Thurs 4. [4 January 1900] Warm but a little cloudy. We drove up to Elisha's well and then walked up the hill to the Monastery of Quarantaina (Kuruntul). Very fine, clinging to the rock, so narrow that there was only room for one row of cells, the cliff behind. Up again, skirting a strong wild gorge to the summit, enclosed by a wall, the site of the Temptation. They are building a little chapel there and have found the foundations of an old basilica with rows of columns. The view shut in by bare hills towards the west[?], to the north the Great Jordan valley with the Dead Sea [(Yam Hamelah, Bahret Lut)] and the Mts of Moab. Bare foot hills, regular desert scenery. So back to the monastery where we had the usual refection, and to our carriages, passing by the uninteresting looking ruins of Old Jericho, and home to lunch. At 2 got on our horses and rode to the bridge. This is the high road between Syria and Arabia, a mere track, running first over bare thorny country, then through an extraordinary belt of slime pits of surprising shapes and so to the Jordan valley, here very wide and full of Tamarisk trees and willows. We asked a man how far it was to the bridge "Oh near" he said "1/2 an hour - at any rate you will get there before sunset" it was then 2.30! Heaps of caravans of donkeys carrying charcoal into Syria and bringing back chiefly petroleum. Watched a caravan paying toll and going over the bridge - 4 metalites a beast and 2 a man. Asad had a sore back so Charlotte rode a donkey. So home by 5 - glorious evening. The Hoppers had arrived with 2 children, nice people. They paid a visit on us after tea. A cross Frenchman next me at dinner.