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Sunday, January 27th
After our last wonderful breakfast at the Abraham Hostel we took the tram to the Central Bus station where we purchased a ticket for Masada.
It was too early to check in so we left our bags and headed for Ein Bokek, the public beach on the Dead sea. We were going to take the bus but a group of Polish people invited us to join them in a shuttle.
It was chilly but we HAD to swim because we were there. It’s definitely an interesting experience! There are change rooms and cold showers there. The beach is beautiful and huge and it being low season, very quiet.
Dinner at the HI Masada Hostel and Guesthouse was a lovely buffet. We noticed one Israeli man seemed very hungry as he had 3 plates of food. He got up at one point and the busboy came to clean up his plates. “Oh” I said “I don’t think he’s finished”. So the boy called out to him. He just waved him off and left. One plate had at least FIVE chicken cutlets on it!! We were disgusted by the waste. His leftovers could have fed a family of four and it went in the garbage.
Two German girls joined us in the dorm room. Thankfully they too planned on getting up early to climb Masada so no need to dress in the dark and be silent.
Rainbow over the Dead Sea
Hi Masada Hostel
Monday.
Three phone alarms went off and we were all out the door by 5:20 am The trek up the snake path to Masada is tough but we managed to do it in less than an hour. It’s well worth it! The sunrise was nice but the ruins are really interesting, especially if you’ve read the book “The Dove Keepers” by Alice Hoffman.
Going down is tough on the knees!
Our reward for all that was an excellent buffet breakfast at the hostel.
Masada, Snake path
The dovecoat at Masada
See the tiny dots? They’re people climbing the Snake path
Lot’s wife?
Sun rise from Masada over the Dead Sea
Sunrise from Masada
Going down….
Another view of the sunrise from Masada
The Judean desert and the Dead Sea in the back
Masada ruins of buildings
Herod’s palace
Going down….down
Going down the Snake path from Masada
Next we caught the bus to Ein Gedi National Park where we walked to the David Waterfall. There are caves in this area where David hid from King Saul.
There were a couple of other trails we thought of doing but were told they were closed as there’s danger of a flash flood. So we did the “scenic trail” and checked out the ruins of a very old synagogue.
On the bus back to Masada it started to rain a bit. On our walk back to the hostel we were treated to a rainbow over the Dead Sea.
After all that physical exertion we really enjoyed the buffet dinner at the HI Hostel.
Ein Gedi, David’s waterfall
The trail goes through here. That’s Sue at the end
Caves where David hid from Saul
Old synagogue mosaic tile floor from the first century
Rock hyrax
David’s waterfall
Judean Desert
David’s waterfall
David’s waterfall
Where in the world is Grandma? 
There’s also the book Masada that I read years ago. Only succumbed to the assault because they were starved out. Surrender was not an option
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The book by James Mitchener? I read that one years ago too. The Dove Keepers is apparently more accurate. Still a novel, but more likely they poisoned themselves as they could be self sustaining for years according to archeologists.
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Oops. Michener didn’t write that. He wrote “The Source” Who wrote Masada?
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There are several authors who penned a book with the same title. I think I read Masada by Ernest K. Gann.
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I have SO many questions and am super glad you’re MINE on your return to answer them (you won’t be able to, but it’ll be fun to try). 😉
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I like what you guys are up too. Such smart work and reporting! Carry on the excellent works guys I have incorporated you guys to my blogroll. I think it’ll improve the value of my website :).
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