Day 7 - Goodbye Jerusalem...Hello Negev!

First of all, we owe you an apology for the delayed postings. We've been so busy, and ultimately, just unbelievably exhausted at the end of our days that trying to detail these experiences in a blog at the end of the day has simply been harder than we expected.

That being said, on Day 7 we we woke up early so as to see the Rabbi's Tunnels under the Western Wall. The tunnel was an incredible sight of recent excavation where we were able to see these unbelievably massive stones that make the bricks from the ancient pyramids of Egypt seem like miniature Lego blocks. The foundation stones of the Western Wall that we saw are approximately 15 meters (50 feet long) and weigh multiple tons each. To think that these bricks were laid by hand without any heavy and advanced machinery is simply beyond comprehension.

After the Rabbi's Tunnel we had one last time to go and pray at the Kotel where we had a chance to leave our remaining notes and prayers for G-d. From here we began our journey south to the Negev Desert where we stopped at Beit Guvrin (an active archeological site) for the students to participate in a real dig of ancient artificats. In fact, during the dig, almost all of the students found some form of 1st Century pottery, coal, or animal bones, but Sam was incredibly fortunate enough to actually dig up a perfect specimen of a completely intact oil lamp. The archeologist leading our dig was absolutely floored by the discovery and brought in his supervisor to see the artifact. Once we had this discovery everyone started digging like crazy to try and find others. Unfortunately, no one was lucky enough to "out-do" this incredible find.

Next the students went spulunking. They trecked underground into a yet to be excavated cave where they crawled through and lit their way with candlelight. They came back wanting to do it again "'cause it was SO much fun!"

After Beit Guvrin we drove a few more hours into the wilderness and stopped at Kfar Nokdim (a fully operated Bedouin tent and "rest stop" where we ended up sleeping the night. Our Madrich, Yossi, kept referring to these accommodations as the "Million Star Hotel" because we spent the night in tents with a sky unbelievably full of starts.

At Kfar Nokdim we experienced an array of Bedouin culture with camel rides to start off our visit; then a history of the Bedouin experience with "tastings" of the tea, coffee, and pita bread; this was then followed with some ancient song and dance; followed by a HUGE meal "picnic style". Sleep was essentially napping on about 5 inches of foam mattress and a sleeping bag to keep us warm.

Lights out was early this evening, and with everyone being so exhausted with the activities of earlier in the day, we decided to come back earlier to allow for as much sleep as possible before our 4:00am wake up to go hike the Roman Ramp atop Masada.

It's now after 1:00am here in Israel and so I will update the blog with Day 8's activities tomorrow morning (AKA in a few hours!!!)

See you all in a few days,
nammie