Dead Sea and Masada

Once again this morning up early to catch the tour bus to visit Masada and the Dead Sea. Bypassing Jerusalem, and over the Judean Desert to the Dead sea.

Going over the desert we passed quite a few Bedouin camps. These are the desert nomads who have lived that life for ever so long.

Luckily for us, ours was the first bus to arrive at that resort. So into our swim suits and in for a dip. It was weird, You hear of the dead sea and how you only float, but till you do it your self , the fact that you could not sink you just floated does not sink in. We had been told not to put our face, eyes, mouth into the water. But you could back paddle and just float. The mud in the dead sea apparently is very good for the skin, but you had to get it from the bottom of the ocean, which is a problem as you float and cannot reach the bottom. It was hard work to find mud, but found some in the shallow water. At one time I got just a tiny bit of sea water in my eyes, boy it started to sting. Both Marita and I enjoyed our time at the DS, the inner child in us loved it.

Some drops of water fell on my pack when I came out of the water, later to see there was crystallized salt on the top of the pack. One of the photos is of a stone on the beach that was full of salt in its middle.

The date palm trees were full of dates. I have seen date palms in Dubai, but this was the first time I saw a date palm in Israel/ Jordan/ West Bank.

From there we went on to have lunch to Qumran where they found some of the Dead sea scrolls in the caves in the hill. Next to the restaurant was a very old grave yard. After a lovely lunch we went on to Masada.

This was a fortress build by King Herod. The mountain it's built on is like a table top, in the middle of no where. You can see a 360 degree view of the enemy's coming. Left over original frescoes can yet be seen on the walls of the palace rooms.

We took a cable car to the top, and then walked around the fortress ruins. What a palace he had built up there. Recently Colin and I watched Hitlers place known as the Eagles Nest, well that could not hold a candle to this place that Herod had built. The photo of the tags with names were when the Jews living on the palace grounds were cornered by the Romans in AD70 they decided that rather than being captured for slavery and wives being raped by the Romans they would kill their families. The names are how the lots were drawn as to who would first kill and be killed in this suicidal pact.

Now we are back in the bus going back to TelAviv. Yesterday journal was updated several times today due to us getting so late to get back to the apartment last evening. I got up early this morning and wrote some of it, but kept updating it with missing information as and when I remembered. Hence decided to write today's one while on the bus.

Came back to the apartment had our washers and went to the beach for a fish and chips dinner. We decided the Cat fish was nothing to brag about.

ps as a matter of interest my skin does feel silkier this evening.:)Читать далее