Pre- Succot Tiyul!

On Monday morning, after only four  hours of sleep, I woke up at seven am to start getting ready for our pre- succot trip.  I took my overnight bag, my new Kipling knapsack that I just bought the day before, and a sleeping bag borrowed from my roommate, and I went downstairs for breakfast.  At breakfast we also made our lunches.
We walked to the bus that would take us to our first destination of the day.  At the end of our two hour bus ride, we arrived at Chof Dor.  There we were going to learn about tekhelet, the blue dye that they used to and are starting again to use for tzitzis.  First we saw a 20 minute video about this blue dye and then we went to go make it.  We all sat outside at picnic tables with our little tekhelet kits.  The blue dye is primarily made of  this special snail.  For hundreds of years they didn't know which snail made this dye but a few years ago they discovered the snail and how to make the dye.  So in our little kits there was bits of the snail that we poured into a beaker. We then poured some acid into the beaker, some boiling water, some other chemical, and a base to neutralize it.  This concoction was bright yellow and smelled terrible.  Then, we had a piece of cotton which we dipped into the solution and then left it in the sun.  After a few minutes, we took out the cotton, poured cold water on it, and it turned bright blue! That was the educational part of our trip.
Next, we went down to the beach to actually look for the snail.  They gave us masks and snorkels and we went into the sea to start searching.  It took us a while to figure out what it looked like because there were so many different types of shells at the bottom of the sea, but after awhile, some people began to find them.  I found one of the shells, but it turned out that the snail moved out and a hermit crab moved in, which was also cool. After that we ate lunch, changed out of our wet clothes and went back on the bus.
Our next stop was at Mount Carmel for our first hike.  The hike was decently easy and mostly uphill.  We also saw some of the parts that got burnt in the fire last year.  At the end of the hike we reached a big cave.  We rested at the entrance and then, the people who wanted to, went into the inner chamber.  Some of us brought flashlights so we would be able to see and surprisingly, phones gave off a good amount of light too.  We reached the edge of the inner chamber and everyone sat down.  We all turned off our phones/ flashlights and it was pitch black.  We sat there in silence for about a minute and then turned around to go back.  As we were leaving the cave, I slipped on some rocks and fell on my butt and I got a huge bruise which makes it kinda hurt to sit and I have to sit in like awkward positions.
Anyway, after that we went to a boy's school, which happened to be the first Bnei Akiva school ever, which was where we were staying for the night.  We made rooms of 4-5 people and then went to dinner.  After dinner, we played Harova Taboo, and after that everyone was exhausted from the day so most of us went to sleep.
We started out early again to today's hiking spot.  Today we hiked in a different part of the Carmel, but today's hike was downhill and much harder.  We had to take three liters of water with us and our group had two extra jerry cans filled with water in case someone ran out which we each had to carry for around 15 minutes. I had the first shift with the jerry can which is always the best because you're not tired yet.  The hike was really hard because the entire path was filled with rocks.  Sometimes there were small rocks which were really slippery because when you would step on them, they would roll out from under your feet.  There were medium size rocks which were okay because you could either step on them or over them.  There were big rocks which you would have to climb over, and sometimes there were huge rocks that you would be walking on the same rock for over a minute, which is also very slippery.  I must've slipped and caught myself more then twenty times, but I never completely fell.  We also had to climb down some pretty sheer walls which only had just enough hand holds for you not to fall.  There was one time when my friend Alona actually fell a good few feet off of a cliff, but she was okay.  Most of the time we had to walk in single file because the paths were narrow.  Sometimes the paths were a little wider or there was more than one way to get down a particular cliff so people would try to get ahead to the front.  The front of the group is always better because you get the longest breaks when waiting for everyone else.  It was always the same group of people who were in front and I was one of them.  On this hike I drank more than two liters of water and twice I had to go to the bathroom in the woods (not fun) but it wasn't so bad.  At the end of the hike we had to walk up this really steep hill in the blazing heat for about ten minutes.  By the time we got to the top, I had drops of sweat running down my face into my eyes and mouth which was kinda gross and my hat and shirt were pretty wet.  The last bit was downhill again but very straightforward without having to climb down cliffs.  We finished what was supposed to be a six hour hike in four hours.  We got back on the bus and I fell asleep almost right away.  We all felt so accomplished when we finished the hike but happy to get back on the bus to go back home.  It was a great way to start off our vacation.  Shalom V'lehitraot!