I walked more of the old track to Capernaum today. I was due to set off from Nazareth at 10.15, taking the bus first to Tiberius. The bus was late, very late, which is not surprising given the chaotic traffic in and around Nazareth. I stood with twenty or so other people at the bus stop on the main street, they all looked glum and I people watched. The traffic crawled passed us, not helped by people doing five point turns in the street or just pulling up on the road to chat. A polished white BMW pulled up at the bus stop and a young guy in a tracksuit got out, the buses now had to stop in the middle of the road. The guy had two mobile phones and he was busy, a couple of minutes late another car pulled up behind him, he went over and money was exchanged, and maybe something else. I noticed the star of David hanging from his rear view mirror. This is a Palestinian town, Jewish Israelis don't hang around here much. The guy got back in his polished BMW, scallywags in track suits are an international commodity it seems. The screen on the bus stop is supposed to tell you which buses are on their way, like the London underground but more complicated. 23, 48, 431, 7, 9, but the buses arriving had different numbers. I gave up looking at the screen and realised that everyone else had given up long ago. The buses are worth waiting for, they're like coaches with big luxury seats and free Wifi. But they're cheaper than a coach, they are very cheap, and they're run by the local council or municipality. There are lots of them, I guess because local people have to travel a lot to get work and they don't have much money. There are also lots of cars but they don't seem to be going anywhere. So I got to Tiberius on my bus, which took about forty minutes and then I walked down to the sea. I didn't know where the sea was when I got to Tiberius but I just walked downhill. If you walk downhill almost anywhere you always end up in the sea, it just takes longer in some places than others. The Sea of Galilee was calm, hardly a ripple. There was winter mist on the water and not much movement, just a few gulls with long beaks prodding around on the shoreline. I could see two men in a boat and it was good to see they were fishing. No trawl nets, no hydraulic haulers, no engine. Just pulling in their net by hand, working their way along it and picking out the fish. Some things don't change : )
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AuthorCommunity Priest at St Barnabas Church on the Moss Rose Estate, in Macclesfield Archives
September 2015
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