Tuesday is for Tiyul: the trip to Ein Gedi

On January 5th, my 23rd birthday, and a Tuesday, Mayanot took a trip for the footsteps of Jerusalem program, although this trip extending a bit past the city itself. The plan for the day, which was only announced a couple of days before, was to head southeast to Ein Gedi, visiting the Kibbutz and botanical garden, the nature reserve, and the ruins there.
We left Jerusalem before 9, very early, and so I slept nearly the whole trip down.
Along with our guide, Eve, we started off at the Kibbutz, the only one in Israel with a botanical garden on site, to see a handful of their more than 1000 species of plants, including a great many species of cacti, Sodom apple trees and even a couple of great banyan trees. After we had concluded this tour, we boarded back on the bus and went over to the reserve, where the first agenda item was lunch, for which we were joined by a large group of Ibex (small, goat like animals that live in the mountains). Even though I was sorely tempted to give one my carrot, I listened to the sign which forbade feeding the animals, expressing this through a picture of an ibex being fed a carrot, with an “X” through it. Definitely explicit enough.
After eating, it was time to hike…maybe not the best order of things after all. Hmm. We did the standard short Ein Gedi hike (not everyone was dressed for real hiking…I was…I felt a bit silly.) On the way back, we passed by the main pool in which people often go swimming. Not surprisingly, being January 5th and all, no one was swimming at the moment. That wasn’t to last long though.

Eve asked if anyone was actually going to go in, or should we just head back. No one moved. It was time to take initiative. Although I hadn’t brought a bathing suit, I had worn many layers of shirts, and two pairs of leggings. Good to go.
After getting down to my base layers and stripping off my socks and sneakers, I waded in. Cold. But soon enough, I was used to it, and after a quick head dunk, it was actually quite comfortable. My example was soon followed 
Before long, Ruthie, then Candice, then Malkah, Naomi, Deborah, Elana, Elysia had submerged, and then, to top it all, Rivka Marga, with her sheitl (wig) and all, joined us under the falls. Apparently, there are fresh water crabs in Ein Gedi. There was one by the fall. Not kosher.
After we left the reserve, many of us got ice cream, and then we went over to the archeological site, where the remains of a more than 2000 year old synagogue lay across from the Dead Sea, complete with a still recognizable bimah, aron hakodesh (Ark), mikveh, and a beautiful mosaic floor. The group who came to the site as we were leaving, maybe 10 yeshiva-bucher types with a teacher, behaved very badly, climbing over the ropes and walking on the ancient mosaic, etc, and so when no one else (ie, Eve, our guide) said something to them, I took it into my own hands, scolding the boys and their teacher for disrespecting not only an archeologically important site, but also a schul, still holy no matter how old.