The Desert, The Dead & The Red - Mini Blog 3

A desolate place

Goodbye Jerusalem. I'll miss you. Passing into the tunnel, this would be the last time I'd be seeing this city on this trip... sunlight poured into the mini bus as we came out the other end into the hostile and desolate surrounding desert. Eve our amazing tour guide rejoined us for the day, it was great to see a familiar face. Our coach drivers name translated in English to Moses... I just hoped this guy wouldn't get us lost out here for 40 years unlike the bible time Moses...

An unexpected ice cold lemonade 

All a sudden we were truly in the heart of the desert. Eve suggested that we make a diversion to see somewhere most tourist and visitors rarely tend to visit... so we did. We passed a huge sign saying "no Israelis past this sign". Inside I was slightly nervous but with a huge excitement. We were driving into the city of Jericho! Jericho is the oldest city on Earth; around 10,000 years ago were the first known settlements! You're most likely wondering why the sign said no Israelis? Today Jericho is a Muslim only zone, but incredibly they welcome tourist... we must be a great source of income for them! We stopped off at the spring which has lead to Jerichos success over thousands of years; it was a very touristy place, with so many camels! I was greeted with an ice cold homemade lemonade... a relief I can still taste from the desert heat. I suddenly felt so welcome in such a seemingly far place from home.  

On the road again...

We were back in the bus heading at speed towards the Dead Sea which was quickly appearing through the heavy morning haze. We were surrounded with towering desert mountains. I felt the size of an ant, a speck in the landscape. It's so vast, that no photo can show the true intensity of it. We arrived at our first stop. Qumran, a very dusty and sun scorched land, full of caves and remains of a once hidden past. This is where the Dead Sea scrolls were found and once thousands of years ago actually written. You can see the cave in the photo below!

Climbing waterfalls 

Our next stop for me is a truly amazing place! It was by far one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen in my life! The sun was now blazing hot, well into the mid 40C's. The air was thick, sweat pouring from under my funny hat I brought in Jerusalem the night before. En Gedi is one of Israels perfect national parks. A climb of thousands of steps would take you the full route. 5 waterfalls glide down the mountain face. This was truly an oasis in the wilderness. Despite it was impossible for anything to live either side of the canyon, everything within was very much alive, with birds, animals and so many visitors enjoying the cool waters and bathing beneath the falls. I was leading up front as we climbed, the heat was beginning to become unbearable, the pool of water and the water fall to my left seemed irresistible. I jumped off the path, threw my bag and shirt down, and fell under the cool torrent of water from the small cliff above! The team followed, all taking a turn at placing their hands, head and in my case whole body still half dressed under the waterfall! 

Masada, the land of the puppet king

There it stood, a magnificent sight, a lone mountain in between the moutain range and Dead Sea. King Herod built this incredible fortress known as Masada on top... today this would be a seemingly impossible job to build, so how they managed it back 2000 odd years ago I really don't know. I can't even begin to imagine the pain and lives lost trying to build this mammoth fortress. Even though he created so much the Jews very much hate this king (for obvious reasons) and they nickname him today the Puppet king.

After lunch with a view I shall never forget we would begin our accent. Walking up was forbidden this week, due to the extreme temperatures around 45C - even the locals say this is too hot!

The cable car set off at speed, it's a very long way down. The views were staggering across the Dead Sea from up here! After a sudden stop the cable car swang into its final place and we disembarked onto a extremely high platform where we were surrounded by the local birds (some kind of starling), all panting for breath in the heat. An American couple came up with us, they had cheese puffs. One by one we all grabbed some puffs and the birds all came and boldly landed on our hands, I can't blame them for being brave as there is very little food in the desert. 

Masada was beautiful, but the heat was crippling. Every time we stopped I tried grabbing the last bit of shade in the height of the days extreme sun. We took the most incredible tour with Eve, she herself was one of those that actually helped discover the artefacts that time had left behind here. Scattered all over was pieces of broken pottery, she said take a piece home, we've found so much that you can have a free 2000 year old souvenir! 

Just floating around... Oh my gosh... how do I even begin to explain this feeling! I waded in up to my waste, a odd greasy feel from the salt all over my skin. Ok here I go, eyes shut ... 3... 2... 1... I'm floating! It's literally impossible to sink! It's even near impossible to swim, just your arms give you some sort of directional course in the water, I just ended up going around in circles, haha! The Dead Sea is absolutely one of the most amazing mind blowing things you can ever experience! The Faith and Football team all came in one by one, all with hilarious reactions to the incredible phenomenon! Arm and arm floating they as Pompey FC fans were all singing their football chant, until I sang as loud as I could over the top "Oh when the Saints go marching in"... I did us proud Southampton! 

To the Red Sea... After just over 2 hours of travel we arrived. Eilat is a beautiful tourist resort kind of city on very southern tip of Israel. This is the only place where the Red Sea meets the coastline of Israel. From the windows of the hotel you can see Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. All 4 borers only a few mile apart! Just look at this view...

That night we ate beside the incredible harbour teeming with all kinds of sea life. That burger was so good after swimming around in the pool all afternoon! The sun arose over the sapphire Red Sea... we had our morning prayers... as we left I had one thing on my mind. The Beach! I grabbed a snorkel on the way down. The water was so clear, the clearest I've ever seen any sea. The water was so cool against the 40 celsius sunshine! I grabbed my snorkel and dived. A peace surrouded me under the water. I gazed at the schools of fish. I swam out further and further, the bottom appeared to be so far below. The further I swam the bigger the fish! To far to dive but in perfect view a huge Puffa Fish swam by... I had no idea they got this big! Absolutely incredible! 

And this is where my series of blogs end... thank you for reading them :) we're here for a few more days but this feels like the right place to stop writing...

Thank you Faith and Football for the incredible opportunity of a lifetime. It's been a blast! 

Drakey x

Instagram @drakeysjourneys