In the Desert

Last evening we arrived at an oasis in the desert between Arad and Masada. This morning we awoke with the sunrise. Actually, the sun was shining in our eyes through a gap in the tent and it was difficult to sleep longer on the thin rubber mats anyway. Breakfast was served in an adjacent tent and shortly we returned to our lovely accommodations. Morning devotions in the desert not long after sunrise was another of those experiences we won't soon forget.
We loaded our overnight bags into the coach just a few minutes before another group of tourists arrived on camels and donkeys. The morning was about to get much more interesting! The camels are near cousins from the mob at Alice springs but these are in the desert in Israel. Of course, that makes all the difference too.
We rode the ships of the desert out of the oasis on a journey that would last... Well, not too long really. The camels seemed to want to sing to us in their deep bass voices both as we climbed aboard and when we came back to the oasis. Most of them did not have names but we named a couple of them.