Day 1: Start from Arad into the Judean Desert

This morning we started our Shvil 2020 - delayed because of rain. We slept in since there was rain forecasted which is not too often the case.

After the first rain shower was over, we left the hostel and soon found

our first Shvil sign.

Before we left Arad it was starting to rain again, so we had to cover ourselves.
When we left Arad I was looking to the North where I could see Mount Amasa from which I was starting my last hike last year and which is also the climate border to the desert.

My first impression of the desert was amazing, since its condition is completely different than one year ago in April. There is much more green, I would call it a fluff.

So this first day hiking was great.
We had great outviews (have a look at the pictures) and hiked through narrow valleys.
This reminded me that sometimes in life we have the great perspective and everything is fine, but than we come into a situation ( a narrow valley) and we get lost in it, we loose sight. The view to understand the big picture is only behind the next turn.

The Outlooks to the massive mountain rock of Massada were just amazing, I am looking forward to hike it in 2 days.

We didn´t meet any other hiker today, lets see if this will change soon.
Because of very windy weather and the late start we only walked to Kfar Hanokdim, which is a touristic bedouin village, which offers camel riding, sleeping in a bedouin tent, and so on. We stopped here set up our tents in a bedouin tent and ordered a dinner buffet for the night.
This was a very wise decision.