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The past few days have been great!
We stayed at the Massada Youth Hostel for 2 nights - the hostel is brand new, very clean, and well kept. We had a private balcony overlooking the Dead Sea as well.
The first day we went to Ein Gedi and went on a hike through the waterfalls and caves. We swam in a small pool formed by the spring runoff. It was fun!
Later that day we went to swim in the Dead Sea near the major hotels. The scenery was primarily geriatric, but floating was fun.
The next morning we woke up at 4am to climb Massada. Josh and I made it up in 20 minutes. Noah was a little slower, but had an impressive time nonetheless, considering he was still on antibiotics and had a combined total of 8h sleep from the previous two nights.
We saw the sunrise, looked at the ruins, and then descended, and immediately went back to sleep for another 4h.
We then went to look at the botannical gardens at Kibbutz Ein Gedi. I had been here previously as well, but it is an amazing thing to see - tropical plants growing in the middle of the desert at the lowest geographical point on Earth.
Later that day we went to swim in the Dead Sea again, at the Mineral beach, where the natural black mud is located. Afterwards, we soaked in the sulphur pool, and then returned to our hostel.
The next morning we left Massada and made our way to Eilat. En route, we stopped at Timna national park. We expected to see only several interesting mushroom-shaped rocks, but were delighted to find much more. There were Egyptian ruins there from 12th century BCE, and some beautiful sandstone rock formations that had been created from wind and water erosion over the centuries. The ambient temperature was the best part - it literally felt like we were standing in an oven. Even with the AC in the car turned up to full blast, we were still hot. It must have been about 45C outside. My kind of weather.
Now we're in Eilat - I ran into a friend of mine from the Metro Trip last summer. Today is a relaxing day - beach, sleep, internet, that's all.
Pictures to come soon, bye for now!
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celia
non-member comment
thanks
i thought your journal was interesting and helpful for planning my own trip. I appreciate you giving the details about the places you went. sounds great!