It’s a Small World

Perfectly Wonderful things we did today

• Hiked the Wadi Arugot at En Gedi.
• Hiked Wadi David at En Gedi
• Toured Masada
• Bobbed around in the Dead Sea
• Devoured amazing schwarma from a little hole in the wall stand.

The stuff we could have done without

• What falafel pitas do to the digestive system
• Ummmm I guess I can’t think of anything else.

New sights for our starving eyes

• Flowering trees
• Camels standing around here and there
• The gorgeous Dead Sea
• A LOT of Bedouin shanty towns
• Lot’s wife (ok so maybe it was’t really her, but it was a large woman shaped rock)
• Sheep and shepherds all over the hills

The highlight of my day was the Wadi Arugot hike. It’s a lot less commercialized than the Wadi David Hike. These are both in the area where David was hiding from Saul. Seth overheard a guy asking someone if he would mind if he would just chop a little of his pants off. Just the hem.

The Arugot trail follows the river up to a hidden waterfall with a swimming hole. The route crosses and recrosses the stream frequently and it’d be a pretty careful person who wouldn’t fall into the drink a time or two. The boys of course were soaked to the knees. Since it was 30*C it certainly wasn’t a hardship. Candace and I took an alternate route that required us to wade quite a ways and finally scramble up some little ladders to climb back up and out. Delightful!

Highlight two was bobbing on the Dead Sea! Last time we came here the boys were fairly small, there was a high wind and we didn’t have water shoes. Needless to say the whole experience included cut feet, loud howls, and just plain not much fun. This time we found a better beach, armed ourselves with water shoes and had a grand time! It was so calm the mountains of Jordan were perfectly reflected. That is no joke that you float in the Dead Sea! In fact you float so well it takes a bit of a “tuck and roll” effort to get your feet down so you can stand. The sea bottom was shallow for quite a ways and then had a sharp drop off. It was a complete blast walking over the drop off…. one minute you’d be upright, the next your feet would go shooting into the air! The first time it happened mine shot up behind me and I got that same feeling you get if you put swim wings around your ankles. A bit panicked.

And so ends another beautiful day. We’re still all healthy and Heath is still jet lagging. All is well.