Negev Hike

We woke up early in the morning to eat breakfast, pack lunch, and get on the buses.  Our first stop was at David Ben Gurion and his wife's gravesite. It was in the middle of the desert because he was the one who really cared  about creating settlements in the Negev.  About half of Israel is made up of desert land with very few settlements and the majority of people living there are bedouins.  We ate lunch there and then began our hike in a part of the desert called Ein Avdot. For the first half of the hike, we walked along an oasis.  It was really cool to see a river of water flowing with plants growing all aroundn it.  The second half of the hike was walking up lots of stairs on the side of a huge mountain.  When we got to the top and looked down, we saw an amazing sight.  We saw the river in a valley down below and up above, a desert plain that stretched on as far as the eye could see and in the very far distance we saw a huge mountain range.  At night we stayed in a town called Arad in an Israeli girl's school.  We met some of the girls who went to school there and it was so funny talking to them because they were 15 year old girls who were so curious about everything we were doing and our lives back at home.  That night we had a big surprise.  There was fondue and karaoke night.  It was so much fun and very chilled out.
The next day we woke up at 6:30 in the morning.  We ate breakfast, packed our lunches, and got back on the buses to go to our next hike.  For this hike we had the option of doing an easy one or a hard one.  We found out later that there wasn't much difference between the two, but I signed up for the hard one not knowing that.  The main reason that the hike was so hard was because there were four ladder- like structures that we had to climb down.  In four very difficult spots on the hike, there were metal rungs nailed to the wall so we could climb down them.  We were walking mostly on the rocks the whole time in the middle of the desert.  We also learned about a few plants.  We learned about one that was salty, one that stored water in it, one that cleans your hands, and one that sticks to things.  After the hike we went to the Dead Sea and we made pita there.  It was so yummy because it was fresh off the fire.  After a long hard day of hiking, we went back to the dorms and then we went out to eat for my friend Melissa's birthday. I really enjoy hiking and I suggest that when you visit Israel, you should definitley go on a hike.  Shalom V'lehitraot!