Back on the road, I investigated the "harm" done by Noah's Waterfall.
The furrows carved into the road by "Noah's Fall"
were even wilder than the furrows further south.
I followed it, and lo! - it ended in another waterfall, i.e. a round rocky wall.
"Maybe, we could dig out the cistern-caves right here and not further up?"

Never, not for one minute, the vision of Noah's Shore leaves me alone.

Back in my muddy mess I had about five hours to accomplish chores,
which even for the physically strong woman I am, seemed to be too terrible.
I needed to complete the steps,
so I would be able to carry heavy loads to the road.
I needed to distinguish between what was dry and what was wet and muddy,
and to do so while having no space to spread things out,
and to pack the dirty things in a manner,
that I could get it home by bus from Jerusalem to Modi'in .
And - since more rain, more flooding in the Ein-Gedi area was announced -
I needed to find a place to store all the rest.

I will not bother you with the details of this unbelievable campaign,
for this it was - a campaign.
But I want to thank my Body for its unbelievable cooperation.

The day after I had to go to the doctor to get a health certificate for the pool.
The annual subscription, payed by my son,
when I became T's foster grandma a year ago,
had come to an end,
but since T could make use of his subscription only for 4 months,
the management suggested to add his 8 months
as another 4 months to my own subscription,
Though now I can swim in the Dead Sea as often as I want to,
I received the offer and agreed to bring the proof, that I'm fit for swimming.
The doctor was amazed at my blood-pressure (120/80) and my EKG,
and I was exalted and grateful for this result
of my breathing-moving-sounding my feelings.
Never, not even at the age of six, have I been so healthy and so fit as I am now.
It was, when I lived in my bus near the Egyptian border in Eilat in 1997,
that ten different ailments had conveyed my Body's message:
"I want to be your partner, not a tool to be used and misused!"
Thank you, Partner Body!

And then there happened also a little miracle
in addition to the miracle in the form of Ohad, his help and his car:
While already coming close to the road with the work on the steps,
two young guys asked from above about "the hot springs around here".
Impatiently I pointed to those 400 m north of the peninsula
and seeing that they wanted to climb down the slope, warned them.
Neither did I want them to break their neck,
nor did I want them to ruin the slope and make it uglier than it already was,
littered all over by the things watchers from above enjoy to toss down.
I was pressured and nervous and told them to please leave me alone.
But they drew me out anyway, and when they heard my plight,
they were clever enough to suggest, that they could carry up all my stuff.

So I led them down my steps - carefully since the steps were so very fragile -
and because of their help I had to carry up only the backpack with the laptop
and two more bags with heavily mudded stuff,
when Ohad called me via phone, saying, he had already arrived.

Three more people were sitting behind and since they took up a former conversation
I was free to finally relax and rest
and postpone the worry about how to get to Modi'in and to my flat.

While squeezed between multitudes of cars in the Jerusalem roads,
we exchanged experiences:
"When it's just raining, everything stays dry," Tamir told me,
" but when there is a "cloud-burst", nothing stays dry."
"So what happened to your abode tonight?" I asked.
"Nothing, because here (some 17 km north of Noah's Shore) there was only light rain."
"Is a cloud-burst local to that extent?" I asked,
as if I hadn't understood already, that that cloud-burst had just one intention
to make the woman in the cave encounter "Water in the Wilderness"...
"That's special about the desert", he said.
"So what are you doing about not getting wet?"
"Nothing.
It doesn't happen often, though last winter it happened four times.
I just wait until everything dries.
But with your cave it's different.
The water floods you from below..."

After great traffic difficulties Ohad let me off at the central bus station.
There I was bending down among multitudes of people,
repacking my stuff into 3 "containers".
The biggest one was a gigantic bag, which I had sown of hand-woven towels ,
when I returned from 3 months in South India exactly 5 years ago,
for transporting all those cheap, wonderful gifts for my family and my partners.
Now, with the wet, mudded carpets and blankets in it, the bag was so heavy,
that even I, a veritable donkey in terms of carrying loads ever since my childhood,
could not lift it one inch and had to drag it on the asphalt to reach my bus-station.

When the bus came, I heaved it somehow into the luggage department.
Sitting comfortably inside, I thought my plight had come to an end.
But a journey of 26 km took the bus an hour and a half, so maddening was the traffic,
and the people all around me talked loudly on their cell phones, a maddening Babylon,
and last not least, a new fashion: next to the driver a flat television screen
showered mute, but flashy, candescent commercials over us, a maddening irritation.
I felt into all this and accepted the fact that I was reaching a breaking point.

But then there appeared a little angel on the present abyss:
I was the last traveler in the bus, and the driver - an Arab according to his accent -
somehow felt my plight.
He suggested to make a detour and let me off right in front of my door....

And another little angel:
It so happened that I had to call my daughter, just when I entered the flat.
It was about an organizational matter concerning Grandma Wednesday
Though I usually spare her reports about my present "Dead Sea escapade",
I told her, why I was back already, though it was only Monday.
That's when she suggested I bring her the part of the laundry
which could be packed into her washing-machine and dryer.
The three huge bags with muddy things still were a shock to her.

The heavier things, like the carpets and blankets, I washed myself.
I had to heat the boyler 3 times and wasted much water,
the physical effort needed was enormous once more,
and to find places to dry the things, demanded inventiveness.