We now know how Noah felt. Heading into the Negev desert towards the dead sea, one of the driest areas of Israel and we were followed by almost constant rain. It was obvious from the harshness of the terrain that the rain was a very rare event but that didn’t help our exploration a great deal.

The desert landscape in the south of Israel was absolutely breathtaking – incredibly bare hills only sand and rocks sculpted into some amazing formations and colours. Despite the barrenness of the terrain there was quite a lot of settlement in the desert the neatness and heights of Jewish settlements (6 storey apartments in even the smallest of towns) contrasting with the semi-permanent shacks of the Bedouin shanty towns.

After descending below sea level to the lowest point on earth (-418 m and falling aparently) and catching our first glimpses of the Dead Sea;

our first stop was the mountain fortress of Masada. Our original plan was to tackle the 350 m climb on foot but the inclement weather and lateness of the day forced us into the cable car (well that’s our excuse anyway). The fortress was originally constructed by Herod and now contains plenty of historical significance for the locals as the site of a significant resistance to Roman rule. The top of the plateau contains lots of interesting ruins to explore and would have commanded great views over the Dead Sea if it wasn’t for the pesky precipitation.

Having received our fill of archeological exploration we headed for the aim of our day’s travels. Light was fading fast and the sea proved to be a little larger than anticipated, so our planned beach was already closing when we arrived. Despairing of ever reaching our elusive goal we continued northward as the light grew dimmer and the West Bank drew closer. Eventually we found a beach where we were allowed in for a few minutes to at least touch the oily salty water (if not to float in it) and collect a good dose of dead sea mud to track around for the next few days.

Next door to the beach past some abandoned Jordanian barracks we had a Moroccan feast in an elaborate restaurant resplendent with carpets, cushions, samovars and hookahs before heading back into Tel Aviv somewhat nervously through the West Bank.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 9th, 2007 at 6:50 pm and is filed under israel, tim, travel log. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.