[This morning] Leora got up out of bed to wish me goodbye, and Yechiel got up to drive me to the Crowne Plaza for the 6:30am dropoff there. When the bus eventually arrived to pick us up [from the Crown Plaza], we were the first stop, so it was empty. I slept through most of the trip south.
We all stopped (all of Academy) for a snack at this petrol station in the desert that we've been to before. At this time, we re-arranged ourselves into our interest groups for the week: so all the desert survival people went on one bus for the rest of the journey.
About to take the plunge (abseiling)I half-slept on the ride, which was mainly through the desert. Because only 14 of us are doing desert survival, it was nice and roomy on the bus. When we got to our destination, we started our first activity as a group: abseiling.
Mizpe Ramon abseiling: down I go!We all rappelled down a 15m high cliff, which was pretty fun. The cliff formed the edge of a giant canyon, which was full of volcanic rock. One girl wouldn't go down, and another whinged heaps before she'd go [names not in original version either]. It was really quick - literally you just dropped down - and it was hardly scary at all.
We ate lunch by the edge of the cliff: meat, salad, hommus, and pita. Then we packed all our stuff onto 2 jeeps, we hopped into the back of the jeeps like soldiers, and we drove down into the canyon.
You need a proper 4x4 out here, because before long we were on a dirt road, headed towards the evening's campsite. We're staying in a Bedouin area, where we can put up our tents under their protective shades. We set up the tents by sunset, but by the time we were preparing dinner, it was quite dark and we were relying on our own lights.
The Legendary Bowl Holder and Paper ManCooking dinner was lots of fun. First, I helped to cut up the potatoes into chips - we cut up way more than we needed - most of us just kept chopping for the fun of it. Then I helped to fry the chips. Rel and Raffy were the main chip cookers; but I earned the title 'Paper Man', since I put the absorbent paper onto the chips after they'd cooked in oil; and I called Graham 'Bowlholder'.
So our first proper desert meal was falafel and chips. After dinner, we washed up in freezing cold water, and I literally couldn't feel my hands when I was done. My hands were also greasy with oil. I warmed myself up with some sweet cinnamon tea, before going to bed in the tent.