally just meters away. This Israeli navy ship guards the borderwhich can be seen by a series of buoys. A white chalk cliff face opens up into spectacular grottos—cavernous tunnels formed by sea action on the soft chalk rock. The total length is some 200 meters of tunnels and caves branching off in various directions with some interconnecting segments.

Ciamb (Ireland), Parvin (Canada) and Maryam (India) joined us and of course being Aussies we started with morning tea—Arabic coffee and Anzac biscuits. Access to the Grotto is by one of the steepest cable cars in the world. The ride in each direction is only two minutes; however, the cable car descends from a height of 70 meters to sea level at a steep angle of 60 degrees. The primordial view of the sea (the Med!) seen from the cable cars during the ride is simply breathtaking! Throughout human history, Rosh HaNikra served as a passage point for trade caravans and armies between Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Egypt, and Africa. The British dug a tunnel for trains on the Cairo-Istanbul railway. A bridge was destroyed by Jewish underground fighters prior to 1948 during the famed operation "Night of the Bridges".
Rosh HaNikra was the site where Israeli and Lebanese officials negotiated and concluded an armistice in 1949 which ended the Lebanese-Israeli component of the 1948 War of Israeli Independence.

But today we enjoyed the spectacular colour of the caves and the crystal clear water.

After the visit we hired bicycles which we were told you did not need to be fit to ride—not so! So we pedaled up and down the foreshore and explored the sandy beach.

Hard work but lots of fun. Lunch followed in a lovely picnic spot with lots of Australian eucalypts all around providing very welcome shade. Other visitors have passed through—Adrian Heggie

and Helen Court and her son Jason.

So lovely to catch up with dear friends.

We also attended two really beautiful weddings - one a Spanish youth Naim and his dear New Zealand bride Monica. The other was held on a hotel roof top on Ben Gurion St looking up at the terraces. The bride was from Mauritius and the groom from Greenland. We wish them well.

Now that the summer visitors have been and gone, it’s just Allan and Muna enjoying the delightful company of some hundreds of fellow volunteers from all over the world and managing to occasionally explore some beautiful spot in this amazingly diverse land. To all our friends ‘down under’, have a great southern summer and keep cool! As to our mates in the ‘top half’, rug up and keep well, and remember “the cold also will pass!!!”