They told us that today was going to be more difficult then other days but it was still about the same as the others. Thank goodness for the breeze too! It makes everything so much more bearable. I t has actually be really windy here lately, but we welcome the wind because it lessens the heat.
We started off the day by seeing the Mactesh Ramon, which is a giant erosion crater. It is in the area known as “the Great Wastes of the Desert”. The sea had flooded it giving it the look it has. It took us a bit to get there, and when they have us drinking so much water it’s inevitable that we will have to go to the bathroom. I like to think that the most used phrase on this trip is “I have to pee” haha. Well when we got to the top to see Mactesh Ramon the bathrooms were locked!!! So the buses had to drive us all to a gas station to go. That added quite a bit of time to our schedule and we had to take away one of the things on our itinerary. I don’t remember what it was though…
Our second stop was Avedat. It is part of the incense route where the Nabateans were located. It’s a fortress city that holds churches, temples, a wine press, and a baptistery. This was also where we had lunch. MCdonalds!! Haha yummy! Expensive…but yummy.
The fortress is in the background behind me.
This is the baptistry.
McDonald's for lunch!!
Our last stop was Tel Arod. It is a city with two levels on the bottom level their was a Canannite city that we also visited. We can read about Arad in Numbers 21 and 33. It was a stop that one would pass heading towards the hill country on the patriarch route. In this location they found Ostraca, which is pottery with writing on it. It is from the end of the kingdom of Judea. This location is another place where the cool breeze was very welcoming. Inside Tel Arod there was part of a temple where we could enter in to the holy of holies. It was cool.
This was part of the temple in the fortress. It is the "holy of holies". There is actually a spot for both YHWH and another female God. Which is strange. But it was cool!
There was a city at the base of the fortress that we all explored.
The hotel that we ended up staying at was really poopy. The only thing it had going for it was that it had a “dead sea” pool. You could get in an float just like you were in the Dead Sea! It was really cool. Though when I got in, I immediately was VERY aware of every single cut on my body. It was very painful. We all welcomed the normal pool though, it was nice to get a cool dip in.
The rooms were terrible in my opinion. I tried not to complain to much because it’s not about the places we are staying its about what we are seeing. But I basically slept on a wooden board. I slept on a fold out chair…it was super uncomfortable, especially after spending a majority of the day walking and carrying a backpack.
-Wendi
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