Text and Photos by Sara Stratte, a 21-year-old archeology major at UCLA who took a week off from a dig in Egypt in October to join her Idiot-ic uncle in southern Israel.

Sara Stratte walking on the beach towards the border between Israel and Gaza. (Photo: Joel Stratte-McClure)

What wisdoms were to be gained on the MedTrek, I had wondered.

Travel can be a soul-breaking and strength-forging activity: the chronicles of my uncle’s own wanderings on his walk around the Mediterranean Sea are the most recent amongst the accumulations of such accounts.

But what would I find?

Maybe personal epiphanies or some bigger truths from exposure to The Idiot’s always electrified environment (preferably, with some anecdotes to write home about).

After a week of walking, talking, and watching The Idiot talk himself out of sticky situations, my findings were more practical than esoteric. Beyond the sensation that is shakshuka (if you have not had it, eat it immediately), here are my discoveries:

1. Find an essential cafe. If the coffee is good and the food is local, be loyal to it. When you return to the city in a few days or years, it is imperative that you return to the same cafe (even if you pass four others just like it on the way).

My favorite cafe in Tel Aviv just steps away from The Idiot’s Airbnb sea view apartment.

2. I’ll give him credit where credit is due: The Idiot can make a damn good cup of Nescafé.

Known abroad as “American coffee,” despite the many times that I protest that it is not, Nescafé is essential for early MedTrekking starts and suitable for pre-caffination purposes before walking to my favorite cafe.

3. Appreciate what little lessons the locals can teach you, even without the use of words.

From Jaffa to Zikim Beach, beach bums looked content-if-not-pleasantly-bored just standing at the water’s edge with a fishing rod.
Were the fish biting? Apparently not.
Does it matter? Apparently not.
Pretense to just zone out by the water, noted.

4. Don’t be content to simply take the road less traveled: toe the line and, if you think you can, stumble across it. Go equally to the odd and the idyllic places. Indulge your curiosity. How would one cross into Gaza? What do the communities near by it look like?

Looking back towards Tel Aviv from the Erez Crossing from Israel into Gaza.

5. Take time to watch the sun set.

It’s imperative to end each MedTrek day watching the sun set over the Mediterranean Sea.

Postscript: Sara is still on an archeological dig in Egypt and vaguely scouting Gaza, Sinai and Egypt’s Mediterranean seaside in advance of The Idiot’s MedTrek there next year.

The Idiot and his niece Sara arrive in Ashkelon en route to the Israel border with Gaza. (Photo: Michael Knipe)

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About Joel

Joel Stratte-McClure has been a global trekker since the 1970s. He lived in France for over 30 years, working as a journalist, before he turned his attention to a unique life-time-project of walking the shores of the Mediterranean. The first 4,401 kilometers are explored in his inspirational and entertaining first book "The Idiot and the Odyssey: Walking the Mediterranean." The next 4,401 kilometers are covered in the gods-filled sequel, "The Idiot and the Odyssey II: Myth, Madness and Magic on the Mediterranean,” published on Valentine's Day 2013. The last 4,401 kilometers will be discussed in the last book of the trilogy currently entitled "The Idiot and the Odyssey III: Alexander the Great Walks the Mediterranean."