August 26

Day 2: Our day started nice and early with a 6:00a breakfast of crackers and Bedouin tea before we loaded onto the bus and were off to our first hike of the week. There are some great upsides to waking early in a desert, and I caught most of them with my camera (they one thing you cannot see is the much lower temperatures).

The hike we took was through Nachat Tamar, and we encountered some interesting terrain along the way. While this hike does not cover a lot of distance, it does take a few hours to finish because of some unique obstacles.

Our tour guide standing next to car that fell into the canyon we climbed down into.

A three part ladder scaling the canyon wall.

This is where we stopped for a brunch meal to supplement the tea and crackers before continuing on with the hike. Of course there were some spectacular views like these:

After brunch the hike started up again.

Rope used to repel down wall.

Second series of ladders down wall face.

While my fear of heights did make this particular hike a bit of a challenge, it was definintely worth it in the end. This next photo shows the area we hiked out of from the end of the trail.

Once again we loaded up onto the bus, this time to head down to the Dead Sea. We arrived at a wonderful spa where we had a swimming pool, the sea and showers to choose from for our choice of cooling off methods after the hike. (I of course chose all three during the afternoon we spent there.)

What I did not choose to do was get locked in my shower room for 25 minutes. (Nope, no pictures of this one). After trying to get the attention of someone outside, preferably who spoke English (this was not the case), I then started the tedious process of waiting for help. Apparently they needed to find the maintenance guy and a chisel to get the door open, but at least I did pick up a few new Hebrew words.

Our last stop of the evening was at the Eastern lookout in Arad. This spot juts out along the dividing line of the Negev (top) and the Judean desters (bottom). This is also the town I will be living and teaching in for 8 months later this year.

We finally retired to the Arad Youth Hostel where we had a few "getting to know you activities" and spent time talking to each other. When I went to bed I knew I had another long day ahead of me, but if the experiences were going to be as wonderful as today's (well, maybe minus the shower), I knew it would be worth it.