Day 17: From the small crater to Mezad Tamar

I left home early to catch the first train to Dimona (via Lod and Beer sheva)

From Dimona, I got a taxi to where I left off last time (next to Ma'ale akrabim - the scorpian ascent). The driver didn't know where it was, and tried talking to his GPS. He kept saying the name, but the GPS understood "Ma'ale haclavim" (the dog ascent). After a few minute of this, I insisted that we could use Waze on my phone . . .

There was a large yeshiva group also hiking the maktesh so there was quite a lot of people around for the first half of the day. There was a spectacular view from the top before heading down into the maktesh.

This is the view after climbing down most of the way

There was beautiful colored sandstone throughout the maktesh (unfortunately much of it carved out as a form of graffitti).

Slightly off the trail was the impressive crater's gap. From here, the layers that were horizontal in much of the crater are almost vertical, a record of the immense forces that were once at work here

As it had rained quite a lot recently, there were quite a few small flowers around

Deep red colored sandstone

The climb out of the maktesh did not look so hard, but then I saw some tiny-looking people and realized it was significant (about 500 metres of climbing)

This rock reminded me of a mask

I took a small detour near the end of the day to Ein Zafit, which had quite a bit of water and was a good place for a coffee break

After a short walk, I made it to the 25 road. There was a hunched crossing through a tunnel to the other side.

The end of the day was at Mezad Tamar (Tamar stronghold) by the busy road

The campground was deserted and dirty, so following a suggestion from the Israel trail app, I slept in one of the abandoned buildings above the mezad (which did a good job keeping out the wind)