Everyday Eilat

To end my blogs about our trip to Israel's Red Sea here are some photos of Everyday Eilat.
In Holland we had planned to set up camp next to the hotel swimmingpool while on a week long holiday in Eilat and we ended up driving 700 km.

- - - btw, we did try the swimming pool, honestly!, but the water was horribly cold and loud elevator music droned on relentlessly. Then, dragging the sun beds out of the shadow or single-handedly closing the sun screen was Not Permitted, and all in all this swimmingpool thing was simply boring.
Our curiosity got the better of us and you've all been reading what we did instead.

Between our trips into the country we visited the city of Eilat.
The chique and the worn down suburbs, the wide streets and the large, empty stretches of sand we saw everywhere waiting to be - - well, sorry, we don't know. People use them as car parks.
We shopped at Israeli and Russian supermarkets and came home with 10 kilo worth of food: strange and unknown, or known but way cheaper than in Holland (anyone for tahini? I got loads of it).
At night we strolled along the streets of central Eilat with the Israeli, who were doing their shopping
or just enjoying the hustle and bustle of a warm evening in a city in the Middle East.

A city unknown to us, and also a city we couldn't 'place' in the countries we've been during our travels.
I hope we've given you a good impression of Eilat and it's surroundings.

As always we very much enjoyed ourselves, and as always I very much enjoyed myself telling you about it.
We'll keep in touch!

A canyon! in the Negev Desert!

Think you have to spend a whopping amount of money to fly to America to see a canyon IRL?
Not if you live in Europe.

Just go to Eilat, take the Hwy12 along the Egyptian border, past the roadblock (drive slow, open your window, wave to the soldiers on guard and yell Shalom! They'll be surprised and wave back!), watch our for a sign on the right side of the road some 10 mins. past the roadblock directing you to Red Canyon and drive a short track to a large parking lot that with any luck (as we had it) is completely deserted.

Forget about the signpost directing you to the official path, go down to the wadi (you'll know a wadi when you see one so no problems here) and just follow the dry riverbed. You'll see beautifully formed rocks in amazing colours and more green that in the rest of the Negev combined. Watch out for some fully grown mimosa trees...
And stand still every now and then to listen to the complete & total silence.

The walls steepen and close in on you. Next you're in a fairylike, orange world and you can only gape at the beautiful rocks, clearly eroded by swirling water. A million years ago. At some places the going gets a bit rough, but then anchors have been made in the rock to help you get through.
It makes your walk even more exciting.

The canyon, because this is a Whopping Real Canyon if there ever was one, ends in a round basin. You can walk on but you've had the most interesting part already. From there on you can retrace your steps - which we did and what we strongly advise because you see the canyon again but from a totally different angle - or hike the official trail back to your car.

It's hot, there. It's an easy walk, especially because you'll most likely be strolling instead of keeping up a normal walking speed. Take enough water with you (!) and go slow - you're there to enjoy yourselves.
You will.

Where to float in the Dead Sea

Not everywhere.

That said (and be prepared: I'm going to say MUCH MORE about it), it's a wonderful - albeit rather long - journey from Eilat to, say, Ein Gedi halfway up the Dead Sea - but doable. 230 km on a dead quiet road, in a wide, bright, landscape with on the one side the Hwy in Jordania and on the other the Negev mountains, both way in the distance.
We went to the Dead Sea on a lovely warm and sunny day and found the trip very restful. But then, that's us: unwinding and relaxing by driving these kind of roads.

First you arrive at the salt pans. The Dead Sea is evaporating in a sickening tempo - we talked to a woman who said that within 50 years there won't be a Dead Sea anymore - and the southern tip of the Sea is now used for salt mining.
Forget the beautiful pictures you see in the tourist brochures of strange, spikey salt formations - they're gone. That was when the salt pans were still Nature, now we ran into an enormous magnesium plant, and they 'reorganised' the place for efficient mining.
This plant is a bit of an eyesore to be honest, after driving 200 km. in pristine desert land.

Next come the wellness hotels. The wellness parks, to be more correct. Again bang in the middle of the desert rise huge, white, modern and expensive-looking buildings with lavish green lawns, swimming pools, terraces and lots of palm trees near the Sea. They advertise on huge billboards, promising the most luxurious Spa stroke Dead Sea treatments.
But we didn't see a soul swimming in the sea. So these treatments are to be enjoyed inside, I guess...
And they'll cost.

So on we went, now driving along the border of the Sea itself. Next to the Hwy a no man's land of unkempt sand and pebbles, with signs every 300 metres warning us no swimming was allowed.
Ok...?!

We drove further north, past Masada, on to Ein Gedi, where we finally spotted a place where we were allowed to swim: a communal beach. It catered for hundreds and hundreds of cars (ie. huge parking lots) but there were only some 10 cars when we arrived.
We paid to park our car, walked to the buildings and - well, best to see the pics for yourself.

It was weird. There were old-fashioned barracks for changing rooms, a concrete path leading to a concrete terrace where you could sunbathe. At the end, near the sea, a small shack for the lifeguard and next to it a slippery path with a rusty railing leading down to a very very small patch of Dead Sea where you were allowed to swim.

Believe me - I'm used to Indonesia, and I'm not particular when it comes to the environment in places outside neat and clean Western Europe.
But this steep beach was, apart from littered with sharp rocks that made walking practically impossible, dirty.
Like in really dirty. Littered with plastic bottles, crumbled wipes, and tissues you didn't want to know what they had been used for.

Anyway. We found a reasonably clean spot and hobbled into the sea. Kneedeep you're supposed to (elegantly) lower yourself and start floating. I stumbled over a particularly slippery stone and fell.
Don't do that. The water of the Dead Sea is splattered in your face and it tastes yuck!

But the floating was nice. It was strange. It was relaxing. You're like an airbed. And that proved to be a problem because we had strong winds that day that made you drift quickly past the small patch you were allowed to swim in. And then try to 'swim' back - impossible. You sort of swim upright, with your arms making the proper movements and your legs flipping vertically like mad to make speed against the waves.

Pieter got out very soon, I stayed in longer, till all the bruised and soft tissues of my body hurt.
They never tell you about that when raving about the Wellness of Floating in the Dead Sea, but believe me: even the skin you chewed away around your fingernails starts to burn.

After bathing in the Dead Sea your skin is strangely slippery. With 35C and the strong winds we climbed up the rusty railing (dirty brown hands) asap to shower with sweet water (so not to turn into salt pillars ourselves). Then we scrambled back to get our stuff, and went to the barracks to change.

Now I'm sure you can have an amazing experience floating in the Dead Sea. A wellness Spa if there ever was one. But please organise your trip better than we did: find a place where you can float to your hearts content and pick a day with no winds.

Whatever, we did swim in the Dead Sea. Another strange experience, and well worth the trip - especially when we saw a beautiful sunset, and the colours of the rocks changing as evening fell when we drove back to Eilat.