Dead Sea

Time out from the blog - the camel needed water and we finally found a place with a generator (grin). Actually we did visit a camel farm today and it didn't look a lot different from a cattle ranch. Camels grazing on hay and whatever else camels eat.
Bruce decided to stop at Ein Gedi Kibbutz for the night - an oasis on the hills about half way down the Dead Sea. Ein Gedi is mentioned in the Bible - Song of Songs chapter 1. We discovered that it a full fledged mineral spa. It has its own mineral baths, Dead Sea products, its own beach on the Dead Sea, a cafeteria and all included in the price of a stay. Judy was beat, so I treated her to a full body mineral mud bath, mineral springs bath and a message to help her deal with a weeks on the road. Tomorrow she gets a water message and we go for a dip in the Dead Sea.
Each Kibbutz that we've visited is totally different - each has its own way of surviving economically, and many have developed housing for travellers to supplement their income. Most have cattle, and are based oringinally on agriculture, but they have all developed according to demand. Naim took us to one I can't prounce, just outside of Kiryat Schmona in the north. They are producing wines and liqueurs that are WONDERFUL!~ After a bit of sampling, we bought a bottle of Pomegranite liqueur and another bottle of White Chocolate Liqueur. Did we mention that Israel is flowering? Yum.
Kibbutz Ein Gedi is capitalizing on visitors who want to visit the Dead Sea, so they've developed this very successful "Country Living" lodging, meals and spa all in one. What a pleasant surprise!
A Restful night and tomorrow we drive to Masada 1/2 hour away from Ein Gedi.
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Masada - we drove there and watched it rise out of the desert. It speaks to you. A very well placed visitors center sits on the next mesa - situated respectfully so that it doesn't detract from the impact of the place. You can hike up the "Snake Path" to the top, or take the cable car. We spent the afternoon there until it closed. Officers in the IDF are sworn in there, and take an individual oath: "Masada shall not fall again."
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Naim and his daughter Yarden said that we needed to climb deep into the Negev desert for a couple of days to experience it, and stop at Mitzpe Ramon. What great advice. Mitzpe Ramon in perched on the edge of a geological wonder called a Mahktesh. I asked what the English word for it is? "Mahktesh" was the answer. It is the result of a dome in the earth's crust rising and then hardening. The materials are so soft that wind and water carved out an Israeli Grand Canyon. It is awe-enspiring! Imagine a huge crater from horizon to horizon, with multi-colored layers like a rainbow of earth, a few small volcanic cones in its base, edges that fold inward, and a road that drops into it. Way Way Down! Shimshon and his wife Ofra are both graduate geologists, and we talked at length about this wonder of nature. It's worth the trip just to come see this!
We stopped at Davin Ben Gurion's home and site of the University of the Negev. Ben Gurion said that Israel's future lies in the south - in the Negev. It was his dream to see it flower and bloom. A water system from the Sea of Galilee feeds the desert, and had it not been for the prolonged drought, Ben Gurion's dream may become a reality.
The Negev is simply beautiful, in its own stark barren way. Many small towns along the way, and many things to hike around and see.
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Judy and I are in Eilat - actually in Eilot at the Kibbutz at the northern tip of the Red Sea. Wonderful place, and some of the most awesome, warm and wonderful people we've met. Great food, great company, terrific accomodations (they put us in a 1 BR apartment). We walked into Egypt to have lunch today at "Taba" - what an incredible difference ..... so glad to be back in Israel again!
We met a local woman at a reconstruction of a desert Temple yesterday (Timna Park - just north of here - where Moses camped on his way to the promised land, and King Solomon mined copper). She and Judy struck up a conversation, and she invited us to Friday evening service at her church: "Shelter" is the name I believe. The pastor has been feeding needy travellers for 36 years and preaching the gospel. Incredible experience - we began by singing a familiar hymm in Hebrew, then Spanish, then another in English, then Arabic for the Sudanese in the audience (who grabbed a conga drum and beat it throughout the hymm!), then 6 Russians got up, grabbed a guitar and sang a hymm in Russian ....What a blessing last night was.
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I took Judy to her life long dream today:
scuba diving in the Red Sea off of Eilat, swimming with wild dolphins and a local guide in the reefs.
WOW.

Will tell you more later. We cross into Jordan tomorrow and go to Petra for 2 days. Some say it is one of the wonders of the world ...