06.05.2011                      02.Ijar, 5771                      Tag 17 des Omer

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Off the Beaten Track: Jeep ride through the Judean Desert

A new column: Travel expert Joe Yudin introduces "the road less travelled" as well as some new discoveries at more well-known sites.

As a tour guide here in Israel (or indeed I imagine anywhere) one can sometimes get a little bogged down in going to the same old touristy sites. They are obviously a must see for the first time visitor, but after 100 plus visits giving the same “shpiel” it can become a little tiresome. In this column I will try to introduce some of the more “off the beaten track” sites as well as some new discoveries and interpretations of the more well-known sites. 
Recently, I grabbed a friend and we headed off into the desert in my jeep. I spotted the faint, beaten-up sign for the Monastery of Saint George lying on the side of the Jerusalem-Dead Sea road near the village of Mitzpeh Jericho. We turned off the road onto a rough dirt track around a mountain, and suddenly there was silence…the kind of silence you can only experience in the desert….