The Dead Sea and nearly Masada

I'm tired! After breakfast this morning we boarded the bus to take a day trip to Masada and the Dead Sea. The weather was absolutely dismal yesterday and there was a chance that the roads were blocked in the West Bank but our guide felt that it would be fine but it wasn't. We passed the checkpoints into the West Bank with no problem and then went on into the Judean Desert but came to a road block due to a swollen river across the highway. Our guide took us on a hike through the desert for a while but when we returned to the highway the road was still blocked and we were told to turn back. The picture below shows the flooded road. To an Aussie, this doesn't seem so bad but apparently the road had swept away underneath all the water and there was a worse flood about 10 minutes up the road. We had to abandon our planned trip to Masada.




Before we went back to the Dead Sea our guide took us on a hike through the Judean Desert.

They grow date trees in the desert and these can be seen dotted across the landscape.

I enlarged the next photo so you can see the Rock Rabbits sunning themselves on the ledge. They are chubby little fellas and were found right throughout the areas of desert we explored. There are also Desert Leopards here but they only come out to hunt at night.

We also saw the Bedouin settlements throughout the desert landscape. These people live a nomadic life rearing livestock in the desert. The livestock we saw were mainly sheep and goats. There were several that also had camels. There were lots of wild donkeys and camels in the desert. The Bedouin's live in shacks and a very simple life but our guide assured us that they are not poor and Israel provides them with healthcare and other financial support.

After we explored the desert for a while we went back to the Dead Sea. The high salt content of the sea means that you just float on top of the water. Due to the terrible weather over the past day or two the sea was extremely choppy and very hard to stay upright in. We were told that if we got water in our eyes we would need to leave the water immediately and wash in fresh water to remove the salt. Apparently this is incredibly painful and several members of our group did get salt in their eyes and they were screaming in pain. They also told us that if we ingested the water we would require immediate medical attention. I only went in to my knees and didn't risk it. The photos show the choppiness of the sea.

The weather is forecasted to be improving each day from now on so hopefully it will be a good day for our trip to Tel Aviv tomorrow.