There’s been a bit of a writing lull, what with my wedding in the beginning of February and the overload of work and school-related exams, papers and activities. Now in this unreal coronavirus pandemic lockdown, I think it’s time to cover the last of this past summer’s adventures. This post took place in late August, a few days before I proposed to my then-girlfriend Bracha. Some family was visiting from Washington State and I had seen an advert about renewed excavations at Montfort Castle, quite near my hometown of Ma’alot.

Sunrise over the Galilean mountains

Setting the gears into motion, I had contacted one of the dig’s organisers, Dr Rabei Khamisy of Haifa University, and arranged our volunteering for a day. That morning arrived and we left the house at the crack of dawn, meeting up with the rest of the team at a parking lot overlooking Nachal Kziv a few minutes before 6am. To get to the fortress we took one of the winding mountain trails, which is beautiful in its own right. However, being able to bring my relatives to a grand Crusader castle (albeit in ruins) such as Montfort was quite a thrill.

Mission briefing

We explored a wee bit of the 800-year old fortress before approaching Rabei for instructions, wondering what interesting work we’d be tasked with. Thankfully, he had the perfect job for us which had us working at the foot of the Montfort’s keep (the innermost fortified section of the castle). Our mission for that day was to expose a long-lost drainage channel which was recently rediscovered in old expedition photos of the castle. The team’s lead researchers had only come across it a few days prior and desired to see it exposed once again, to be examined and photographed. We accepted our mission joyfully and set forth exposing the channel, which was predominately hewn into the bedrock floor.

Exposing a mysterious little pit

The labour was fun and we were a great crew of six: Uncle EJ, Aunt Karise, cousins Walker and Judy Rae, brother Nissim and myself. The laughs were plenty and the dirt and rocks slowly moved from the channel to dumping piles elsewhere around us. We moved part of a broken trough that was placed against the keep’s walls, adjacent to a reservoir, and cleared our way around a short tree whose roots penetrated deep into a mysterious pit, finding all sorts of small items including a spent bullet casing.

Looking towards the sea

Eventually we broke for breakfast and dined with the rest of the crew who were working elsewhere in the castle. Their group was formed mostly of volunteers from Europe and Australia, as well as some Haifa University staff members including Prof Adrian Boas, one of Israel’s lead Crusader archaeologists.

The more interesting part of the exposed channel

When we were done eating we got back to work, with Rabei checking in on us now and again, just to make sure everything was going as planned. Our timing was great and we finished our mini-excavation just as the sun was coming up over the keep. We cleaned up the exposed channel, making sure it looked presentable for any possible official photography attempts, and put our borrowed tools back.

Early migrating honey buzzard

I hadn’t taken many photographs as we were all busy working or bonding, but when I saw a few birds of prey over the opposing ridge I whipped out my camera. Lo and behold, an early-migrating honey buzzard was circling overhead, in the company of two noisy short-toed eagles.

Group selfie (photo EJ Swainson)

Finished at the dig, having spent a really productive and interesting day at this once spectacular castle, we made our way back to the cars parked up above. It was a great experience for us all, and Uncle EJ even wrote a lovely Facebook post about it when they returned home to America, which you can see HERE. To many more adventures with friends and family!