Talia wanted to go for a hike somewhere.

I don’t like driving and I can find adventure within walking distance.

She insisted.

So I said that we should go to Nachal Dragot near the dead sea and look out to where Moshe sat looking back from Har Navo before Israel first came into the land.

She liked the idea.

Neither of us had any idea of what to expect.

Shimmy teamed up with us spontaneously and he did have an idea of what to expect. He convinced us that it could be done without a rope, but luckily the rangers did not allow us to pass until we had proper equipment.

We decided that we would do the upper stretch that needed no special equipment, but suddenly Ami shows up and starts pulling out “only 25 m” of rope. We asked him if we could join up with him and he agreed, so we started on foot, the 4 of us, towards the wadi. We stopped for breakfast and Amir and Meital showed up – they had told the ranger that they were with us, but we were still under the impression that rope was just due to the insurance and that there was nothing to worry about. Our worries subsided even more when a 12 year old boy (Ofer) and his father (Ori) passed us on their way in.

The first few drops were quite manageable and all the above mentioned people became a group because we set up ropes for Tali and Ofer just so that they would feel safe.

Beside each drop was a number. It started at 31 and went down as the hike progressed.

But then the drops got a little hairier. But there was water at the bottom that would probably break the fall if necessary. And did in several instances. But setting up rope became a necessity in some circumstances. And the water became more and more putrid as we progressed – having fermented excessive bird droppings from the long dry summer and you could see the larva swimming happily. Anyone that has cleaned out a chicken coup will have an idea of what the water smelled like in some places.

Turned out that it was an 8 hour hike and we were happy to make it out before sunset.