With a new day dawning, the desert beckons. Our drive will ultimately take us to the "lowest place on earth' (400 meters below sea level), or so the signs said.

The events of the day begun unexpectedly when the bishop was betrayed with a kiss. Our tour guide took us into the Judean Desert to the "New Testament Road' from Jerusalem to Jericho (ie not the main road) to see a Catholic monastery built on the side of a cliff (think the 3 sisters at Katoomba type cliff). The monastery was very impressive being in the middle of the desert and with elaborate aqueducts carved into the side of the mountain.

The viewing site was peppered with Bedouins selling trinkets and not so old wares. Bishop Paul Barnett was sold a necklace by one of their number who kissed him upon the sale. When he showed the tour guide the item she knew he had been had and immediately set off to right the wrong. The whole group watched as she chased down the offending Bedouin, and proceeded to read him the riot act.  At one stage we thought she might need backup " but our Edna is a strong lady and soon brought justice to the situation.

From there we travelled to the Dead Sea for a swim " what else was there to do? A truly amazing experience. No matter how you tried, all you could do was float.  Bobbing up and down like a cork, swimming will never be the same again. However, putting your head under made your eyes sting severely and the taste" say no more. Surprisingly, though it is winter the outside temp was ideal for a swim and the water was like Sydney in summer. The buoyancy is so good (the water is 30% chemicals) that it is impossible to sink " yet they won't let you swim without a life guard. Perhaps this is in case of chemical intake.

Next stop was En-Gedi in the desert.

There are some natural falls here which we went to see. In theory this is the place where David hid from Saul (1 Samuel 24) in a cave. The tourist map pin points a place called David's fall. Ironically this is the spot where our David fell over crossing the stream. A collective gasp went up among his fellow travellers… but our Dave was OK. Only his pride suffered a momentary dent.

Last stop of the day was the towering ruins of Masada, not a biblical site, but still very significant in Jewish history.

The mountain-top fortress was the location of the Jews last stand in the 66-70AD war, in which they chose death rather than slavery to the Romans after a 4 year siege. You walk away from such a site struck by the remarkable military and strategic abilities of the Romans. On the way back we were treated to Paul Barnett's potted history of several centuries of remarkable Roman rule. The history of this place has filled our minds to overflowing.

Back in Jerusalem, a stark change in the weather, with a major storm front moving in. Better eat well tonight just in case.

Cheers, Antony & Dave (8th February).