Reflections regarding Saturday November 23, 2024 until Sunday November 24, 2024 in Mitzpeh Ramon, Israel
This weekend we went to Mitzpeh Ramon. Mitzpeh Ramon is a giant crater that was formed millions of years ago. Most craters are made from a meteorite crashing into the ground, but Mitzpeh Ramon is an erosion crater. An erosion crater is a crater made from erosion and weathering. There used to be an ocean there, but since there were no rivers giving it water it slowly evaporated and is now the crater that we see today.
We were staying in a hotel near the crater. The hotel was nice and it had a pool and a soccer field. It also had a family room, which was amazing because in all the other hotels we stayed in we had to rent two rooms. When we woke up we all got dressed and ready for the day. Then we went downstairs and had breakfast. There was this really amazing cake with a spongy texture. It tasted great. We finished our breakfast and got in the car to drive to the crater.
It was a 30 minute drive but most of the drive was actually in the crater. We stopped at a sightseeing spot at the entrance to the crater, and saw two really cute ibex standing on a rocky hill. There was also a fantastic view. We took some pictures and hopped back in the car to keep going. When we were driving into the crater we saw some giant rocks that were all sorts of crazy colors. I saw rocks that were red, yellow, green, blue, purple, and orange. The reason they were such cool colors is because lots of different chemicals got into the rocks and different chemicals changed them to different colors. After a few more minutes we got to the parking space and got out of the car. Then we started our hike!!!
The crater was in the desert so we got all sweaty and gross almost immediately. It was around 500 degrees celsius. I was literally dying. But then we found some shade under a tree and it dropped around 10 degrees. After a little while we saw some rocks and decided to make cairns. Cairns are these towers of rocks that indigenous people used to make to mark trails. We kept going and saw some poop from a big animal. It was gigantic. It was also very stinky.We tried to guess which animal it was from. We think it was donkey poop.
After a little longer we arrived at Har Herut, the mountain we were going to climb. It was very steep and rocky. At the base of the mountain I took my hat off because we were up high and It was windy and I didn’t want it to blow away.. Then, we started to climb. The first half of the climb was just a steep path. But the second half was very rocky and fun to climb up, but it was also very narrow and near the edge. When we got to the top we saw an incredible view. We took some pictures and then sat down to have something to eat. We were all eating our cheetos and potato chips when suddenly Eitan’s hat flew off!!! It was about to fall off the mountain but luckily it got stuck on a rock!
After that we started making our way back to the car but then it started to rain. When it rains in the desert you have to be careful because it can start a flash flood. We started to hurry back to the car, but we were walking against the wind and it was blowing rain at our faces, and it kind of stung. When me and my brothers finally got back to the car we jumped in and put our sweatshirts on. My parents were still coming and they were just like “whatever”. When they finally got to the car we drove away. In the end it was a great day with a crazy ending.
