Bet Shemesh Part 2: Twin Cave

Our second trip to Bet Shemesh started with a jaunt up to Abu Ghosh for some falafel, humus and pita bread. Abu Ghosh is know through all of Israel for its fantastic humus, it's rich and creamy and delightful in every possible way. Pretty much the best lunch you could hope for. 

After our last trip we checked online for some better directions to Twin Cave. Turns out if we had only driven half a kilometer further last time we would have seen a big sign for the trailhead, but we didn't so we had a great excuse to come back. 

When we arrived a shepherd was sitting in the parking lot while his heard of goats roamed around on the hillside nearby. It was so nice to see how lively and playful these goats were, they jumped around on the rocks, butted heads, and had a general light hearted contentedness about them. What was even more interesting was when the shepherd got up and started walking down the road the goats all followed him without any prodding or encouragement of any kind. It was a lovely treat to see this heard, and I was a little sad to see them go. 

Twin Cave! This cave has over 33 kinds of bats living inside of it. as we walked up to the entrance we could already hear them squeaking a chirping at each other. It was wonderfully creepy/amazing.

Look, Bats! 

the bats live in these holes in the ceiling 

deep inside the cave. The walkway takes you on a switchback path into the cave where you come upon a little pool of mineral water at the end. It was really cool, but we were wishing our flashlights hand been  a little more powerful. 

Bat poop. You really don't want to use the handrails in certain parts of the cave.

Bats! 

Most of the brown blobs inside the hole are bats, you can see their eyes glowing in the upper left hand corner.

After we'd had our fill of bats we continued on our hike. This bush snagged me and Raz had to come and untangle me.

Farther up the path there was a natural slide, carved into the stone by ages of water erosion and further more by countless hikers sliding down it.

After our hike Raz took me to Britain Park where the David and Goliath story was supposed to have taken place. It was so beautiful. all along the path were little markers telling the tale of David and Goliath, Raz translated them for me and we had a lovely time admiring the beauty of the land. 

Perfect mid afternoon snack: leftover falafel and humus!