A Smithie Braves the Wilderness

Okay, so it technically was an oasis and not the wilderness, but for someone as sheltered as me, our camping trip near the Dead Sea/Ein Gedi was definitely a complete 180 from the status quo.  A few hours ago, Rebekah, Sarah, Nick, and I came back from an amazing weekend of camping. Rebekah and Sarah’s friend from the dig, Benny, also joined us and basically showed us the ropes of the area. It was my very first time camping. I also ate smores for the first time ever and met real life nudists for the first time. I think I have done so many things for the first time in Israel that I could make a list several typed pages long (although most of them would be totally NSFW haha…). So, I had absolutely no idea what to expect. Sure, I’ve seen camping in movies but this was nothing like the movies. One of my first lessons in expectation versus reality involved fire. Know how in the movies everyone sits around a big campfire and you can see everything clearly with this one light source? Lies! Even with a successful campfire, you can barely see a foot in front of you. Thank goodness for headlamps!

The campsite itself was also pretty successful. We found some abandoned mattresses lying around under a makeshift canopy and decided to just put some blankets and sheets on top of it for sleeping. Nonetheless, we ended up sleeping on the beach because of a few noisy neighbors. Surprisingly, I slept. In fact, I got a record number of hours of sleep those 2 days. Could camping possibly be the healthier alternate to Ambien?

I was relatively dehydrated for most of the trip. It didn’t phase me too much though.I kept chugging water but sweating most of it out. I only peed three times in a span of about forty hours. But hey if life didn’t come with risks, it would be unbearably dull. We solved the sun problem by spending most of the day soaking in the nearby cold springs, where we met some really interesting people among them a Rastafarian couple, a middle-aged Bedouin man who served us a lot of food, and countless Israelis who wanted to know where we were from. I’ll admit that I had trouble getting over exposing my jelly roll of stomach in public (I don’t even own a swimsuit) but I eventually I got over the body issues and started enjoying the crisp cool water. Besides, with all the nudists around, what does one have to be self-conscious about? I did manage to get the worst sunburn of my life on my back. Yet, I wear it as a wilderness woman badge of pride grrrr.

Overall, camping was a great and exciting experience. I came back feeling exhilarated about life. Sure, it has its ups and downs, but what is more tranquil than falling asleep under the stars and so close to the waves? Nothing I tell you! I cannot wait to go camping again in the future. Everyone should try this nature thing at least once.

~Karina

Pictures will follow! (hopefully)