Ain-Gedi Frog
In the morning we hitchhike a ride in a passing pick-up truck to Ain-Gedi, another kibbutz-hostel nearby.
After we install ourselves at the Ain-Gedi Hostel, we hike four miles up a dry gulch between mashed-off stone plateaus, across the remains of ancient irrigation canals into a deep, water-polished gorge when we suddenly hear shouts of laughter. Hidden by overhanging cliffs, a white cascade of pure water bursts from the tan rock and plunges into an emerald green pool. A frolicking gang of Israeli teenagers is just leaving as we arrive.
The pool is perhaps twenty by twenty feet long and wide and twelve feet deep under the fall. We have been left alone, so off go the clothes and into the refreshing, cool water we leap.
A little frog looks at me from a stone at the water’s edge and several fresh-water crabs lurk in the moss. Where did these creatures and the moss come from? Up this canyon from the Dead Sea ages ago before it died?
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