Monday, Eric had a great transfer day planned. Beth and I were up early again as we couldn't resist another taste of the market and watching the people of Jerusalem. So amazing.
A smiling Eric was waiting for us as we came out of the hotel, and we were off. Our route for the day was to head East to the Jordan border, south along the dead sea, then back inland with our final destination of Mitzpe Ramon.
Beth had a great nana-like shot of a camel on the way...
Eric delivered on the "activity" request again, with a short loop (never an out and back... never) hike in another one of the excellent National Parks called Ein Gedi (Ein Gedi means "spring of the kid" - it's an oasis and nature reserve that was listed as one of the most popular nature sites in Israel with about one million visitors a year).
The hike was nice - taking advantage of a little sun cover in the valley that opens up on the dead sea side. It doesn't take much water to make greenery sprout out all over the place.
Water bottles refilled, we got back in the car for the short drive to Masada. Masada is a huge tourist side and a very important pilgrimage site for Jews. who would build a huge fortified fortress on top of a mountain?.... hmmm... Herod? Bingo. Herod the Great built two palaces for himself on the mountain and fortified Masada between 37 and 31 BCE.
The short video at the start explained the significance of the site, and Eric would later colour that in a bit.
Rather than do the sunrise climb that's popular with pilgrims, we elected to take the comfy, scenic gondola to the top. By the way, this was another spot we were super happy that tourism was not booming - this place could definitely be crowded and hot with another ten or twenty thousand bottles.
The story with Masada is that a thousand Jewish "rebels" (as defined by the Roman's), retreated and holed up in the fortress at the end of the first Jewish-Roman War from 73 to 74AD. The Roman's encircled and besieged the fortress, with little success until they were able to build a huge siege engine. The story goes that when they finally broke in, Jews had planned a mass suicide rather than admit defeat. It's a story that many Jews find representative of the struggle they face and the notion of never giving up. Apparently the truth of the story according to archaeological evidence is "ambiguous at best and rejected entirely by some scholars".
We drove towards our lunch and swim destination on the dead sea, passing the sad sign of resorts that were built at the edge of the water, only to be left high and dry by the receding shoreline caused by water drying up. It's a bit of an ecological disaster with many crazy fixes proposed by the Israeli government (including sucking water from the Med to fill it up again). It's a little depressing.
However.... (lol?) we did enjoy our swim (float?) in the super salty dead sea at Ein Bokek Beach - a huge complex built on the waterfront (for now) provided a nice break for lunch after the water. A woman was nice enough to donate some spare mud (who knew that it was B.Y.O.M) so we lathered up and just.... floated.
After getting out, any slight abrasion or cut any of us had immediately began stinging, and we all felt pretty bloated. Weird. Anyway, off to an amazing lunch to feel even more bloated!
Surprisingly, not everyone slept on the dessert drive into the heart of the South of Israel (myself and Eric, for example). We had one small detour on the way to our final destination... the final resting place for Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion. Ben-Gurion was always fascinated with the dessert, and when he retired from politics, he wanted to come live on a kibbutz near here. The kibbutz didn't want to let him stay there as they thought it would just bring unwarranted attention, but when they found out he actually wanted to live and work on the kibbutz, they let him.
Be-Gurion was a big believer in the ability to harness the dessert and transform it into a place of life, instead of death. The graves of David and Paula Ben-Gurion overlook a breathtaking view of the Tsin canyon and the Avdat highlands in the heart of the Negev dessert. The path from the parking lot to the grave site goes through a garden filled with local plants that can thrive in the dry climate and salty conditions of the local soil.
In the late afternoon, we arrived in Mitzpe Ramon - the small town on the edge of the massive Ramon Crater (we could learn more about that tomorrow!). Eric took us on a short hike along the crater's edge as a teaser, then brought us over to our hotel. More adventures tomorrow...
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