Mezad Tamar to Be’er Efe+

Today was all road walking again but it was pretty short so it was not too bad. 

We walked past what I think would be considered a mineral refinery. We also walked under a conveyer that carries minerals from the Dead Sea to the refinery. 

We took a break before going down an oddly steep part of the road where on a neighboring mound of dirt there was a flipped over car.

N got another nose bleed and we are convinced that it is because of the exorbitant amount of water he has been drinking along with the extremely dry air that he is not used to.

A few kilometers before our intended stopping point for the day we saw camels!! It was incredible! There were a few larger ones and then a baby and on the top of the hill was their shepherd! (Sorry about the exclamation points but I was so excited). A almost missed them.

When we got to the NC area we had to search a bit for our water cache. R and S found out that another one of their caches had been taken by another hiker. Since we didn't drink that much water today we had a little to spare but it would be stretching water pretty thin for tomorrow. 

While we were hiding in the shade of some kind of electricity thing a man offered to take us down the trail a few kilometers to some real shade. He left and about a half hour later came back with his pickup. We all climbed in and were taken to a large tree in the middle of a valley. The man who was in charge of a program that brought school age children into the wilderness on their school breaks to teach them navigation and survival skills said that there would be a group coming through there later in the day and that they would have water for those of us who were short. 

While we were finding ways to entertain ourselves for the rest of the day (we got there around noon) another truck pulled up and started unloading a bunch of water jugs and a crate of food. They left behind a security detail for the kids that would show up later. We all got to fill up our water and even managed to bum a few oranges off him. 

We played the new card game we had learned a few days ago for the rest of the night until it was time to go to sleep. 

A, N and I cowboy camped under the tree. I didn't sleep super well probably because of the pieces of tree that kept falling on my face but also because halfway through the night the kids started showing up and setting up camp around us and to top it off N woke up and freaked out when a large beetle crawled on his pillow. It was kind of funny.