Thursday morning began Thursday night… we awoke from our naps in our Bedouin tents at the superhuman hour of 4 in the a.m. and, after a brief breakfast of Bedouin tea and biscuits, boarded the bus for Masada.
We begun our climb up the Roman path around 5 o’clock and trekked upwards! When we got to the top, it was just starting to get light, and we davened Shacharit as the famous Masada sunrise came up over the mountains. We then toured around the plateau and learned about the significance of the place for our people, then headed down the snake path to a great breakfast brunch at the visitor’s center.
After that, we had some fun in the Dead Sea, floating and bobbing around, even reading the paper, and then headed back to Yerushalayim for dinner.
Sounds like a full day, true, but we were not done there! We then went to Gan Sacher to spend some time with our fellow NCSY trips JOLT, BILT, and TJJ AP over BBQ, sports, and hanging out – it was great!