The real Oasis in the middle of the desert: Ein Gedi.

An oasis, a natural reserve, and numerous hiking routes. Most of the routes are forbidden to enter after 11:00 or 12:00 – since the heat is so intence, they cannot guarantee you will come back alive if you start climb after morning and get lost..

Exotic wild animals await you: they even have leopards in this area, though they will never come out of their caves in daytime.

You can get this close. It reminds me of the safari treck in Botswana.

Vultures fly freely in the desert. This is how it shoud be.

Enjoy swimming.

Green moss and blue water – that makes Ein Gedi a special place.

The main waterfall – coming out of nowhere, surrounded by a wealth of greenery.

This one you cannot get too close (the chain doesn’t mean anything to some… The soft, green moss and its ecosystem must be fragile and should be kept as it is. The famous cidar tree (7,200 years old) in Yakushima, Japan, was surrounded by ropes when I saw it 5 years ago – indeed it was huge, solemn, and maintained a divine feeling. Look at the pictures here. We can see the details clearly – the wrinkles engraved on the trunk, the twisted roots and branches – but why so clear? It is because the visitors, increasing year by year, climbed up on the tree and scraped all the moss covered it.

The fragile ecosystem which, unfortunately, is used for souvenior shot too often.

Glorious view of Dead Sea and Jordan on the other side.

Another Hebrew lesson.

Non-twisting soft serve cream. Reminds me of …., never mind. Not only it tastes well, it is almost meltproof.