Ein Gedi

Are we really getting paid to do this?!

During our Dead Sea excursion, we stayed at Kibbutz Ein Gedi. The whole kibbutz experience is a blog post for another time. For now, just know that a kibbutz is a cooperative community that commonly also runs a hotel/ resort on their premises.

Not too bad for location...

As you can see, the term "oasis" is quite fitting for Kibbutz Ein Gedi. It is a tropical garden paradise nestled between rough, steep, desert terrain. The Summer highs can reach 115 F in the shade (no thanks!). I think we were wise to let the summer and high holiday season pass before we tackled this area. The temp was in the low 80's during the day and 60's at night - perfect!

Israel is full of national parks with beautiful hiking trails. The Ein Gedi Nature Reserve was only a couple of miles from the kibbutz, so we took the afternoon to explore it on our second day. Some of the hiking trails out here are pretty intense, but since "intense" and "expert" are not the typical speed of a three and five year old (nor these two 34 year olds) we stick to the "easy" family friendly trails. For this park, that meant walking up through a series of waterfalls until finally reaching King David's Waterfall.

After our bat experience at Nimrod's Fortress (click here if you missed it), I am always careful to get the rundown on the potential wildlife with which we'll be sharing our day. Thankfully, in daylight hours we should only be spotting hyrax (the rock groundhog things) and ibex.

Here's our first sighting:

What? You don't see it?

Maybe this will help:

These little guys were so cute and peaceful. They look like the miniature pony of the deer family. I think they can't get bigger than a few feet tall. Will kept calling to them, like you would a lost kitten or stray dog: "Here ibex. Heeerre ibex, ibex, ibex. Heeeeere little ibex." Didn't work.

As we moved on we had a second sighting:

A group of nuns, w/ habits hiked up to their knees, wading in the cool, fresh water. Now folks, you just don't see stuff like this every day...

Surely they were pondering that eternal question on the mind of every nun,

'How DO you solve a problem like Maria?' [Hum along now]

Supposedly, the water at Ein Gedi is so pure and fresh that you can drink right out of the streams and waterfalls. Lydia and Stewart tried it, but I let my fear of yet another viral/ intestinal/ parasitical infection keep me sipping my pre-packaged, store bought water instead.

Which brand? Oh yes, "Ein Gedi Natural Spring Water."

I'm a dork.

After a beautiful afternoon of exploring, it was time to head back.

Lydia did great!

Will is practically exhausted after all that 'walking' he did.

Shalom y'all.