Camping

Hi, I managed to get another post in before we went to Thailand! This is about the camping trip with Simon and Orit.

Batiya and Shir didn't come on the camping trip after all. The first day we drove 3.5 hours to the camping stop. But here's something funny- we stopped at a gas station on the way, and there was a black cat there. Simon decided to adopt him on the way back! But- guess what?- this gas station is the same exact gas station that me and Mom's tour bus stopped at on our way back from Egypt, and I pet the same exact cat, too! Weird.

Anyway, we got to the camping spot at around midnight. Apparently people used to be able to camp anywhere they wanted to, but now there is a 'designated' camping area. There were a lot of people there, too. We slept like rocks- well, everyone except Dad did.

The next day we woke up early, had a breakfast of French toast cooked on the fire, and went on a 2 hour walk to a place Orit and Simon knew out in the desert.

The place turned out to be a natural pool of water that you could swim in. It was freezing cold, so you had to wear a t-shirt on top of your swim suit. I went in- brrr!- and stayed in for 20 minutes. I also managed to coax everyone else in for a few, even Orit, who can't stand the cold!
It was very nice, although I overdid the pool thing, I couldn't warm up until we started walking back.

After we got back to the campsite we went and met up with some friends. But on the way there, we passed through a crater named Maktesh Ramon crater. It wasn't made by a meteoroid, I can tell you that. It is one of the four in the world, three are in Israel. This is the biggest one in Israel, approximately 300 meters deep, 8 km wide, and 40 km long. It was really cool. All along the bottom was volcanic activity, and there were all these different-colored patches of rock and ground. Wow.

We met up with some of Simon and Orit's friends and drove out to a different campsite than before together. It was this big place, and there was a ring of rocks to mark the boundaries of the camping places. The people that went with us to the campground slept with us and everything. There was a couple and their kids (I can't remember the names, sorry). We built a campfire and had a dinner of dahl on rice and stir-fried veggies.

The next day we packed up and drove home. We didn't get the cat after all, he wouldn't came so that we could get him in the car :(

Let me tell you, it feels good to be home!Wish me luck in Thailand!