For the Jewish holiday of Shavuot (שבועות) we traveled east towards Jerusalem from our home in Tel Aviv, and then onwards past the mountains and into the desert.
We all remarked at how quickly the landscape changed after not much road traveled.
Periodically, we drove past Beduin camps and markets as well, scattered along the highway.
We arrived and stepped out of the car into what must have been a temperature increase of at least 10 C. In my book thats crazy hot!
We were staying at the Ein Gedi Hotel, which doubled as a botanical garden, playing host to all manner of unique plant life from all over the planet.
A number of times over the weekend, we all crouched down on our knees to marvel at the little desert Hyrax's, which I thought looked like possums and which2 y/o Ruthie thought were "dessert bunnies".
We had to bring in Shabbat (שבת) not long after we arrived, which involves switching off the tech, but not before capturing the sunset over the dead sea (ים המלח) and Jordanian mountains in the distance.
