#maris-rose

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Cheese! And cold cuts! And nice bread! Look, basically all I want to say is: good food!

Stories!

Notebooks and paper and pens!

              After the wonderful experience of Masada and floating in the Dead Sea, both of which I could spend pages and pages explaining to you, I’m going to write about my time at Ein Gedi.  Ein Gedi is a spring in the middle of the desert but pushed right up against the mountains in view of Masada and with a view of Yam HaMelach (Dead Sea) so the scenery is actually breathtaking.

              We got there late Friday night, had services, dinner, oneg, and then slept.  Ellie and I were roommates and we both woke up at 7am to go on an optional hike around the mountain.  At oneg last night, Guy, our madrich, asked who was planning on going on the long hike at 7:30 or the short hike at 11:30, most people said they were going on the long hike.  But, the next morning, there was about a  ¼ of the people in the lobby and ready to go with all the water necessary. (That had been an issue the night before because we were told to have 3 liters of water and most people on had two.  So Ellie had to go dumpster diving for hers)

              So at 7:45, 12 students, Elhanan (our core teacher/hike leader), Guy, and a medic/guard all head out for a 6 hour hike.  We start by hiking up the mountain.  It was really damn strenuous.  I don’t think strenuous really encompasses how difficult this first part of the hike was.  I mean, I consider myself rather fit but the thought of admitting defeating and giving up on the hike crossed my mind a couple times.  The only thing that kept me going was the promise of amazing views and the fact that the first half hour was supposed to be the worst part.

              Along this awful first part, there were fun parts.  These were the first water break and the first wall and the rocks behind.  The first water break was where we stopped between two enormous boulders and was just as geologically interesting as the view was beautiful.  The first wall was at the very end of the uphill climb and it was just a little rock wall, a little taller than me, that we had to climb up.  And I didn’t know it at the time, but that was a wonderful foreshadowing of what was to come later.  The rocks behind it (above it?) were cool because that’s where the people in the front sat and waited for the people lagging behind to catch up and the view of Yam HaMelach was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.  The sea itself was a gorgeous blue and the sun glinted off it in a million different places making it look a precious stone, and the ground around was a dull brown but had the most amazing looking patterns in it that it was no less amazing than the Dead Sea.

              Now to the mountains themselves; I don’t know which mountains they are, I just know how they looked.  The color red they were was that of the really cliché success posters with the eagle flying in front and the really blue sky behind it.  That’s exactly what these gargantuous hills looked like, minus the eagle of course. Same crimson red and same unrealistically blue sky.  The mountains had sheer faces, sloping sides of rock fall, and craggy peaks.  These wondrous mountains sedimentary! Not volcanic like one would assume from their height and splendor, but sedimentary.  These mountains were under water long ago leading to the appearance as I described above.  The soft rock falls were of a different mineral than the hard rock cliffs underneath and it had many, many layers.

              After the rock wall, we hiked along the mountain side on a trail that wound with the terrain of the mountains.  At one point in time, with the rising sun behind us, our shadows were seen hiking along the mountain to our left.  For some strange reason it reminded me of the Fellowship of the Ring, off to throw the ring into Mordor.  We dropped out of view of the sun by climbing, jumping, and falling our way into a dry tributary river bed.  While the mountains had been red, the river bed was grey from the water forcefully ripping away the ‘sun tan of the rocks’ as Elhanan so succinctly put it.  This was our second water break and after we were finished there we followed the ‘empty trail’ marker (a break from the main trail that means something interesting is that way).  This trail marker lead us along the tributary.  When I say tributary, I’m not talking about some namby-pamby little creek, I’m talking about a full-force flash-flood capacity river bed.

              Have you ever seen the dry river bed of a fast flowing river?  It’s pretty astounding.  The only way I know how to describe it is in sections.  Actually though, every section was less than 50 yards across, followed by a drop into the next section.  The sections were either empty, the lower depressions holding old flash-flood water, or filled with rock or boulders.  The cliff walls rose so high on either side that it was hard to imagine rivers being this deep and jagged and definitely not smooth.  And when I say drop to the next section, I mean drop.  Sometimes there were slides between them, smoothed by the force of the water sometimes the only way to the other side was to climb along the edge of the cliff using these metal hand and foot holds they drilled into the rocks.  One time, the path led along this little ledge about a foot wide before descending straight down with the metal holds I was talking about 15 feet. 

              After countless numbers of these sections we reached our first destination, the Window Waterfall.  This breakfast pit stop was only supposed to be food and a good view, but we got a bonus.  From last year’s flash floods there was a pool in this last chamber and, unlike the other pools that were gross looking, this one looked just fine.  Even better, it had its own natural slide.  When we got there, there was already another family but they left soon after we arrived.  Before we could get in the pool, we had to maneuver around the outside through a mixture of ledges, hand holds, and questionable foot placement.  We set our bags on the far side, got into our swimming attire (mine was just taking off my shirt and shoes and going in my sports bra and shorts because bathing suits are annoying), and then had to make our way back to the entrance of the bonus pool chamber.  Elhanan was the first one in, then me a little late, followed immediately by Ellie.  Because of the family before us, there was already water on the slide so it was easy to splash right into the pool water.  I had my misgivings right before sliding in because I didn’t know how deep the pool was.   The pool was plenty deep and just cold enough to lose your breath a little when you submerge, and it felt wonderful after about 2 hours of hiking, climbing, and bouldering. 

              So I slid in, broke the surface, swam away to give Ellie room to get down, and started to figure out how to get out.  Easier said than done.  The least steep part of the edge of the pool was slimy, smooth, and without purchase.  It took about 45 seconds of straight struggling and falling back into the water to find that one point with traction and to heave myself out.  By this point, the rest of the group got here and while they were debating getting in or not, Ellie went down 2 more times.  There were lots of pictures taken and stupid stuff done but it all ended up with us eating chocolate sandwiches, pretzels, and cookies and looking out the beautiful window, we couldn’t walk to the edge like I wanted to but it was still ok. And by ok, I mean gorgeous.

              Looking out of this window, like a hole in the rock because there was now a ceiling above us, you could see the Ein Gedi spring, except not really, all you could see was a bunch of plants.  One side of the river bank was green with plants and bushes while the other side was completely bare and it was really cool to see.  The two sides of the river extended straight out and between them you could see the Dead Sea.

              After breakfast, we continued on our way again, this time Elhanan had no mercy for us.  He climbed back up the river bed super fast and Ellie, Eli, and I were the only ones keeping up.  Going back up the river bed was 10 times scarier, because you were more acutely aware of every drop and ledge.  I’m joking when I say that it was one of the most dangerous things I have ever done.  Than being said, it was one of the most fun experiences of my life.  

              When we got back to the straight down descent I mentioned earlier, Elhanan was already waiting in a little alcove behind it that I hadn’t noticed coming down and Eli was getting settled in it too.  So Ellie and I sat down to wait, because where we were sitting was unnoticeable unless you look up and directly to you left which seems ridiculous when you are just trying to figure out how to get up the huge rock face in front of you.  And that was our plan, just sit, wait, listen, and watch in amusement as our slower companions saw the unsurpassable monolith before them.  It was actually pretty hilarious, especially when they finally saw us.