Hey Everyone,
Last time I posted, I talked about backpacking, and I stated how excited I was to go camping in the beautiful Negev Desert in Israel for 3 days. I'll let you know how it all went.
Before I start, I just want to say that I'm not going to be posting pictures onto this blog, but I'll give you the link to the Facebook album that I posted. Here's the link for those of you who don't want to read this. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=296011&id=705901132&l=5d50a14e3e
On Sunday morning, we woke up at the crack of dawn, packed everything up, got on the busses and headed to Ein Gedi to pray and eat breakfast before the hike. After breakfast, the director of the program gathered us all together and explained some hysterical news.
But first, some background: We had left so early in the morning to begin a program called Desert Survival. The idea was that we would hike from about 10-5 in the desert through the heat of the day and try to "survive" the heat. We didn't survive.
Our director gathered us together in order to tell us that it was too hot to hike--and the Israeli Government (or some subsidiary of the government that I don't know the name of) has implemented a Hike Freeze for all hikes in the desert. Therefor, instead of hiking for 7 hours that day, our director had to scramble to find us something else to do--so he did.
We went on a light stroll (we're talking 25 minute walk) in the desert at the one location where we were allowed to hike and then took a jeep ride to a natural spring where we got the chance to go swimming. Not a single one of us had a bathing suit or an extra pair of shorts to change into, but it didn't matter as we all had a total blast swimming, and the lack of drying caused all of the girls to look as though we were lactating once we got dressed.
That night, we took a nighttime walk by the light of the full moon. It was really exciting to take a walk in the middle of the desert in the middle of the night with no flashlights and be able to see everything. It reminded us how people have been able to live in the desert for thousands of years.
Because of the hike freeze, we woke up at 4 the next morning so we could take a hike before the freeze began at 9 AM. We prayed (really long service because of the sukkot stuff), ate and left to take the hike. There were a few big highlights.
1) As we were hiking, I saw the same spray painted trail markers as we saw when hiking up in the north of Israel, meaning that I was on the same trail in teh south as I was in the north. That realization was really fun.
2) We went to one place that was a fossil bed for amonite in the middle of the desert. Our guide pointed out that millions and millions of years ago, the site of Israel was underwater. That area was most likely a shore.
3) From the top, we could see this incredible view of the desolate nothingness that is the desert, and it was BEAUTIFUL. I urge you to check out the pictures. The link is at the top of this post.
From there, we went back to Jerusalem.
Now I'm here. There was a parade and a lot of epic events going on in Jerusalem yesterday, and I'll write about in my next post when I talk about Simchat Torah (which begins tonight).
So until then, have a great Simchat Torah!
Becca
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