Guinea Pigs in Trees

It has been quite a day. We set out for Masada but didn't make it, but saw some neat places all the same. We set out at 7am on a sunny morning and headed down to the Dead Sea. First stop Qumran where the Dead Sea Scrolls came from. It was interesting for me because those scrolls have been so influential in validating the accuracy of many of the OT Books over time. We saw where the Essenes lived and one of the caves from a distance.

Then it was off to En-Gedi, or David's Wadi. This was on my bucket list. The place where David and his men hid while King Saul and his army hunted for them. It's a gorge that runs up into the Judean Hills. It is narrow and steep sided. Our first surprise was seeing the guinea pigs in the trees - Picture 1. They are actually Rock Hyrex's, a rabbit sized critter that looked like a guinea pig. They were munching leaves up in the very thorny achacia trees. We were also on the look out for Ibex, a large mountain goat, but never saw one. There were signs on the tracks to watch out for falling rocks dislodged by them. There were also heaps of colourful musical birds. The track followed the stream up to a fifth waterfall. The third waterfall was interesting because it smelt strongly of sulphur, and one of the pools had hot water bubbling up in it. Photo 2 shows Helen at waterfall #5, David's falls. The wadi was so beautiful and quite - quite that is until the first bus load of many for the day arrived. We could have carried on up a track to some big caves about 200m up the cliffs that it is thoughts David & co lived in. But because we thought we were still going to Masada we went back to the entrance.

Jerry didn't come with us as the car had played up getting to En-Gedi and he was phoning his garage. When we got back he said it would be a bit risky to carry onto Masada. As it transpired it was a very good decision to head back to Jerusalem.

Before the car did give up the ghost we visited the supposed baptism site of Jesus, Israel side. It is not too far from where the Jordan enters the Dead Sea. About a kilometre away from the river you see the signs about the land mines. These were laid by the Jordanians as they retreated during the 6 Day war in 1967. The Israeli's have left them there as part of their defense system. Photo 3 is me beside the carpark. Photo 4 is of Helen getting baptised up to her knees. See the opposite bank, that is Jordan, and even though its about 15m away, you can't go there. The video gives you a short moving commentary of the place.

The Jordan River is a bit disappointing. In Jesus' time it would be more like the lower Clutha. A strong wide river that was difficult to cross. The good news is tha Israel is at present commissioning five desalination plant on the Mediterranean cost to supply its fresh water needs, with the intention of stopping is draw off of Lake Gallilee allowing it's inflow to once again come down the Jordan, floods and all. The only trouble is Jordan won't agree not to suck the water out for its needs. A few blogs ago I mentioned the RedDead scheme that would bring by canal sea water from the Red Sea to replentish the Dead Sea. The World Bank has just approved financing for the project. But again the politics between Israel and Jordan still needs to be sorted.

Back on one of Jerusalems busy highways the car finally died but we eventually got back to our base safe and sound. Tomorrow Sheryl is taking us to the Gallilee area. We even have boat ride on the lake arranged.