Perfumes and Camels

Upon emerging from my tent this morning, the first thing my eyes rested on was the blimp, floating high in the air, which was to watch us for the rest of our journeys. (It did not, in fact, follow us around, though we began to be suspicious when we kept seeing it. See if you can find the blimp in all the pictures below!)

The sunrise today caught me hiking up a small hill near our campsite. It was a day to be dedicated to paths across the desert, so I suppose it is appropriate that it began on a path in the desert.

The first order of the morning, after eating and packing everything up and all that, was to drive down the Scorpion's Ascent (Ma'aleh Akrabim). (Notice the orange dots which attempt to highlight the road.)

I must admit, I had been quite looking forward to this part. We talk a lot about routes in my major. They're kinda a big deal. This particular ascent plays an important role in the history of several periods.

1. It is mentioned in Numbers 34:4

"And your border shall turn south of the ascent of Akrabbim, and cross to Zin, and its limit shall be south of Kadesh-barnea. Then it shall go on to Hazar-addar, and pass along to Azmon."

as well as Joshua 15:3 and Judges 1:36.

2. This was a vital part of the Spice Trade during Roman times. We stopped at Rogem Tzafir, which guards the bottom of the ascent, and could see Metsad Zafir which guards the upper part. (This picture is inside the lower fort, looking up at the upper one.)

3. In the 1950's it was part of the only route to Eilat. A terrorist attack took place on this stretch of road on March 17, 1954. After this, other routes to Eilat were constructed, and today, this road is little more than a tourist attraction.

After reaching the bottom of the harrowing ascent/decent, we continued on to one of the main oasis on this spice route, Tamar. This is another site which I've wanted to visit for some time. It has, according to the sign at the site, six layers of strata, stretching from Israelite to Arab periods.

They also had a neighboring Crocodile Farm. Just what everyone wants in their neighborhood.

From Tamar we headed south and picked up the first part of the Nabatean Spice Route. (Well, the first part of the Nabatean Spice Route that happens to be in Israel.) The signs warned of the need for four wheel drive, but we made it quite well to the first site along the way: Mo'a. After that we decided that wisdom was the better part of valor and made our way back to the main road. Someday, though, I'd like to come back with a jeep or similarly prepared vehicle and traverse the whole trail to Makhtesh Ramon.

Which is where we headed next. We stopped to visit the "Ammonite Wall" (supposedly a geologic feature with fossilized snails. We failed to find the wall, but hiked up and into what turned out to be the edge of Makhtesh Ramon, getting a great view of the crater. After making our way back to the car we drove across the crater to Mitzpeh Ramon, where we had lunch. We decided to camp and Mampses that night and began to make our way there, with pit stops at Wadi Zin and Ben-Gurion's grave, and a failed attempt to find Aroer.

We seemed to run into millions of blue-clad Israeli school children or green-clad Israeli soldiers where ever we went on this trip, and Mampses was no exception. The yelling children apparently had a camp-out planned and ruled the camp ground. Other than them, though, the camp ground was rather empty. We got the fire pit and a lovely large tent to ourselves. Our state of exhaustion, coupled with the cushy mattresses provided, allowed us to sink into deep slumber, in spite of the loud children.

Our final day was uneventful, mostly involving driving from Mampses to Beer Sheva, through the Shephelah, and to the Ibex campus near Abu Ghosh. For a geography geek, though, it's always fun to see drive on these routes, to see the land. And it was fun to see my sister in her "home" environment.

We ended back in Jerusalem. For most of the people reading this, routes and places visited mean very little. I, however, had great fun plotting them and seeing on the non-concentric circles we made as we traversed the south.