After a quick lunch stop at the Elvis gas station on the way to the Negev, we headed to dig up Maccabi era artifacts at the Beit Guvrin archaeological digs in Morasha. After this, we continued South and stayed at the field school in Sde Boker, next to the tomb of David Ben Gurion and his wife Paula.
In the morning (Monday), we went to visit the grave and also to the neighbouring Ein Ovdat nature reserve. From there, we headed out to the Sde Boker museum of Ben Gurion's original kibybutz home. After learning about Ben Gurion a little bit, we went and learned all about Maktesh Ramon and how it was formed by beating up a watermelon. Then I got a new camera!
Finally, some lovely Bedouins allowed us to spend the night and even gave us a ride on their camels!
Today we hiked Masada (not a sunrise hike thank G-d. If we did that, it would have been very disappointing. You can see below it was kind of cloudy.) and learned about the hip King Herod and the guy who makes Torah scrolls in a cave in the ancient synagogue, before spending a lovely afternoon floating in the Dead Sea and bathing in mud.
Tomorrow is our last day of touring on the trip. See you soon, enjoy the pictures!
