jlawall
<font color=royalblue>Captain Lucky, the Great Pro
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2002
Wow, I'm not sure if I'll ever get there....thx for sharing!!
Well about a week ago we managed to get all of us out on a family daytrip, to go hiking near the Dead Sea. We only left our house around 11 am, due to a morning math lesson and some last minute supermarket shopping for picnic supplies. The drive from our house takes us basically in an Eastern direction, skirting around Jerusalem, past Jericho, and on to the Dead Sea. It took us one hour to get to the Northern tip of the Dead Sea, and another 1/2 hour to get to the Ein Gedi reserve where we wanted to hike. Ein Gedi means "Wild Goat Spring". It is the name of a kibbutz/communal settlement on the edge of the Dead Sea, and of a national park there. There are two main trails, and we decided to do Wadi Arugot. On this schematic map, it's the trail on the left side of the map.
Because we didn't get an early start, we knew we'd only get up part of the trail, but that was ok! It starts to get dark at around 4pm in this season at the Dead Sea - there is no light pollution and as soon as the sun dips behind the mountains, it is DARK! Here's another view (from the Internet) to show you where we were. It is as if you were hovering in a helicopter over the Dead Sea and looking at Ein Gedi:
It was very, very hazy and dusty that day. This is how it really looked as we set out on our hike
About 10 minutes in,
you have the option of a "wet trail" or a "dry trail".
The kids did "wet", of course!
Don't worry, that jumping kid isn't one of mine!
The trail continues onward and upward....
We made it about 2/3 of the way to the end of the trail. Made me want to come again and start early enough to do the whole thing! On the way down we saw some local residents:
Cute! The bottom one is called a Boulder Bunny in Hebrew, and is a distant relative of the elephant! Maybe someone here knows the name in English?
Afterwards, it was time for refilling our water bottles and ice cream for some. Then a quick dip in the Dead Sea for 4 of us, while the other two chilled out. I finally got to my son's pictures : here is a typical scene of bathers in at the Dead Sea, and the rocks on it's shore.
By 5:30 it was pitch dark. And we headed home. Even though we live here, we really don't get out to do these kind of hikes enough. Like living in NY and not visiting the Empire State Building!
Hope you enjoyed this detour!