The Misadventures of the Masada Seven

During the second weekend in July, the group ventured out on our second major trip of the summer, with plans to visit the ancient fortress of Masada, as well as the Dead Sea.  The adventure started out quite normally, with a bunch of us cramming ourselves into a mini van and settling in for the ~2.5 hour drive up to Masada.  The plan was to get up there early, while it still wasn't too hot, and perhaps hike up the mountain to explore the fortress on foot.  It didn't take too long before we ran into a slight problem... we were low on fuel.  And, being a Saturday morning, we were right in the middle of Shabbat, the weekly Jewish holiday for rest and reflection, during which time most businesses in Israel are closed.  So, naturally, we had some trouble finding a gas station that was both open and had pumping instructions in English.  Things were looking a little grim when the fuel light came on, until we came around the bend and saw this beautiful sight:

Our savior over the horizon!

This was great!  We weren't going to run out of fuel in the middle of the desert after all!  Solid development.  After pulling into the station outside the very small town of Tzukim (which is, ironically, just 10 km south of the town of Tsofar.  So close, and yet Tsofar!) several of us jumped out to grab some drinks and snacks, while the van was to be filled with fuel.  

Before moving on in the story, there is one important thing you should know: this was a diesel powered van, not gasoline powered, something that had been discussed several times previously.  Unfortunately, that did not stop one of us (who will remain anonymous, alone in his or her shame) from quickly and accidentally adding ~15 L of gasoline into our diesel fuel tank.  Excellent.

At first we thought "how bad could it be?  Let's just keep filling it up with diesel, dilute out the gasoline, and move on with our lives!"  In fact, this is precisely what a passerby suggested we do, saying "it will be just fine!" 

Thankfully, a majority of us are scientists (or at least attempting to become scientists), and so were a bit hesitant to accept this idea.  I pulled out my phone to investigate the potential consequences of such an action (the internet is great, huh?) and found this explanation:     

At high enough concentrations of gasoline, "whether a modern clean CRD diesel or an old indirect injection unit, burning straight gasoline or highly diluted diesel fuel will almost certainly result in catastrophic damage to the mighty diesel engine... this fuel introduced into a diesel engine either won't ignite or will ignite at the wrong time causing severe detonation... the shock wave effects of uncontrolled detonation can easily destroy (reciprocating engine components)...  Running thin, low viscosity gasoline through a diesel fuel system would starve it for lubrication and cause those sensitive components to rub together (metal-to-metal) eventually destroying them."

Huh.  So, basically something like this...

In all seriousness, though, had we just decided to drive away, we likely would have ended up stranded somewhere in the the middle of the desert anyway, with a "catastrophically" damaged vehicle.  Good thing we didn't listen to that advice! 

This left us with only a few options.  The first was to try and siphon our own fuel out of the van.  While none of us are accomplished gas thieves, we did manage to make a good attempt at it using random supplies we found in and around the gas station...

Our foray into the criminal underworld of self-gas-theft was ultimately unsuccessful. 

Unfortunately, there appeared to be an anti-siphoning device somewhere inside the fuel line, which in nearly every single other situation would have been a good thing.  Darn technology!  At this point, we decided that it would likely be best to just call the rental car company and have them bring us a new van.  In the end, this meant waiting up to 3 hours for another van to be brought down from Be'er Sheva, a town over 130 km away to the north.

3 hours stranded at a gas station in the middle of the desert... sounds like an absolute blast, right?  Well, not to be deterred from enjoying our day off research, we found a great way to pass the time: playing Uno!  Somebody randomly found a whole deck of Uno playing cards inside the van, which came in handy while trying to pass the time.  Thankfully, this particular gas station had a large covered patio outside with plenty of places to sit and hang out.  Shade?  Check.  Food and drink?  Check.  Playing cards and a bunch of friends?  Check.  It could have been a whole lot worse!

With only 4 seats per table (which were bolted to the ground), the players in last place after each round of Uno had to stand for the next round.  Naturally this led to some pretty tough competition.  Things may have been said that can never be unsaid.... mostly consisting of  "Draw 2, you ____!"  Good times were had by all. 

In the end, time passed by reasonably quickly, given the circumstances.  Our new van was significantly smaller than the original, but at least it had the correct fuel in the tank!  We we piled in and continued our drive up towards Masada as quickly as the speed limit would allow. 

Ultimately, we arrived at the desert fortress by around 4 pm, which only allowed an hour or so to check it out.  This also meant taking the cable car up to the top instead of hiking up, which, given the time of day and the scorching heat, was likely the better option anyway.

Masada is an ancient fortress situated at the top of a high mesa at the eastern edge of the Judaean Desert overlooking the Dead Sea.  It was constructed between 37 and 31 BCE by Herod the Great, a Roman client king of the land of Judea, who also ruled during the time of Jesus's birth.  It once contained numerous fortifications, storehouses and palaces built by Herod in order to watch over the desert and the Dead Sea.  It was also the location of a great Roman siege towards the end of the First Jewish-Roman War, where almost 1000 Jewish rebels and their families ultimately committed mass suicide rather than submit and become Roman slaves.  Today it is an Israeli National Park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with a museum and a large cable car system to transport visitors up the shear 400 m cliffs to the top of the mesa where the ruins stand.  For more information on the ruins and history of the site, check out the official webpage here.

We unfortunately only had about an hour to tour around all of the ruins after our little pit stop in Tzukim, but it was a pretty amazing visit nonetheless.  The views of the desert canyons, layered rock-salt formations and the Dead Sea were a spectacular backdrop for the ruins of the fortress, which included guard houses, storerooms, huge underground water cisterns, a working aqueduct system, temples, palaces and more.  Take a look at the slideshow below to see some of the pictures we took during our quick tour of this fascinating archaeological site!

Trip to Masada