Masada and the Dead Sea

The Tour Begins

5:45am comes quickly. We get up and head to the Abraham Hostel where we catch our full day tour to Masada, En Gedi and the Dead Sea.

In the hostel lobby we meet some ladies who are waiting for their tour. They tell us of their experiences picking olives in Bethlehem.

Our tour bus is over an hour late because it came from Tel Aviv where it was raining. Our guide says that because it rains so little in Israel, when it does rain there are a lot more accidents and the traffic gets very bad.

We drive through desert, rocky cliffs, past small tented settlements and groves of date palms (which is the areas largest export).

Masada

Our first stop is Masada, which is a flat topped mountain in the desert. King Herod built a fortress and palace on the top.  Much much later Jewish rebels occupied the fortress and a Roman legion was sent to expel them. The Roman’s laid seige to Masada and rather than await capture and enslavement the rebels killed their wives and children, then themselves. When they were down to ten people, they drew lots as to who would be the last person to throw themselves on their own sword. There is an old movie called Masada starring Peter O’toole which tells the story Hollywood style.

You can’t truly appreciate how high up or what an accomplishment of engineering and labor it took to create this place. I am sure many lives were lost in the building and running of the fortress.

The views are spectacular. Vince and I are enamored with these plain black birds that have a very sweet song.

You can still see the massive earthen seige ramp built by the Romans where they finally breached the walls.

There is a great museum on the site. It actually has some of the clay lots with peoples names on them.

En Gedi Nature Reserve

Our next stop is the Ein Gedi Nature Reserve. There are a number of water falls in this place.

It is hot and we are walking uphill. We go to the ibex observation area. Everyone is being quiet and staying behind screens. Not an ibex to be seen.

We continue walking up and up in the heat. The cliffs near the river have caves in them.

As we continue to climb, the walking gets harder and harder. I am not having fun so I turn around and go back.

Just before I exit the gate, I see a herd of ibex. There are even more ibex in the picnic area in front of the entrance. I grab an ice cream and happily wait for the rest of my crew.

They inform me that the trail got much worse. I am glad I turned back.

The Dead Sea

And now on to the Dead Sea which is more  than 30% salt and is fed by the Jordan River. At 420 metres below sea level, the Dead Sea has the lowest surface water in the world. Unfortunately the Dead Sea is drying out. At the current rate of water loss  if nothing changes in 100 years it may be completely gone. In areas where the water has retreated underground salt is melting and the ground breaks into it creating sink holes.

We have over two hours at Kalia Beach on the Dead Sea. We climb down to the shore. The beach is busy but there are free plastic chairs for everyone.

Getting in is challenging. Emily almost lost her shoe in a mud hole. The rock salt in the shallow water near the shore hurts the feet. The easiest way to get in is by floating yourself in. And we float without trying.

The life guard yells down every few  minutes in numerous languages, “Get on your back. Get back on your back!” Its impossible to float on your stomach but some tourists keep trying hence the life guards calls.

We cover ourselves in mud. I even put mud on my face. I let it dry for a bit and then  I go back into the water to wash it off. And then I get it in my eyes. Ahhhhh! The sting!

I manage to get myself back to shore, over the rocky part with my eyes closed…and I make it to the beach shower. Ahhhh.

The boys stop at the beach bar for a beer but I continue up to the main indoor showers to get off my bathing suit (that’s bottom is filled with mud)…not very comfortable.

Dried and dressed, I head back to the beach bar where I pass our guide talking to one of the other people on our tour. “The bus leaves in 20 minutes.”
“But I want to go down to the water.” She replies.
“You’ve had over two hours” he patiently replies.
“I am just going down to touch the water” she says as she takes off.
It is a five minute walk from where she is to the water.
Our bus leaves fifteen minutes late because of a missing passenger…Guess who? Really!

We are all really tired as we head back to Jerusalem.