Today was really terrific at Ein Gedi, except for the Dead Sea bit at the end. Started with Talia and i watching the sunrise over the Moab mountains from outside our room at 6.15am, and we were soon joined by the whole gang. The weather is superb (me'ule) at the moment. I'm sure everyone would love buckets and buckets of non-stop rain, but for sightseeing it doesn't get better - 22-24c with a slight breeze. After an early 7.30am b'fast in the dining hall, we jumped in the car around 9.30 and began our daily trekking with a visit to the Bet Kneset Atica, or old Ein Gedi Shul and village - from around 2000yo. When we came to Israel one of the things that i had in mind to show the girls were the preserved mosaic floors. Unfortunately we haven't seen that many, however today made up for it. This mosaic floor was a truly fabulous example of ancient craftwork. Absolutely stunning, a real humdinger. We were all so impressed with the details and colours and we spent a good half hour examining it. There were inscriptions and signs of the zodiac, and menoras, and peacocks, etc etc.
Everything in Ein Gedi is very close. Even Massada is only 17km away. The mosaic shul is only 1min from our guest house, and the nature reserve is 30secs away (drive out one driveway and in the next), and the kibbutz is 2mins away.
So then we went to the Ein Gedi National Park, where you take the waterfall trail along the floor of the gorge where numerous spring are flowing out of the mountain (some flow from as far away as 200km, from the direction of J'lem). This walk/hike took us about 3-4hrs and i tell you these girls are all troopers! Especially Hannah who walked almost the whole way - extraordinary! She was very excited to walk up and down steps and over the rocks (mostly holding hands) and through puddles and ponds and flowing creek beds. There are about 4 major waterfalls every few hundred metres and we stopped at each one, including for lunch that we'd brought with. It was quite exciting reaching the end where there was a quite high double waterfall flowing down from seemingly dry rockface. The wildlife of ibex, hyrax, crab, snails, birds, et al, kept us all entertained as we walked and were kept in wonder by our surroundings.
This was our last opportunity to go into the Dead Sea, so at around 3pm we went for a swim - or tried to. The light wind was stirring up the water to small crashing waves, the rocky and salt crystal floor hurt our feet and made walking difficult and the leering 'cousins' made for some easy decisions: A. Leave, B. never swim in the Dead Sea at a public beach, & C. in the future always go to Kalia Beach in the far north of the sea (mud there too!) - its the best.
Drove 1min up the road to Ein Gedi Kibbutz around 4pm. Decided to have dinner there when the restaurant opened at 6, and we walked the well maintained gardens beforehand. It is quite beautiful. Had a very lavish dinner (buffet), and invited Marilee from Colorado Springs to dine at our table with us which made for some unusual but interesting conversation, specifically about her views on Israel. It was quite enjoyable.
So we've come back to our room and our now getting ready to venture down south tomorrow to Eilat - should be a blast - staying at the Hilton Queen of Sheba for 4 nights.
The next report will fill you in about that...
P
Latest update from the Steinbergs In Israel...
Web photo album: http://picasaweb.google.com/steinbergpicasa
Blog online: http://steinbergsinisrael.blogspot.com
GoogleMaps Steinberg Israel Tour: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF&msa=0&msid=101845790702321945414.00046ae3bb9b8c8d66f12
Skype Paul username: 'paulsteinberg'
Skype Steinberg Family username: 'prsteinberg'
Jerusalem address: 27 Narkis, Nahlaot.
Telephone: (03) 9015-9718 (local call in Australia)
Telephone: +972-(0)52-3396805 (in Israel)
Time: Melbourne Aust (AEST) minus -9 hours (e.g. Melb 10am=J'lem 1am)
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