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# MOUNTAINS, VALLEYS, DESERTS · this post writes the words on
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# Change the words after a colon, then save. That is the whole job.
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# A line that starts with # is a note to you. The page never reads it.
# Delete a line and the page keeps the words it was built with.
# Nothing you type in here can break the page.
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# UNDER MOST LINES SIT TWO SPARE ONES - the size and the colour. They
# are switched off. Take the # off the front to use one:
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# title: Mountains, Valleys, Deserts
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# # title-colour: #f3e2c7
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# size 1x is the size it is now. 1.5x is half again bigger,
# 0.8x a fifth smaller. Anything between works too.
# colour a code like #e28d4f, or a plain name like tomato.
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# Type one wrong and nothing happens. The page keeps what it has.
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# MOUNTAINS, VALLEYS, DESERTS - the page at /journeys/mountains-valleys-deserts
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# The repeating lines - theme, day, act, pack, expect, shot, why, brief,
# stat, departure and point - are lists, so there is no single thing to
# colour. Those take their size and colour from the design.
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# WHAT IS ON THIS PAGE
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# ON hero the big picture, the title and the price
# ON bar the booking bar that follows you down
# ON brief the opening paragraphs and the facts
# ON departures the dates, and the buttons that book them
# ON themes the three dark cards
# OFF programme the day-by-day list
# OFF map the route map, drawn from the points below
# ON inclusions the "what to expect" tabs
# ON packing what to pack
# ON why why come
# ON cta the dark panel at the foot
# ON enquiry the enquiry form at the bottom
#
# To switch one off: hide: why, packing
# To reorder them: order: hero, brief, departures, …
# Neither line is here, so nothing is hidden and nothing is moved.
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# hero
# Title, price, and which listing pages this trip appears on.
# kind: Expeditions · Character Journeys · Retreats · Races
order: hero, bar, brief, departures, why, cta
hide: departures, why, cta, map, programme
title: Mountains, Valleys, Deserts
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tagline: A contemplative retreat on following the Shepherd - from the river to the hills to the silence of Wadi Rum.
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price label: From
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price: SGD XXXX
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kind: Retreats
soon: no
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# bar
# entry: book sells. entry: interest pauses it. The master switch.
entry: interest
action: https://wa.me/6586907261
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# pictures
# Website → Assets → ••• → Copy Link. Blank paints warm ground instead.
# ▲ Library shots, not this trip.
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# brief
# The opening paragraphs, then the facts. Repeat a line for more.
brief eyebrow: The brief
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brief heading: Follow the Shepherd.
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brief: An eight-day guided retreat on walking in faith, retracing Jesus' baptism, a day of shepherding, an olive harvest, and a silent retreat in the Wadi Rum desert.
brief: Twelve guests, daily reflective materials and spiritual accompaniment throughout. Non-religious guests are welcome - we provide secular reflective materials if you prefer.
stat: Cohort | Max 12
stat: Days | 8
stat: Country | Jordan
facts: Amman → Baptism Site → Mt. Nebo → Pella → Um Qais → Wadi Rum · 8 days · max 12
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# departures
# departure: WHEN | PLACES LEFT | STATE | SHOP LINK
# The shop link is what makes a date bookable. Without one it asks.
# "Active" - allows for countdown of places left or "Planning" - tells
# users that its still planning, no countdown until changed.
# STATE is Open , Nearly full or Full .
departure: 23 - 29 October 2027 (Deepavali) | Active | Open | /trips/p/mountains-valleys-23-29-oct-2027
# THE SMALL ORANGE LINE ABOVE THE TITLE
# It counts the dates above by itself - "3 departures" - so there is
# normally nothing to write here. Set it only to put different words
# there, which is really only useful while a trip has no dates at all.
# dates: Dates to be announced
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# themes
# theme: NAME | SUBTITLE | SENTENCE
themes eyebrow: Three movements
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# themes eyebrow-colour: #e28d4f
themes heading: Mountain · Valley · Desert
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# themes heading-colour: #f3e2c7
theme: Mountain | Where the view opens | Mount Nebo, the baptism site and Madaba, with a Lutheran pastor at the river and dinner with local pastors.
theme: Valley | Walking with a shepherd | Pella and Um Qais - a meditative walk with a shepherd, an olive harvest, and a guided walk through the old city.
theme: Desert | Two days of silence | A silent retreat in Wadi Rum: silent hiking by day, reflections around the fire at night.
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# programme
# day: TITLE | HEADING | Night: WHERE, then its act: lines.
# An act: belongs to the day: above it.
program eyebrow: Day by day
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program heading: Programme of the retreat
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program intro: Seven nights, moving from the river to the hills to the desert. Tap through each day.
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day: Arrival | Amman | Night: Amman
act: Airport meet & assist | plane
act: Transfer to the hotel | home
act: Welcome dinner at a social enterprise | food
day: The river | Baptism site & Madaba | Night: Amman
act: Mount Nebo | mountain
act: The baptism site, with a Lutheran pastor | water
act: Madaba | book
act: Dinner with local pastors | people
day: Pella | Walking with a shepherd | Night: Pella
act: Meditative walk with a shepherd | walk
act: Traditional dinner | food
act: Evening reflection | book
day: Um Qais | The olive harvest | Night: Um Qais
act: Olive picking | wheat
act: Guided walk through the old city | map
act: Evening reflection | book
day: Wadi Rum | Silence begins | Night: Wadi Rum
act: Transfer to the desert | map
act: Silent retreat begins | wind
act: Silent hiking | walk
day: Wadi Rum | A day of silence | Night: Wadi Rum
act: Silent hiking | walk
act: Dinner & reflections | fire
act: Stars over the desert | star
day: Return | Amman | Night: Amman
act: Transfer to Amman | map
act: Free afternoon | home
act: Celebratory dinner | fire
day: Departure | Farewell | Departure
act: Transfer to the airport | plane
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# map
# point: NAME | LATITUDE | LONGITUDE | SIDE
# FINDING THE TWO NUMBERS. Look the place up on Google Maps, right-click
# it, and the numbers at the top of the menu are the latitude and the
# longitude, in that order. Copy them in. Save, reload, and the pin moves
# to the real place with the dashed route redrawn through it.
#
# Because they are real coordinates you can check any pin yourself: type
# the name into Google Maps and see whether the numbers agree.
#
# SIDE is optional - left or right - and decides which side of the pin
# its name sits on. Use it when two places are close enough on the map
# that their names overlap. Leave it off and the map chooses.
#
# Section 05 of /guide walks through all of this.
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# WHICH COUNTRIES THE MAP DRAWS
# countries: Jordan
# countries: Jordan, Syria
# THIS LINE IS THE MAP. Each country named gets its outline drawn and its
# name written across the middle of it. Add one and it appears, take one
# out and it goes. The stops below are unchanged either way - they are
# real latitude and longitude and they land where they land.
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# IT HAS OUTLINES FOR THESE NINE, AND ONLY THESE NINE:
# Jordan · Saudi Arabia · Egypt · Israel · Lebanon
# Syria · Iraq · Iran · Türkiye
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# ADDING A TENTH IS THE ONE THING A POST CANNOT DO. A border is a few
# hundred real survey coordinates, baked into the site's code - not
# something anybody types. Adding a country to /by-destinations does NOT
# give the map its outline; the two lists are unrelated. Ask us and we
# will add it, and it is a small job.
#
# Until then a journey there has no map at all: the plate hides itself
# rather than show a route floating on nothing.
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# IT FORGIVES A LOT. Commas or pipes both separate. Turkey finds Türkiye,
# KSA and "saudi" both find Saudi Arabia, and a small typo still lands -
# unless it could be two different countries, in which case it says so
# rather than guessing between Iran and Iraq.
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# DELETE THE LINE AND THE MAP STILL WORKS. With no countries line at all,
# it reads the stops and draws whichever countries they fall in. So a new
# journey needs nothing but its point: lines.
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# THE FRAMING IS ON YOUR STOPS, NOT ON THE COUNTRIES. The journey is the
# subject, so a big neighbour runs off the side of the plate rather than
# shrinking the route to a thumbprint. That is deliberate - a border
# leaving the frame reads as a border continuing.
#
# IF THE MAP LOOKS WRONG, open this page while you are signed in to
# Squarespace. Anything the map could not work out is written underneath
# it, in a box only you can see - including a stop that has ended up in a
# country this line does not name. Visitors never see any of it.
countries: Jordan, Israel
map eyebrow: The route
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# map eyebrow-colour: #f3e2c7
map title: Amman · Baptism Site · Mt. Nebo · Um Qais · Wadi Rum
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# map title-colour: #f3e2c7
map note: North to the Jordan valley and the Decapolis, then south into the desert for the silent days.
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map route label: MOUNTAINS · VALLEYS · DESERTS
point: AMMAN | 31.949 | 35.933 | right
point: BAPTISM SITE | 31.837 | 35.549 | left
point: MT. NEBO | 31.768 | 35.725 | right
point: PELLA | 32.450 | 35.617 | left
point: UM QAIS | 32.653 | 35.685 | right
point: WADI RUM | 29.583 | 35.420
legend: Start & finish | Waypoints | Retreat path
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# inclusions
# expect: LABEL | HEADING | the words.
# icon: and shot: belong to the expect: above them.
# Keep LABEL to two or three words - it is the button.
# ▲ Written from the itinerary, not confirmed.
#
# ▲▲ THE VISA IS LISTED TWICE AND THE TWO DISAGREE. ▲▲
# "What's included" says the price covers the visa.
# "Not included" says the visa is the traveller's to arrange.
# Both are on the live page. Decide which is true and delete
# the word from the other line. A traveller who believes the
# wrong one finds out at the airport.
inclusions eyebrow: What is included
# inclusions eyebrow-size: 1x
# inclusions eyebrow-colour: #e28d4f
inclusions heading: What to expect
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# inclusions heading-colour: #f3e2c7
inclusions intro: Where you are, where you sleep, how you move, what you eat - and what the price does and does not cover.
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# inclusions intro-colour: #f3e2c7
expect: The ground | River, hills, then silence | Eight days in three movements. First the river and the mountain - the baptism site, Mount Nebo, Madaba. Then the valley: Pella and Um Qais, walking with a shepherd and picking olives. Then south into Wadi Rum for two days of silent retreat, and back to Amman.
icon: map
expect: Nights | A capital, a village, a farm, and two in the desert | Three nights in Amman, one at Pella, one at Um Qais and two in Wadi Rum. The village and farm nights are simple rather than smart, which is part of the retreat. Rooms are twin share; a single room can be arranged as an extra and invoiced before you travel.
icon: home
expect: Getting around | Every journey between the sites | All ground transport across the eight days is covered, with a local driver. You are met at the airport on arrival and taken back for your flight on the last day. Nothing on the programme asks you to find your own way.
icon: map
expect: Meals | The meals set out in the itinerary | Every meal named in the day-by-day programme, eaten together. A welcome dinner at a social enterprise, a traditional dinner at Pella, dinner with local pastors, and the meals around the fire in the desert. Tell us about dietary needs when you enquire.
icon: food
expect: What's included | In the price | Visa, accommodation, tour guides at the sites of interest, transport, entry fees, the meals set out in the detailed itinerary, daily reflective materials and spiritual accompaniment.
icon: book
expect: Not included | What you arrange yourself | Flights to and from Amman, and travel insurance. Personal kit: boots you have already walked in, a headtorch for the two nights in Wadi Rum, and a sleeping bag liner if you would rather use your own. Drinks, souvenirs and gratuities for the guides and drivers. A single room instead of twin share, and the optional extension to sites such as Petra after Wadi Rum, are extras invoiced separately before you travel.
icon: plane
expect: Who it's for | Moderate walking | Walks of one to three hours. Non-religious guests are welcome; we provide secular reflective materials if you prefer.
icon: walk
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# packing
# pack: GROUP | item | item | item
# ▲ A general list. Check it against this route.
packing eyebrow: Prepare for the retreat
# packing eyebrow-size: 1x
# packing eyebrow-colour: #442d20
packing heading: What to pack
# packing heading-size: 1x
# packing heading-colour: #17100c
packing intro: October is mild by day and cold at night in the desert. Layers, boots you have already walked in, and something to write in.
# packing intro-size: 1x
# packing intro-colour: #17100c
pack: Clothing | Warm layers & fleece | Light waterproof shell | Sturdy walking boots | Sun hat | Modest clothes for churches and villages
pack: Travel essentials | Passport & travel documents | Travel insurance details | Personal medication | Reusable water bottle (1L+) | Small daypack
pack: Personal items | Journal & pen | Sunscreen & sunglasses | Toiletries & quick-dry towel | Headtorch
pack: Optional | Camera | Binoculars | Sleeping bag liner | Small gifts for hosts
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# why
# why: HEADING | sentence
# why intro-size: 1x
# why intro-colour: #17100c
why eyebrow: Why this retreat
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# why eyebrow-colour: #442d20
why heading: Why come.
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# why heading-colour: #17100c
why: Silence, properly | Two days of silent retreat in Wadi Rum, with hiking and reflection built around them.
why: Walked, not told | Shepherding, olive picking and the river - the images of Scripture, done rather than described.
why: Small groups | Twelve guests at most, with spiritual accompaniment throughout.
why: All are welcome | Secular reflective materials for guests who would rather not use the religious ones.
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# cta
# The dark panel at the foot. cta fine: is the small print.
cta eyebrow: Small group · max 12
# cta eyebrow-size: 1x
# cta eyebrow-colour: #e28d4f
cta heading: A place is waiting.
# cta heading-size: 1x
# cta heading-colour: #f3e2c7
cta body: Message us on WhatsApp to enquire about this retreat.
# cta body-size: 1x
# cta body-colour: #f3e2c7
cta fine: We’ll update you when details and dates are confirmed.
# cta fine-size: 1x
# cta fine-colour: #f3e2c7
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# the rest of this journey