By Ian Donahue, NFTY in Israel Participant, Bus 6
It was the first day in the desert and our second day in Israel.
My bus, Bus 6, had just gotten to the camp site we would be sleeping at. We dropped off our bags, got our hats and water bottles and we went to meet our guide, Yarden.
He told us about the hike we would be going on and since it was in the evening we were all tired and dreading this hike. Before we left on the hike, someone needed to carry the spare water jug and lucky me, I was the one to carry it.
We started to walk up our first mountain, named after a king I cannot remember. Walking up we got a taste of the amazing views to come and the higher we climbed, the more excited we got. We made it to the top of the first mountain and what we saw was breathtaking. We were able to see Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia all in one spot. Compare that to New York City where the next closest thing to that view would be the Empire State Building and you can only see New York. It was only the first time we would see a view like that.
After a “schlook” of water, Yarden took us to a place where we were in between two mountains. He told us a story of two friends who were part of Israeli special forces that were faced with death, determined to risk their lives for each other. It was a heartbreaking story that taught us that true friendship knows no bounds. After a lesson learned, we started our way down. After having to scale down part of the mountain, we started to walk down the rest of the way. We carefully descended rocks and at one point I almost completely fell on my face if not for someone catching my bag strap. It was moments like these that got my heart racing and my blood pumping.
We finally made our way down and off the mountain and then we freely walked to where the buses would meet us. Along the way, as we were all tired and extremely hot, we got a look of all the rock formations and how they worked their way into the landscape. At long last we made it to the bus and more importantly: air conditioning. Going on the bus was a dream come true for all of us, but especially me as I had to carry that water jug the whole time. We made it back to the campsite and started our night of camping. That was only the first hike we went on and we saw so many more amazing views.
These hikes and the rest of the desert would strengthen the bonds of our group and lead to 3 more amazing days in the desert.
