A Forty-Degree Day
Today we saw a thermometer that read “40° C.” For those of you keeping score at home, that’s 104 degrees Fahrenheit. Some of us have rarely, if ever, seen thermometer readings this high. And this, please note, was already at five o’clock in the afternoon.
Where does one spend a 40 degree day? In our case, it was the desert--specifically the Negev, the desert that covers 70 percent of Israel. Awaking before 7 am in a Bedouin tent, we loaded ourselves up with water, hats, and sunscreen and ventured out into the desert. At least, we consoled ourselves, it’s a dry heat.
The day started with a camel ride in the area of the Bedouin village. It’s hard to describe what riding a camel is like, but let me start by saying that camels are bigger than you’d expect. We sat two people to a camel, and once the camels stand up (you mount the camel while it is kneeling on the ground) it’s a long way down on either side. Luckily, the camels we rode were very well trained, and despite a few missed breaths when a camel would hop up a small incline or step on a loose rock, the sure-footed animals never gave us any cause to worry.
The day continued at Nachal Chavarim, an incredibly beautiful hike in the Negev. Hiking through the desert is a very different experience from many places people hike back stateside. We were greeted by very little in the way of flora or fauna, but we were presented with breathtaking views of sand and rock, in intricate formations of mountains, valleys, cliffs, and dunes, stretching as far as the eye could see in all directions. Spending a few minutes during the hike to meditate, each one of us on our own, it was not hard to see how people can fall in love with the desert. The harmony with nature one can feel in the desert is not the joy of being in a lush wilderness surrounded by other living things; it is, rather, an enjoyment of nature at its cleanest and most pristine--the feeling of being in the world as it existed before God created the animals and humans that God put on the Earth.
From Nachal Chavarim we continued our wanderings through the desert, stopping at several sites along the way, each worthy of its own post. Eventually, we arrived at the Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth. After the business of the morning, we took the time to relax on the beach--the location of the thermometer and its 40 degree reading--and float in the salty water. And this is floating like you’ve never experienced it before. You could walk out to where the water was over your head and simply stand up in the water, with your chest and head sticking out of the water. Or you could lie on your back with most of your body out of the water, or on your stomach, with your head and legs easily sticking up above the surface. As one of us remarked, “I now know what it feels like to be a cork.”
After rinsing off the salt water and the Dead Sea mud with which many of us covered our bodies, we returned to the Masada Guest House, in order to retire early in preparation for our 5 am hike up the mountain.
