Lions and Tigers and Ostriaches, OH MY!

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The third day started with me completely throwing up everything that i had ate for breakfast in the bathroom of the hotel lobby. I didnt make it to the tiolet in the bathroom and it ended up on the floor. The joys of living in another country- sometimes the food you eat is totally rejected by your stomach.
The third day of the trip was mostly spent in a place called Timnah Park. Timnah is also a city in the Negev, but it has been perserved as a national park because of some of the natural wonders that are there. The first stop in Timnah was to this animal reserve park. We were able to drive our huge tour bus through the wild life park and see all the animals. I felt like i was on safari through the wilderness of Africa. Except the animals were a little different. The park tries to rescue animals which are indiginous to the area and nurse them for awhile in the park and then reintroduce them into the Negev. There were Ostriahs, donkeys, foxes and other typical desert life. It was alot of fun to just sit in the bus and watch the wild life. There was also a night life perserve where they would simulate night so that bats and weird gross snakes who live in the dark could be seen by tourists.
The next stop in Timnah park was to see Solomons pillars. These are a natural rock formation which have nothing to do with Solomon, but are pretty cool to see.
Another weird natural rock formation is this Mushroom looking rock which eroded over time because of flood and rain water. Some of the guys tried to climb it, but were unsuccessfully. It is pretty high and there is nothing around it to get up on easily.
Finally in Timnah there is a reconstruction of the tabernacle. We got a tour of it from this guy named Tom. Oh, man. Tom was an interesting guy. He looked like a desert rat and talked like a hippie. it was great.
For lunch we stopped at this Kibbutz which is famous for their milk products. They have a huge grocery store kind of thing where we just went in and got what we wanted to eat. We got chocolate milk and ice cream there. it was soo good. The place was really funny because they had these fake cows all over. we bought a cow shirt to remember our great times spent there with our amazing milk products.
the rest of the day was spent driving to Masada, where we spent the night.

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Photos

Our Name
We carved our name on a rock at Solomons pillars

Trying to Climb the Mushroom
the guys trying to climb the mushroom by holding the rope while someone was on the other side

Pulling Him Up
still trying to climb the mushroom

Patrick and Vulture
patrick was teasing the vulture with a teddy bear.

Desert Night Life??
We thought for sure that the night life perserve at Timah was actually a club- todd was the bouncer

girls with Schoom
we are acting like trolls