Dead Sea drektrek

Oi me legs, Oi me back...
Let me explain. Yesterday was spent down near the Dead Sea, trekking with S's hubbie and a couple of his friends (no mrs. anglosaxy - she did all her trekking on Friday at the Kfar Saba shopping mall). And this is the last time I go on one of their treks...you'd like a list of reasons as to why not? OK...

1. The day started with a 4.30am wakeup call (on a Saturday morning? Blasphemy!).
2. We waited, starting at 5.30am, for an hour for one of the friends to turn up at the designated meeting place.
3. The Southern end of the Dead Sea had been partly washed away (last week I think), so we had to take a different route. This route was blocked for an hour by a lorry that had somehow managed to hermetically seal the road. No going round, no nothing.
4. The guys all knew each other from the army, so there was way too much back-slapping and singing of army songs. Way, way too much.
5. I stubbed my toe on a rock and had to hobble the second part of the trek.
6. Night-time fell upon us pretty quickly, while we were stuck in the middle of a neverending gorge filled with tens of pools. Which had to be swum across. Via star light. With backpacks filled with phones, car radios and other assorted goodies.
7. The night-time part of the trek took a turn for the worse when, thanks to the Israeli instinct for shortcuts, we stumbled into a minefield. Do they teach guys in the army to read maps?
8. To cap it all off, the beers I'd kept in the cooler in the car were, heaven forbid, no longer cold when we arrived at the car (about 10pm).

"Why so negative?" I hear you cry...OK, so there were some positives:
1. My camera. My luverly camera. Thank God I couldn't find the rechargeable batteries in the morning, otherwise right now I'd be holding the camera up and shaking out all the water.
2. My auto-pilot senses are working extremely well, especially when driving up from the Dead Sea at midnight. Christ knows how I made it home...
3. Gorgeous ol' mrs. anglosaxy was waiting for me with a kiss and a hug at 1.30am...bless her cotton socks.