Our first road trip

Last weekend we went on our first road trip, to the Dead Sea area. We started out at Kibbutz Ein Gedi, a real oasis. The staff are very friendly, all obviously proud of what they've accomplished. It's a gorgeous kibbutz, complete with botanical garden, shady and green in the midst of yet more austere desert. There are baobab trees. Remember in The Little Prince when he finds a planet that's so small there are only 3 baobab trees on it, and they're growing so fast and big that he worries they will split the planet apart? Well, these trees are absolutely immense, and they're only 50 years old!

Baobab at  night

The whole place is gorgeous.When you're inside, it's so comfortable and lush, it's easy to forget you're in such harsh desert. When we were there the weather was lovely: 60s and 70s. It gets brutally hot, though, with temps in the 100s during the summer.

The contrast between kibbutz and surroundings is striking

Don't know what this cool tree or growths are, but all real

Cactus garden

There's even mini-golf, though it's different from what we're used to.

You have to hit the ball lightly on a concrete course

The buffet breakfast and dinner are excellent.

Check out the halvah!

The next day we went on a hike in Nahal David. It's a national park and was crowded with Shabbat hikers. Surprisingly, much of the hike was in the shade and in water. We saw several waterfalls, all within 20 minutes of trailhead.

After the hike, we went to float in the Dead Sea, or Yam Hamelech (Sea of Salt). We passed by the lowest meteorological station in the world.

The Dead Sea is in bad shape. The water level is dropping a meter a year because so much water is being taken out of the Jordan river. That's depth, not distance from the shoreline. Here you see where the shoreline was just 11 years ago. Now you can take a tractor ride down to the sea.

Obligatory tourist photo.

The next morning we got up early to hike up to Masada. See Rebekah's post for her point of view.

The Snake Path, where we're hiking, in the foreground

View from Masada over the Dead Sea, Moab Mountains in Jordan on far side

Masada is very impressive and we'll write more about it in another post.

All in all, a great trip. We were glad to be home in our little town and ready to go out and explore more.