And life goes on...

On Friday night, we managed to cram 12 friends into our house to share with them some of the photos from our recent travels. Most of them were Baha'is from our local area and as we are currently observing the fasting month in the Baha'i calendar, everyone brought with them loads of delicious food so that we could all break the fast together. We started with a few photos of the Lotus Temple in New Delhi and then some of the Baha'i Holy Places we visited in Istanbul and Edirne, before we worked our way through a very-edited chronological tour of our pilgrimage. It was great to share with our friends some of the stories and feelings that we had experienced not so long ago, not to mention the sharing of so much mouth-watering food!

Here is a last set of photos from Haifa, before we get started on posting some very belated photos and stories from India. Incidentally, our friend Astrid, with whom we shared some very memorable moments in India, is down to the last few days of her stay...she left Indore yesterday, where she has been volunteering at a Baha'i-inspired Institute that trains and educates hundreds of women from rural areas and empowers them with the skills and knowledge needed to support themselves and their families. She heads now for the Ajanta caves (containing Buddhist sculptures dating from around 200 BC to AD 650) in northern Maharashtra, then flys to New Delhi where she will also visit the Baha'i House of Worship, before departing for the UK where she will meet up with her sister and dad and have a well-earned rest as well as a nice, hot shower (something she has been deprived of for the last 3 months)!

The Shrine of the Bab, approached from one of the gardens to the east

A view of the magnificent Universal House of Justice building from the steps beneath

A beautiful skylight in the entrance hall of the International Teaching Centre

An ornamental peacock adorning the cactus gardens adjacent to the Shrine of the Bab

View of the Shrine from the terrace directly above

And another view...

Ornamental planter on the terraces

And the Terraces once more...

Since having arrived back at home almost two months ago, we haven't had a chance to travel anywhere outside the city-limits together and we are both craving a change of scenery. This change of scenery is likely to come in the form of some visitors from the east...We are keenly anticipating the arrival of Rachel, Adrian and our little nephew Max, from Melbourne around mid-April. It has been about a year since we last saw them all - far too long - so we are hoping to have plenty of time just to catch up, re-aquaint Max with his long-distance aunt & uncle and make a trip to Wongan Hills (where we have a 140 acres of land and hopefully a caravan soon as well)!

What else is happening? Well, Lorraine is busy at school with her all-boy class and a pair of identical twins that give her plenty of cause for amusement by the end of the day (especially when they show definite signs of confused identity!). Andrew has just been back to Wongan Hills for another clearing sale and has started cleaning out the caravan in anticipation of towing it up on his next trip to Wongan. There are an additional eight chicks new to the backyard, a multi-coloured lot with a bantam mother. Another five chicks arrived yesterday - crosses between a Rhode Island Red & Isa Brown. If they turn out to be particularly good egg-layers, Shanks is planning on naming them Wongan Browns and starting his own breed of chook! Beside that, life is going on as normal...we are looking forward to the end of daylight-saving next weekend and following the action from the cricket World Cup (where we can enjoy barracking for the minnows against the heavyweights of world cricket...go Ireland and Bangladesh!).

Well, until we have more news, that's it for now!

More stories from Haifa

Seeing as we have now finished with the Turkish leg of our adventure (unless Andrew decides to add anything more!), I thought that I would continue on with some more pilgrimage stories and photos from Haifa...

Andrew sitting outside the Pilgrim Reception Centre soaking up some early morning sunlight!

The first thing that we had to do upon arrival in Haifa before our official pilgrimage programme was due to begin was to register at the Pilgrim Reception Centre located halfway up Mt Carmel, adjacent to the Shrine of the Bab. We began our first excited walk up the mountain at about 7:15am the next morning (Monday 8th January), so eager were we to be there at the opening time of 8:00am. Later on we found that we could manage the walk from our hotel to the Pilgrim Reception Centre within half an hour. Registration was simply a matter of collecting our name badges, a package of information containing our schedule for the next ten days and maps of Haifa and Akka. We then watched a brief audio-visual presentation which also gave us further information about the upcoming programme and some do's and dont's so that everyone could enjoy the experience as fully as possible.

The whole process of Baha'i pilgrimage is very orderly and carefully-planned, from the moment you make your request to come on pilgrimage, to the moment you set foot in Haifa about 3-5 years later! I had made my initial request for pilgrimage some time in 2000 and early in 2005 received an invitation letter saying that my name had come to the top of the waiting list. I was able to add Andrew's name to my request so that we could participate in everything together. With the letter we received a list of about 12 pilgrimage dates that we could select from, covering an eighteen-month span. We were lucky enough to receive our first preference, which thankfully allowed us the time to travel to India and Turkey beforehand.

Over 350 Baha'is from around the world arrive at the Baha'i World Centre every fortnight for their nine-day pilgrimage. This large group is further sub-divided into language groups - the predominant ones being English, Persian, French and Spanish. There are roughly ten of these smaller groups, with approximately 30-35 pilgrims in each one. It is in this smaller group that you make most of your visits to the holy places during pilgrimage. Each group has a pilgrimage guide who takes the group on their scheduled visits and explains some of the history and stories behind each place that is visited.

The Prison Barracks in Akka, where Baha'u'llah was held for 2 years. The cell on the right with the two windows close together facing towards the sea was Baha'u'llah's.

Apart from our scheduled visits to the Shrines of Baha'u'llah and the Bab and other sites such as the prison barracks in Akka, plenty of time was also allowed for individual visits to these places, as well as other places of interest such as the site for the future Baha'i House of Worship in Haifa. We also visited a number of houses that Baha'u'llah stayed in after He was released from the barracks in 1870 until His passing in 1892.

An obelisk marking the site for the future Baha'i House of Worship on Mt Carmel

On the second day of our pilgrimage, we were very warmly welcomed by the nine members of the Universal House of Justice - the democratically-elected international governing body of the Baha'i Faith. Each of these nine members shook hands with every single pilgrim, often stopping for some time to chat, just like old friends! This was a real highlight for me personally - these wonderful people, who occupy such a highly-respected and esteemed position in the Baha'i Faith, talked and mingled with all of us with such genuine warmth, affection and love, that one could not help but be inspired and touched by this seeming contrast of power and status combined with deep humility and sincerity.

The Universal House of Justice building is modelled on the timeless classic Greek architectural style of the Parthenon

On one of the last days of our pilgrimage, we were taken on a tour of the Baha'i administrative buildings that grace Mt Carmel in an arc just to the left of the Shrine of the Bab. Again it was wonderful to be inside these majestic, timeless buildings that are now thoroughly embedded into the mountainous landscape around them. It was interesting to hear that the Universal House of Justice building, the centrepiece of the arc buildings, was actually modelled on the Parthenon - a classic design built to withstand the elements, as well as architectural trends over the centuries! Each of the Baha'i administrative buildings extends for a number of storeys below the surface, so what you see is really just the tip of the iceberg so to speak! All of the Baha'i buildings in Haifa and Akka have been entirely funded by voluntary contributions from Baha'is throughout the world.

The Centre for the Study of the Texts.
Andrew used to call this building, somewhat irreverently, "the doughnut building", but later re-christened it "the polo-mint building"!

One of the other major highlights of pilgrimage, apart from just being surrounding by so much beauty, history and tranquility, was meeting other Baha'is from around the world. There were over 30 nationalities represented amongst the 300 pilgrims, including Baha'is from New Zealand, Sweden, Canada, Brazil, Malaysia, Spain, Gabon, Romania, Cameroon, France, USA, El Salvador, Seychelles, South Africa, Vanuatu, Ireland, Shetland Islands, Peru, Tonga, Papua New Guinea, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Chile, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Russia, Argentina, Puerto Rico, Thailand and New Caledonia, as well as dozens of Aussies! Being amongst people from almost every corner of the planet, united in one purpose, sharing the same beliefs and ideals, we really felt like we were part of a global family. It was something special to be able to cross barriers of language, culture, race, age and circumstance so easily...for us it was a chance to witness the unity and diversity of the Baha'i Faith in action!

The members of our small pilgrim group - Group C. There were Baha'is from Canada, USA, Sweden, Scotland, Ireland, New Zealand, Zimbabwe and Australia in our group. Our pilgrim guide, the lady in the light blue jumper on the right, was Ursula Grossman, with Finnish-German heritage.

Walking in a wonderland

I spent a large part of yesterday looking through some of the photos from our trip and working out which were my favourites so that when we show friends and family our holiday snaps they don't have to sit through thousands and thousands of photos (with Astrid & Christian's photos added to our collection, we have over 3000!). So here are some more from Haifa and later on I will post some photos from Turkey and also India.

Even though we arrived in Haifa in the middle of winter, the weather, although cold, was stunning - clear blue skys and sunshine for ten days straight...perfect weather for appreciating the beauty and tranquillity of the Baha'i gardens, Terraces and Shrines. We chose to walk around as much as possible, (many people opt for taxis or sheruts - a mini-van that operates much like a bus), as the half-hour walk up and down the mountain each day gave us a perfect opportunity to prepare ourselves for the days events, to reflect and to talk about the things that we had experienced together.

Window overlooking a garden inside the Universal House of Justice Building

Stairs leading to Terraces above the Shrine of the Bab

One of the rooms inside the Visitor Information Centre near the Shrine

Gateway and stairs near the uppermost Terrace

Gardens and view of Haifa from the uppermost Terraces

Entrance plaza to Shrine of the Bab and Terraces on Hagefen Street, looking down Ben Gurion Avenue

Pathway on the lower Terraces

Shrine of the Bab lit at night on the ninth day of our pilgrimage

Fountain on the lower terraces

Elusive wildlife

On the way to Bandipur Wildlife Sanctuary

Our last stop in Kerala was to be a visit to Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary, but alas dealing with beauracracy in India is slower and more treacherous than driving on the roads. Permits are required for a vehicle travelling outside its home state and as we had changed plans our permit for Kerala was due to expire during our visit to the wildlife sanctuary. Our driver attempted to get an extension on the previous day on the stroke of 5pm but apparently punctuality counts at knock-off time at least. He was told there was a permit office 22km from Kalpetta, our destination and base for visits to the wildlife sanctuary. The next morning in Kalpetta we discovered that the permit office was in fact three hours drive away on a road that was considered bad even by Indian standards. To avoid the risk of paying a fine upwards of 5000 rupees we decided to abandon our plan and head to Mysore in the state of Karnataka.

The Baha'i couple we met in Kalpetta

Before leaving Kalpetta we followed the sign to the Baha'i centre whuch we had noticed when arriving the day before. With some help from a few locals we found the centre, which was unfortunately closed. Rajendren, our driver, managed to translate for us that we were hoping to meet some of the local Baha'is and, after a brief discussion, one of the neighbours' sons piled into the car with us and directed us to a small office in town. Here we were very warmly welcomed by Sudhakarau, one of the Baha'is from Kalpetta, and shortly after we were greeted by his wife Mary as well. Their genuine warmth and hospitality was an example to us all and epitomised a phrase from the Baha'i Writings - "Let your heart burn with loving kindness for all who may cross your path". We discussed the various activities in our respective communities, in which we had a common language as Baha'i activities are similar across the globe whether on small islands in the pacific or in large sprawling cities. They, as we do, held childrens classes, study circles to deepen knowledge of the faith, and devotional meetings where writings are read and shared from the Baha'i faith and other religions, often on a specific theme. Our meeting was short but left us feeling blessed and joyously aware that we are one family on this beautiful planet.

Scene from Bandipur Wildlife Sanctuary

After crossing the state border we realised that the road leading to Mysore didn't follow the route we expected but, as fortune would have it, passed within 18km of Bandipur Wildlife sanctuary. A quick decision saw us having one last attempt at an Indian wildlife adventure. The 18km km's was speedily traversed in just under one hour - there must be a point in the ratio of bitumen to potholes where a road should realisticly be classed as a gravel road! At 6am the next morning, we all rugged up and headed off for a 90 minute jeep tour of the wildife sanctuary. Our hopes were high, as a tiger had been spotted a few days earlier, but unfortunately it was not to be for us. We did, however, see plenty of wildlife, some of which were chital (a small spotted deer which was very common), elephants, Gaur ( a wild Indian bison), peacocks (and peahens) monkeys, langeurs, sambar deer, wild boar and numerous birds.

Some of the wildlife at the sanctuary...

Gaur

Elephants

Chittal

Peacock

Langur

Nine days to go...

Let there be light. . .and there wasn't...

Out with the candles - the power has gone off! A power failure last night deprived you of our daily blog entry and deprived us of an episode of The Bill!

The post was going to be about our nine-day pilgrimage and the significance of the number nine to the Baha'i Faith. If we have time - which is running out quickly at the moment - we'll add to this post or create a new one on the subject.

Twenty four days to go...

Twenty four days to go until we embark on our journey to the centre of the Earth - a journey that will culminate in our pilgrimage to the Baha'i Shrines and Gardens on the slopes of Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel - the most sacred spot on the planet for millions of Baha'is throughout the world.

View of the Shrine of the Bab, the Prophet-Forerunner of the Baha'i Faith

Along the way, we will be travelling with two of our friends taking in the sights, sounds, tastes (yes, and smells!!!) of southern India. As we draw nearer towards our destination we will pass through Turkey, following in the footsteps of Baha'u'llah, the Prophet-Founder of the Baha'i Faith, as He trod the path of exile from Tehran to Baghdad, then Constantinople (Istanbul), Adrianople (Edirne) and finally to the Holy Land, Israel.

We will update our blog regularly so that you can keep track of where we are and what we're up to! Our departure date is Thursday 7th December, and we arrive back in Perth on Saturday 20th January...45 days of what we are both anticipating will be a momentous adventure, both physically and spiritually!