Oli, Cam and Josie
During the Makhtesh Hike, we learned about how craters form during the process of erosion. While hiking, our tour guide, Yonatan, explained to us that by using certain desert plants and mixing them with water, you can naturally wash your hands. Also, we participated in a fun erosion demonstration activity using a watermelon. We took spoons and took turns spooning out watermelon — or at least we tried. All the students ended up harnessing their inner barbarian and grabbing the watermelon with their bare hands and slurping the juice. Overall, we had an awesome hike full of learning, watermelon eating and messy clothes. 

When we got the camels, we got right into the fun. We got our helmets, our partners, and our camels. When the camel stood up, it was a roller coaster because they put their back legs up first then the front legs. Our camels started walking and I must say, it was not very comfortable but it was tolerable. The walk was nice. We had conversations with each other and the camels were making all kinds of noises. I could clearly tell that one of them didn't want to be there. We made it back to where we started and we all began telling stories about our small journey through the desert. We were also very hungry so we went to a bedouin lunch. We got the tent and sat down on cushions. Next thing we know there is a giant plate of food in front of us. It was delicious. Everyone took naps because we were exhausted. Once we woke up, we had delicious coffee. Overall, this experience was so fun and will definitely be remembered. 

Afterwards we stopped at a Makhtesh Ha-Gadol and created artistic sand bottles. Yonatan taught us that inside of the crater there was different colors of sand because of the metal content. We tried to make rows of different colored sand and rocks. Then we drove to our new hotel in Arad. We ate dinner, played in the park, wrote in our journals, and went to bed. We can't wait to visit Masada early tomorrow morning!