Masada

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Oh my gosh! Today we climbed up to Masada, which is a 1200 foot rise in elevation! All switchbacks, in the sun. It was brutal but so worth it. Really gorgeous view of the Dead Sea, which we went in afterwards. That is surreal. And I'm running out of minutes, so I'll finish this later!
I am not quite sure that I can do justice to what we did today. We got up early (but not early enough) and left the hotel at 6 to climb Masada. We should have left at 4. It was almost hot by the time we got there, driving along the shore of the Dead Sea. At the bottom, looking up along the switch backs to the castle on top 1500 feet above us, I was incredibly intimidated. Not gonna lie, it looked awful! By the time I was a third of the way up I was looking forward to the small stretches of stairs because they gave my calves a break! And at two thirds I wasn’t even thinking about the climbing, because I was so determined to get to the shade that was only at the very top. Brutal, but I tell you what, not until today did I believe that hokey about endorphins. I have never felt quite as high as I did when I got to the top and caught my breath. It was like being on top of the world, and you’re only 42 feet above sea level! Incredible. I can’t imagine what it was like to be one of the poor suckers that had to cut off the top of a mountain and build a castle on it for Herod. It was very imposing though. They had farming, a grand palace, and a roman bathhouse. Just stunning. You could also see the wall and camps that the Romans built while they were sieging them. And then we hiked/climbed/ran down. I have never sweated so much EVER. My shirt was soaking wet. Just dripping. I’m pretty sure I steamed. It was great though. Then we went to the Dead Sea, and had lunch (not very good), went floating in the sea, which is, btw, absolutely bizarre. You really cannot sink. I could lay on my tummy with my arms and legs out of the water and not get my face wet. It’s like being at zero gravity. So so weird. But very cool. And then of course we had to do the mud, so we went and just covered ourselves with black gooey mud. I got a little carried away and slopped it everywhere, including on by bathing suit, which meant that it got in my bathing suit, which was very interesting when I tried to rinse it off outside. It is not easy to get gobs of mud out of your bikini bottoms without taking them off but I managed it! Then we loaded up again and PASSED OUT for the entire journey to Tel Aviv, took a quick look-see at the market street thing here, and then got to our hostel here. We’ll be staying here until Monday, when we take off for the deep south, Petra, and Sinai!

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Comments

[betsey]

yikes
now you'll live forever, dead sea and all. Really enjoying your blog, love bets

[olivier]

zion in the sun
am glad you earlier saw/heard zionism for what it is. Nevertheless, they are without equal for ingenuity. Some solar panel you described! Any available for the plebe? Good on you for the hike. It sounds safe where you are going...