Scottish Ramblers in Palestine
A guest author’s reading at last year’s Edinburgh Book Festival has inspired a Scottish Rambler to set up an exchange with walkers in Palestine. Edinburgh Ramblers‘ Frances McLennan was so inspired by Raja Shehadeh’s recital from his book Palestinian Walks: Notes on a Vanishing Landscape, that she contacted his Ramallah-based walking group and organized a two-week trip to the troubled Middle Eastern region last October.
Members of Shat-ha, meaning ‘to wander’, face severe restrictions on movement but have still managed to walk regularly for years, attracting new members all the time. They led the Edinburgh Ramblers on three days of walks through desert hills to ancient monasteries, Ottoman palaces and wildlife-rich wadis. “We were sad to leave our Shat-ha friends, but take with us memories of their wonderful hospitality and sense of history,” said Frances. “We hope they’ll pay a visit to Scotland this year as part of the original ‘walking exchange’ idea.”
