Day5: Four Shvilists hiking 24km

After a good night Ami prepared a great breakfast for us and blessed us with a lot of food and drinks for our hiking day.

We left at around 8 a.m. and soon reached the Lot Night camp. Here we met our first real Shvilist a young Israeli who just left the army and started 18 days ago in Eilat.
Then we entered the Nahal Pratzim Canyon. It offers beautiful layers, they look as if an artist drew a special pattern here.



In the center of the Canyon we met a group of around 30 people and we started a nice conversation. They told us that they hike parts of the Shvil for 5 years now. Always on weekends they meet to hike small parts of the Shvil. They asked us several times if we have enough water, offered us some nice food and were very interested in our motivation to hike the Shvil Israel.


After some kilometers we left this beautiful Canyon and reached the Amiaz plateau which is very big in its dimension. The eastern border of this plateau is the Mount Sodom, which is 11km long and composed of 80% salt. It looked completely different dependent on the light.

Today was  a really tough hiking day with 24km distance.


Finally we reached the Route 90 and hitchhiked to the Hostel in Neot HaKikar. We all were quite tired and enjoyed a warm shower and a relaxing evening.

Day4: Shabat dinner in the desert

Ein Bokek is just Hotels, a nice Promenade and Beach, I think it is the only town directly at the Dead Sea.

The Dead Sea the lowest point on earth -435m, together with Lake Kinneret. The Dead Sea is divided into a Northern deep lake (approximately 300m) and a Southern shallow lake (appr. 3-4m). The salt and mineral concentration is around 34%, the meditarian has 4,5%. In 2015 Jordan and Israel signed an agreement to pump water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea, this project should be finished around 2040.

When it got lite and I woke up a I took a picture still being in my tent. It was a nice, relaxed athmosphere at the beach. So we started a bit more relaxed into the day and swam in the Dead Sea and started hiking later.

This morning I reat Psalm 19 (Tehilim) which perfectly fits to the great Sun rises we saw and the Stars in the desert. Its about the greatness of God.

The heavens declare the glory of God, the dome of the sky speaks the work of his hands.... in them he places a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom from the bridal chamber, with delight like an athlete to run his race.
Ending with: Adonai, my Rock and my Redeemer.
We better praise and acknowledge this holy and almighty God. Amen.

We wished fare well to Noah and Hit the road.

After some Kilometers along the promenade of the Dead sea where we saw a photo Shooting Setup we went Into Nahal Rom.

The whole day we hiked through four amazing Canyons.

It is said that the first one was Part of the Dead sea many many years ago, when the Level of it was 200m higher. The Canyon looked a bit messy with all the rocks laying around, a little bit like sometimes the rooms of some of my sons.

Then we went through a Canyon which was supposed to be the Gomorra lake. This understanding comes from different stone levels which are very special.

It was a demanding but rewarding hike.

To our big surprise we Met four ladies who also had a photo shooting for Wedding dresses.

In the evening we met Ami in the Night camp. He brought also Bernhard our fourth Shvilist who could only fly today and  couldn't come earlier. Ami is such a friendly, warm Person, he hosted Bernhard the whole day and picked him up from the Airport, showed him around and brought him down to the desert. Ami loves the nature and being in the desert. He brought loads of food with him. He prepared a wonderful Shakshuka on his Gas cooker and so we had a tasty Israeli Shabat dinner in the desert, really unbelievable hospitality. Later we chilled, watched the stars in the Sky and Ami and Bernhard named some of them.

Day3 : Sunrise on Masada and along the dead sea

We got up at five in our campground beneath Massada. Our target was to experience the sunrise on Massada. We achieved it. Its wonderful to see the sun rise opposite of Massada behind the Jordanian (Edom) mountains.

Afterwards we had some tea and breakfast and started our sightseeing. Masada is on the list of Unesco World Heritage. Masada is an incredible mountain bloc which is 650m long and 300m wide. Herod, KIng of Judea built a palatial fortress in the style of the ancient Roman East. Masada was the last rebel stronghold in Judea. In 73 or 74 CE the Romans laid siege to the mountain and built a ramp and brought a tower with which they began to batter the wall. When the Jews saw that they would loose this fight, they killed themselves on the first day of Passover before the Romans could conquer Masada. A really incredible place.

After leaving Masada we had to climb Mount Elazar one of the steepest ascents on the Shvil Israel.
On top we took a break, today was a very sunny and warm day.

We had to cross several Nahals and in the early afternoon we reached Outlooks to the Dead sea and the Jordanian mountains. At 4:30 in the afternoon we arrived Ein Bokek a Hotel place directly at the Dead sea.

We decided to camp at the beach. We met Noah who doesn't have a permanent home, he lives in his Jeep and two tents. He wants to offer Services to travellers and was very interested in my feedback on his new icon of his company and my experiences on the Shvil. We went to the City Center to eat and have a beer.