Our journey today was from the Negev to the Judean wilderness, and this was magic. The Judean wilderness is something to be seen to be believed. It is in the Great Rift Valley (the one you can see from the moon, oh how knowledgeable I have become!!!) and it is like being in the Grand Canyon (maybe...seeing as I haven't been in the GC, but that is what I imagine it would be like). The wilderness looks like bare nothing, no soil to be seen, not many plants, just lots of limestone in various stages and crumbly surfaces. The thought of anyone spending significant time out there makes the mind boggle, yet that is what people have done there for thousands of years. I learned about shepherds, and how they are usually female, and wear black, to protect them and so that everyone knows when there is a woman in the area. It is against the law (maybe desert law?) for a solitary man to approach a woman in the desert, unless she is a member of their own family, so in wearing black, the women announce their presence and are protected.
This is kind of like dot to dot about my day....there was so much in the last three days that I will have forgotten pieces ...but maybe they'll come back when I see my photos and can share them with you. We went this morning to Ein Gedi nature reserve, passing the Herodian fortress of Masada on the way...I was dozing on the bus, so was really glad I woke up to see it, as we didn't have time in our schedule to visit it, Our guide Raphael took us on a guided 'saunter' up a hill which turned out to be 'grade 4' difficulty out of a possible 4. It was 9am when we started and the sun was already high in the sky and it was already roasting hot. Anyway, I made my way up what was apparently the most difficult part of the walk, (they told me later) but they gave us options to turn back at a few stages so I took one of the options and chose life! (you’ve gotta know your limitations, Truman). There were about half of the group who did the whole walk and half who did the first one or two sections. The whole walk was four hours up to the top of the reserve…if any of you have done it, you have my unlimited admiration!
To avoid feeling like a quitter, we then went to the Nature reserve and there was another easier walk there to the waterfall, so Bernadette (Sister of Sion) led a few of us up there. it was also up hill, and plenty of steps, but my legs have actually acclimatised to all the steps and hills now and they didn't even hurt. The landscape is phenomenally harsh. No green, except in the Ein Gedi oasis, all almost red sandy rock where we were walking first, and white limestone and flint stone shaley stuff where we walked second (please excuse the geographically imprecise terms!). Very little shade, trees are scrappy and sparse, but manage to scatter a tiny bit of shade which is where you head. We walked to the waterfall which is obviously the swimming hole of choice for every man and his dog around the place, or every tourist, and it was a spot of coolness. We saw a group of orthodox jews having their midday prayer, then unwrapping tefellin and prayer shawls and jumping in one of the pools of water…
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