Masada, the Dead Sea, and En Gedi!
Updated: Jan 23, 2023
Masada (1/12 - 1/13) - pov marie
First step of the trip: get to Masada. We had reserved a spot at the West Masada Camp Site, which is, to say the least, extremely remote; it is in the middle of the desert, right under Masada, with literally nothing else around it. It has a single access point, a long windy road from Arad that ends at that campsite.
Our plan:
Liel drives us to Netanya train station (~ 20 min)
We take the train to Be'er Sheva (~ 2.5 hours)
We take a bus to Arad (~ 1 hour)
We take a taxi to the campsite (~ 30 minutes)
Step 1, 2, and 3 were flawless. No mistakes, no getting lost, no missing busses, no issues at all.
Step 4 was a little more complicated. Once we arrived at Arad (in the pitch black), Lilly began hailing down cabs, I was calling random taxi driver phone numbers from the internet, and Jessica was trying to request a driver from the Gett app. However, our struggles paid off when the nicest taxi driver picked us up. While driving us to the campsite, he told us about his life, Israel, the desert, and the camels we could tame [well, he told us about how there were camels we could ride, and Lilly assumed we would have to domesticate them beforehand]. He was really funny (note to self so I don't forget: 'good morning blulululluu') and once we got to the campsite, he talked to the guy at the entrance, translating both ways so that we could understand each other.
[It's a little confusing but if you reserve a spot at a campsite in Israel, they will put a pending charge on your credit card but will not charge you (theoretically - we still have to check if they charged me). So you need to pay again at the site, I think?]
We had brought our own tent (b.y.o.t.) since it was cheaper, but when we got there, they let us sleep in one of theirs. It had a bunch of mattresses (unfortunately, covered in cigarette ash) and was larger than the one we had brought so we were very happy about this. At this point, we were starving and ate some honey mustard pringles and small sandwiches. We kind of just stood outside, impressed that we had arrived and shocked by the landscape. Even though it was dark, it felt like we were on Mars.
On our way in, we had seen a large group of people that had set up camp below us. Since I had no idea how long our hike would take the next morning, I went down with Jessica to go ask them. Immediately, I was greeted with a big 'Shalom! Would you like anything to eat?' Of course, I said yes. Jessica went to go get the others and I sat down with a plate full of delicious food and a beer. They had salmon, steak, two types of chicken, poike, salad, טחינה (tahini, pronounced 'trhina'), ... a literal feast. It was absolutely delicious - probably the best food I've had here as of now. They even gave us deserts (babka, cheesecake and cookies).
They told me that they had all been IDF commanders together 20+ years ago and meet up a few times a year at this campsite to reunite, feast, dance and sing. They were so nice and generous (especially for letting us semi-crash their reunion); one had even been a tour guide for Masada, and so he told us how to get to the Roman path and when to leave to catch the sunrise.
The next morning, we woke up at ~5:30, packed up our stuff, and began our walk up. Unfortunately, as we approached the path, we saw tour buses unloading hundreds of screaming children. To not drown in the mass of preteens, we ran ahead and hiked full speed to make it up before they did. It took us probably 15-20 minutes to arrive to the top.
Masada was absolutely breathtaking. We were the only ones there (for about 3 minutes, before the annoying children showed up) which made the whole thing even more surreal. The lighting was gorgeous, the ruins were so cool and the landscape of striated rocks and the Dead Sea was stunning. We explored the remains of the rooms and palaces, took hundreds of photos and enjoyed the sunrise.
After a couple hours, we began our hike down. Because our next stop was the Dead Sea, we went down via the east side route (the Snake Path). Thank goodness we did not go up that way. It was so much longer and steeper; by the end of it, our legs were exhausted. Our calves, 3 days later, are still burning...
Next step: the Dead Sea.
The Dead Sea and En Gedi (1/13 - 1/14) - pov lilly
Once we were on the bus, it was a quick 20 minute ride to En Bokek, which is a cute little town filled with plenty of resorts, a mall, and (of course) the beach! First things first, we put down all of our stuff, changed into swimsuits, and headed towards the water. Marie was the first one to brave the semi-chilly, super salty water. I followed soon after with Kayla and Jessica. The internet says to take off all of your jewelry, don’t wear anything you care about, keep your fingertips up, and do not (under any circumstance!!) put your face in the water!! Kayla and I waded in to see Marie already floating on her back, almost in a yoga position, with her hands up. As we sank into the water, we put our feet up and soon we were floating too. It felt like I was on a pool floatie, but there was nothing actually underneath me, just crazy!! I didn’t last very long with my fingertips out of the water, because it was super hard to move around and balance with my hands up. Eventually I just committed to making sure I didn’t touch my face and then put my hands in. That was definitely a good move, because I could float on my stomach too. It was really just crazy. Swathi was our designated photographer, so she took a ton of super cute photos of us swimming.
After we attempted to rinse all of the salt off of ourselves, we changed and went into the mall for lunch. It was a much needed rest and refuel after getting up so early. Once we finished eating, we had to stop by the McDonalds to see if they had any unique McFlurry flavors that we can’t get in the US, which turned out to be pistachio and hazelnut, both flavors that Kayla and I deemed 10/10. On the way out, we stumbled across some shirts at the one of the shops. One thing about me, I am a huge fan of graphic t-shirts, especially funny ones. I brought 3 with me, all of which are Life Is Good ones with a seagull doing something funny on them. So when I saw a shirt with an Ibex chilling by the Dead Sea and the words “Life is Sababa” written on it, I knew I had to buy it. Sababa is one of the few words I know in Hebrew, and it means good incase you didn’t pick up on that. After that, we went back outside to get back in the water one last time before our bus came.
Except the bus never actually came… We went to the bus stop and waited. And waited. And waited. But because of Shabbat the buses must’ve stopped early and we had to find a taxi. After waiting out in the heat trying to hail one and calling at least ten phone numbers to find one even though we couldn’t speak Hebrew, we felt defeated. But eventually we called Younis, or the King of the desert as we later ended up calling him. He chatted the whole ride, telling us all about his life and how he grew up in the desert and then worked for some type of business firm but eventually left because he didn’t like the “fancy life,” and then went back to sleeping and living in the middle of the desert. He showed us how seeds grow by opening up a plant and putting water on the seeds and told us all about how he caught a “porky-pine” for some German tourists, and then showed us the photo proof. Overall, another solid taxi ride that we weren’t expecting but ended up loving!
Once we got to the camp lodge, it was about 4pm and we were all exhausted. We set up the tent, showered, and then got dinner. It was nice to just relax after such a long day. We all ended up getting chicken nuggets and fries for dinner, not the type of things we came to Israel to eat, but a comforting meal. Several rounds of pool and a few hours later, we finally all went to bed. The tent that we slept in was definitely big enough for two people, maybe for three, but four people make it feel like being inside a can of sardines. Our feet were also sticking out the end of the tent, which must’ve looked so silly to anyone passing by. We were smushed, but everyone was so tired it didn’t even matter.
The next morning, I woke up around 7. We hadn’t planned to wake up until 9, so everyone else was still sound asleep, but I decided to get up and watch the last bit of the sunrise. After scooting myself out of the tent, I tried to stand up. As soon as I did, I realized just how sore I was form our hike at Masada. Like probably the sorest I have ever been. That hike had used muscles I didn’t even know I had, and now they were just hurting. After hobbling my way up the hill to the patio, I decided to hang out on a couch until everyone else eventually got up. They were all just as sore as I was, but we had a long hiking day ahead and it wouldn’t stop us. We had a great breakfast at the camp lodge, got dressed, and headed out to hike at the En Ged Nature Reserve.
It was a sore 40 minute walk just to get there, but once we did we basically forgot how sore we were. En Gedi is an Oasis, so it means that water runs and green plants grow there, unlike anywhere else in the desert that is more dry and brown. The first trail we went on took us into the valley between two big mountains. After passing by several small waterfalls and plenty of tiny creeks, we made it to the biggest waterfall on the reserve. It was so gorgeous, and the breeze from it was enough to cool us off even if we couldn’t swim.
Once we had enough poorly-timed jumping photos, we continued hiking, but this time upwards. It was a crazy hike, up rocks that I’m not fully sure should even be considered a trail. But we did it, and finally made it to Dodim cave, which was right above the waterfall we had just seen. It was stunning, with hanging plants on the ceiling and gorgeous blue water in a pool below it. After the cave, we were all pretty exhausted, so it was time to hike back out of the reserve. On the way down, we saw Ibex for the first time. The first one we saw up on the mountain was way bigger than any of us were expecting. It had huge horns and, since I was wearing my Life is Sababa shirt with the Ibex on it, I had to make sure to get a picture. If you squint reeeeeaaaally hard you can see the ibex to the left of my hand 🙃
Further down the mountain on the way out, we passed by some hyraxes, which almost look like a mix between a koala and a groundhog. We saw more Ibexes too, but these ones were much smaller. After getting ice cream at the gift store, we saw some more hyraxes and started our 40 minute walk back to the campsite.
When we got back, we were all exhausted, but in the best way because we had such an awesome day. We got snacks, relaxed for a bit, packed up our tent, and by 6:30, we were on our first bus heading back to our youth villages.
The first bus was about an hour and a half, but after getting into post-shabbat traffic trying to get into Jerusalem, we missed our originally planned train and waited an hour for the next one. That train took us from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv. Once we were there, we got on another bus to Beit Yanai junction, which is the closest one to our school. Not more than two stops from getting off, a bunch of the sophomore boys from the school got onto our bus. The first few didn’t recognize us, but once one of them did, they all made sure to walk up and say hello. It was the perfect way to end our trip. Once we got off the bus, it was another 40 minute walk back to the campus. We arrived around midnight, even more sore than I thought possible. We rinsed off and went right to sleep, ready to get back to work in the morning!
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