Around Eilat

Eilat is sometimes referred to as Israel's "Las Vegas". While there is surely some resemblance (desert, palms, hotels, partiers), Eilat is certainly more family friendly. Gambling is illegal in Israel, and I understand that "casino cruise ships" no longer frequent the port.

Here is a picture looking out the window from the halloway window at our hotel. On the right side you can see "King City", a Biblical theme park for kids. And, on the left, you can see the indoor ice rink.  

Here is Sammy gearing up for his first swim!

His mommy was there, too...

Sammy and Nicki in the (covered) kiddie pool. Sammy seemed to have fun, but mostly liked to stand and hold on to the edge of the pool.

We went to the Coral Beach Nature Reserve to snorkel in the Red Sea. Several "reef bridges" enabled visitors to walk over the reef. Snorkelers, like us, enter the water from the end of the bridge, then swim along the reef perpendicular to the shore.

Here's Nicki snorkelling. You can see the reef, as well as the buoy line which keeps visitors from getting too close.

We saw MANY brand-new Japanese cars being dropped off at the port. Ships from the East can reach Israel via Eilat. Israel's little slice of beachfront property on the Red Sea is quite strategic. Without it, the ships would have to sail through the Suez Canal in order to reach Israel via the Mediterranean.

Our seemingly ingenious crib-darkening apparatus proved to be no match for Sammy. Here he is "napping" in the hotel room. The crib is halfway in the closet, and the other half had originally been covered by the blanket in order to block out light. Needless to say, Sammy was quite proud of himself.

Here's the view from our hotel room's deck. That's the Red Sea with Jordan in the background, and possibly Saudi Arabia on the far right side.

We went back to Mount Yoash for sunset (had also visited the previous night--details here if interested). Here's Nicki soaking in the views. That is Eilat on the right side, and the Red Sea in the background.

And here is the checkpoint we'd stopped at the night before. We didn't need to cross it the second time, since the Mt Yoash turn-off is located just prior to the roadblock.

A sign let us know what we were looking at. On a clear day, you can see four contries--Israel, Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia.

This bunker was built into the hillside, with views into Egypt.

Nicki, uh, I mean Sammy, wanted to ride a camel--so we did.

Here's proof of our adventure. At the end of the short camel trek, another couple asked us if Sammy had slept the whole time. We said "yes", wondering if perhaps they thought that we had taken part in the camel ride for him. In actuality, we were hoping he'd sleep through the trek since he'd had trouble napping in the hotel room.

After the ride, the guide made us some "bedouin bread".

Here's Sammy and me in the bedouin tent. Sammy liked playing with their tools.

Eilat is frequently used as an entry point into Jordan. Many people visit Petra from Eilat...and we decided to join in the fun. Here's Nicki (and Sammy) crossing the border into Jordan.

We grabbed a cab and headed to Wadi Musa, the town just outside of Petra. Here's a shot of some Jordanian scenery outside of the taxi window. The famed "Wadi Rum" is somewhere in the background. We didn't have time to explore the apparently beautiful desert landscapes of Wadi Rum.

There were many photo ops along the way to Wadi Musa, but I missed most of them due to not being able to stop the car. Here's another one out the window--there were many herds of goats to be seen.

Finally we arrived at Wadi Musa. That's the town on the extreme right side. Petra is in the middle-left somewhere.

After sunset, we settled into our hotel. This mosque was across the street. We'd be exploring Petra the next morning (to be continued...).

Road Trip to Eilat (and the Red Sea)

Getting there is half the fun. My employer was generous enough to give us a two-night getaway, so we took full advantage by taking a road trip to Eilat, Israel's southernmost point and a port city on the Red Sea. 


Eilat is about a four hour drive south from Tel Aviv. To date, the farthest south we'd been was Qiryat Gat (where I work)--which is about an hour south of Tel Aviv. Needless to say, we were excited to explore the Negev desert, which essentially occupies the southern half of Israel.  


Here's a visual of our journey to Eilat and the Red Sea. Just south of Kiryat Gat and Be'er Sheva, the Negev desert begins. We saw many Bedouin dwellings and apparently there are many camels. Also note the sign in the background...

This  is a zoomed-in view of the sign. Portions of the Negev desert are used for military exercises since there's not much to get in harms way. We were sure to stay on the road. 

About halfway to Eilat, we stopped at Ein Avdat National Park hoping to see the ancient Nabetean city ruins. We were surprised to find a canyon in which to hike, but no ruins. I asked around and was informed that the city ruins were down the highway another 10km or so.  

We decided to save the hiking for another day, and headed south towards by car towards the ruins. Here's a view of the ancient city of Avdat which was founded by the Nabateans in the 2nd century BC. The city was located on the "Spice Route" that ran between the Arabian peninsula and the Gaza Port (on the Mediterranean Sea) via Petra (where we'd soon be visiting) and the Negev.

Nicki and Sammy enjoyed the ruins (not to mention the weather - it was 70 degrees or so...definitely not as hot as it looks).

Our next stop was Makhtesh Ramon (or "Ramon Crater", which is a misnomer) just south of the town of Mitzpe Ramon. Ramon "Crater" is the world's largest Makhtesh, which is a geological formation unique to the Negev--being formed via erosion rather than impact from a meteor or volcanic eruption (more here for people like my dad who are interested in geology).

We soaked in the views for a view moments, and then ventured on, following the winding highway down into the makhtesh.

This picture was taken from the Mt Ayit viewpoint, somewhere between Mitzpe Ramon & Eilat. It gives indication of what the scenery looked like in all directions--presumably similar to what the Israelites saw as they wandered through the desert.  

We saw several military outposts right off of the highway--usually a mix of the three T's--tanks, towers, and tents.

We also saw a handful of these dust-storm-like mini-tornadoes. This one was just north of the Hai Bar nature reserve--a refuge for Biblically menstioned animals such as the popular onagar and wild ass. We stopped at Hai Bar hoping to take part in the drive-through safari, but it was past 2:30 which is the latest that visitors can start the tour.

We made it to Eilat just prior to sunset. Here's a view of the town with the Red Sea and Jordanian mountains in the background. In fact, if you squint, you'll see the Jordanian town of Aqaba at the base of the mountains across the Red Sea.

By the way, you may notice that your Bible probably has a footnote that lets you know that the Hebrew name for this body of water was the "Sea of Reeds". We read that a typographical error during a mid-1700's Bible translation is why we now refer to it as the "Red" (as apposed to "Reed") sea. A case of the missing e.

You may also be interested in knowing that Eilat is mentioned in the Bible as one of the places the Israelites stopped during their wilderness travels (see Deuteronomy 2:8). Your Bible says "Eilath", but modern Hebrew no longer uses the "th" sound (similar to Bethlehem, which is prounounced more closely to Bet Lechem in modern times).

Since the sun was going down, we tried traveling along highway 12 to the Mount Yoash viewpoint. We'd read that nice views could be enjoyed there. After a few kilometers, a checkpoint blocked the road, and one of the guards told us that the road closed at 5pm (it was 4:45pm). He asked us where we were going, then let us go, indicating that Mt Yoash must be close. Here is a picture of a card he handed us as we drove away from the checkpoint.

We drove for a while, but never found Mt Yoash. Instead, we fixed our attention on the Israel-Egypt border. This fence & military road runs the length of the border on the Sinai Peninsula.

Below is another view of the border fence. I was standing on the main highway 12. The road pictured here was for Israeli Hummers and such. That's Egypt on the other side. After some border pics, we headed back to the checkpoint, being that it was now after 5pm and the stretch of road we were on was technically closed.

On the way back, the sun suddenly peeked through the clouds and lit up the landscape. At the same time, I spotted a turn-off (on the East side of the road) that looked like it might lead to a nice viewpoint. So, I pulled off and started winding up a bumpy, rocky road. Before making it to what seemed to be a viewpoint, I saw a military vehicle taking the same turn-off I had. Knowing that we were there past closing, I turned around and wound back down the gravel road towards the highway.

A jeep filled with four Israeli soldiers now blocked our path. Two of the men got out, machine guns strapped to their shoulders, and approached our car. After finding out what we were doing, they warned: "it is dangerous for you to be here". I politely asked why, and the friendly guard had trouble explaining. Nonetheless, we were on our way.

We crossed back through the checkpoint, back onto "safe" ground--and there was Mt Yoash! We had been distracted by the checkpoint when looking for the viewpoint, so had apparently missed the sign pointing to the pull-out.

After all that, here is the view we were looking for. By this time, the sun was down--but it was still neat to view the Red Sea, Jordan, and even Saudi Arabia (on the far right, across the water is the Saudi Arabian peninsula).

Finally, we made it to the hotel and Sammy got busy exploring while stretching his legs after the long journey. Little did he know he'd be going for his first pool swim in the morning.

Oh, and here's a bath-time pic I had meant to add to the last blog. This is from a month or so ago...but I couldn't resist including it.