A Desert Day

By Ed B. -
Forgot to mention that this was our first hotel with separate male and female dorms, so I was on my own for the night. 
Our plan was to rise at 4:45am and be on the trail by 5 so that we could see the sunrise (one of my roommates was up at 3:50 and took an hour to get ready, I finally got up and was ready in 5 min.).  I was out waiting for the guys by 4:40 and we were on our way by 4:55 and after locating the trail were on our way. Ed started at a brisk pace, fastest Eric and I had seen him walk. The trail snaked up over 450 meters to the top of the Masada. We made it a good 10 minutes before the beautiful sunrise. We then explored the ruins of Herod's mountain top home before our descent and a hearty breakfast at the hostel. A 15 minutes drive north in our car and we were at the Ein Gedi National Park, a small oasis next to the Dead Sea. We hiked up to several small waterfalls and pools  and then headed higher as I climbed by hand and foot, and cables and hand holds to reach half way up the summit. It is recommended to carry 3 liters of water and we only had one 20 oz. bottle each so we cut across to view an old temple before descending again. The oasis area provides shade from the heat, but once out of that there is nothing but sun and heat. We made a wise decision. We continued our drive north along the Dead Sea and stopped to visit the Qurman National Park, were a boy herding his goats stumbled upon the Dead Sea Scrolls in a cave.
It came time to return to Jerusalem and turn in our car. Ed did an amazing job driving. We took the light rail to the central bus station, which was crammed full of people (crammed doesn't really discribe how many people were on, we were literally body to body with others). Next an hour long bus ride to Tel Aviv which was standing room only, luckily we had seats and then the local bus to our accommodations for the night. 
I booked a hotel room and it is like a 5 star place for us. It is across the steet from the US Embassy and the Mediterranean Sea. We cleaned up and went out for a nice dinner and a short evening walk. Tel Aviv is a modern city which we will explore tomorrow.

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