Now Playing: Shawn Colvin - Sonny came home
So I'm back from the Negev. What a trip! It's really beautiful in the desert. I mean, it's sort of unexplainable how connected you can feel to the earth and to nature when you are standing at the precipice of a mountain top. When we left on Wednesday, we stopped at S'day Boquer and picked up our Negev tour guides. We then went to Ain Evdat which is this beautiful spring in the middle of a mouuntain's edge. I took a picture there that reminded me of one that Phyllis took of her classmate's crossing the spring with a cool reflection of them in the water (I think this was the same place...it sure looked like it!). The water was a lot less clear, but the picture I took is cool, nonetheless. Then we hiked up the mountain's side which wasn't too steep but was a little challenging with the ladders and the rugged path. We stopped and looked inside a Monk's cave. The actual hike itself was quite short and a lot of fun. I met one of our tour guides, Gal, a 19-year-old Israeli who is doing a year of community service tour guiding before he goes into the Israeli Army. He had impecable english (from studying in Amsterdam as a kid) and he was really a great guide and fun to talk to. I love meeting people in Israel, they're just so open about everything and open to meeting new people.
After that we went to Kibbutz Lotan and learned about the different ways that they are trying to improve the environmental situation in Israel. Very interesting. Then we spent the night at Kibbutz Yahel. Both of these kibbutzim are reform Jewish kibbutzim, but I didn't feel like religion was they key to our trip..it was just that these were the kibbutzim that we stayed at.
The next morning we woke up early and loaded the buses with food and supplies and headed off for our hike of the day. Now, our guides said this was going to be an "easy, maybe 3 hour hike". All downhill, they told us. So I was excited. I love hiking when it doesn't involve going up so much and even rough terrain is a fun challenge, I think. We started off for about 20 minutes on top of a mountain and it was a beautiful hike. We stopped at a beautiful overlook and decided to have morning services there and breakfast. It was nice, but all in all it took about two hours....too much time, I think. After that, we began the real hike. It was a LOT of downhill...down a MOUNTAIN, in fact. And this is the desert so you have to remember that there is a lot of soft sand mixed in with the rock. And we were literally holding on to chains that were palced on the side of the mountain to help us down. But...it was HARD!!! I kept slipping and fell a few times (don't worry mom, I'm okay!) and by the time we got to the bottom, I realized how hard my body had been working. By now,it was mid day and hot and so we kept trying to find shady places to stop and let the rest of the group catch up. We went through a big rock valley that was deserty and hot, but then we got to this huge open sandy valley, and that was really cool. After squeezing through a few narrow rocky passages, we started going up the next mountain, and then down again. All in all, about 6 hours we were hiking. It was fun, but very exhausting. Then we went to the Underwater observatory in Eilat. It was fun, but we were all pretty tired. After that, one of our buses broke down and we ended up having a bit of balagan trying to get to our campsite. But we got there and we set up our stuff, eventually got a campfire and dinner going, and all learned to enjoy going to the bathroom in the great outdoors. Sleeping under the stars was beautiful. In the morning we packed our stuff up and some of us headed to the beach, while others went hiking again. This is where I must say...I love the water. I think there is nothing more beautiful than water. I mean, hiking is all good and well, but if you want me to have a beautiful and meaningful experience, give me a body of water any day. It just does more for me than a mountain...and I can't explain why.
So a bunch of us went to the beach and met up with the hikers when they were done. After that, we ALL went snorkeling at the Coral Reef Beach in Eilat. Wow...I forgot how much I love snorkeling...it's just so peaceful. And by a random series of chance events, I met this woman Maria who used to live in West Lafayette, who worked at Purdue's Hillel and that knows my Mom. She was vacationing in Eilat with her family and they happened to be snorkeling where we were too. What a small world!!!
After a bit of lunch at Yotvata (the famous dairy place) we went back to Yahel for a tour of the Pomelo farm and then to clean up for shabbat. After services in dinner, we indulged in a little kareoke and alcohol at the Kibbutz pub. Saturday was a day of total and utter relaxation (which I totally needed because it's now four days later and my body is still sore from the hike), and we left late that night and got back to jerusalem a little after midnight.
Now, I'm officially on vacation until May. But I have lots to do. Yesterday I went in to school's library to get a bit of work done, and then went to the movies and to dinner with friends. I saw "Finding Neverland" which was excellent and which I've been meaning to see for a while. Totally worth the wait! Now, today, I'm trying to see some people before they leave for their Former Soviet Union Pesach Project, and before I leave tomorrow for my Dead Sea getaway with Karen, Ann, and the Sherman Family. I'll be back on Thursday, but the Library closes that day for the rest of break, so I have to make sure I have everything that I need before then from school. Also, my friends and I are conducting our own Sedar on Sat. night (the first night of Pesach) and so we have a lot to do between now and then to prepare for it. It looks to be lots of fun, but a lot of work too.
Okay, so I'll update after my Dead Sea Spa getaway with the girls!!! I can't wait...massages, and treatments and facials...oh my!!
(PS-My camera hasn't been working so well lately, so I'll have to borrow other people's pictures from the Negeve trip and from our Dead Sea trip in order to update my pics...please be patient for them, I promise they'll be worth the wait!!!)
If you're on break...enjoy!!! If not...live vicariously through the rest of us!!!!
Posted by Elizabeth
at 9:42 AM
