Israel Vacation 2001

Chapter 3: Eilat

Birds

We left the Dead Sea and drove South/ The road travels along the Israeli side of the Arava Valley (pronounced with stress on the last syllable). This is part of the large rift valley caused by the motion of tectonic plates, and from the Dead Sea to

Eilat, it forms the boundary between Jordan and Israel. The valley starts at the elevation of the Dead Sea, over 400m below sea level, and climbs to the South, until substantially above sea level, then returns to sea level as it approaches Eilat.

Eilat is a very important city for Israel, because it is on the Gulf of Eilat, and that is connected to the Red Sea, which is in turn connected to the Indian Ocean. So all of Israel's shipping to and from the East comes through this port. The shipping routes are in international waters, and in fact, it was Egypt's attempt to block this shipping route at the mouth of the Gulf (Sharm El Sheik) in 1967 that Israel treated a an act of war, precipitating the Six Day War.

The rift valley forms a natural route for bird migrations, and millions of birds travel between Europe and Africa every year, by passing along here. The area possesses a Desert Climate, but the birds are attracted to selected sites, usually oases or springs, where they can rest, and find shade and food. Eilat is one of the most important stopping places for birds along the migration route, and they are primarily attracted to the salt marshes north of the North Beach section where our hotel was.

In May, the Spring migration is coming to an end, but it is not over yet, so we went bird watching early in the morning on several days while we were visiting in Eilat. We saw quite a variety of interesting birds we had never seen before, and identified as many as we could from the field guide we had brought, describing birds of this region. That's why there are so many bird pictures in this chapter.

Reef

The Gulf is part of the Indian Ocean. This is a tropical ocean, and very different from the Mediterranean Sea. In particular it has very clear warm water, and coral reefs, populated by all kinds of tropical fish.

We had come prepared for this (unlike last year's Hawaii vacation) and brought with us masks. In Steffi's case it was a mask ground to her exact eyeglass prescription, so for the first time, we could go snorkeling. We had even been talked into buying fancy mask covers (by Marsoops) that double as straps, and which will float, keeping the mask at the surface if it should come off.

We found a dive shop where we could rent snorkels and flippers. The Seas temperature was about 25C, so we figured we would not need wetsuits. The people at this dive shop were extremely nice to us. We went into the water, but we had a problem with Steffi's brand new mask. It kept filling with water. It was almost as if she could not manage to make a watertight seal against her face, but that was not the problem. After a great deal of frustration trying to make a tight seal, we decided it had to be leaking from the lens. We were certainly disappointed, and also kicking ourselves for not checking it out before the trip. (In our defense, we had been extremely busy.)

So it now looked like we were not going to be able to go snorkeling together after all. By this time Steffi was really cold, so we got out, returned dejected to the dive shop, and explained our difficulty. One of the fellows took her mask and tested it with soap bubbles, proving that it was indeed the lens that was leaking. He said that because it was brand new, it was probably just some plastic from the grinding that was breaking the seal. While we warmed up, he took the lens out, cleaned off the plastic bits, and resealed it. He wouldn't accept any money for this, either, but as it turns out, he saved our outing, because the mask now worked perfectly.

Steffi decided that it was cold enough to justify a wetsuit, so we rented one for her, and returned to the water. The wetsuit did its job, as she was able to stay warm for much longer, so we spent most of the afternoon in the water, without realizing how long it was until we were exhausted. We had a disposable underwater camera, so we took pictures of many of the things we saw, even though as novices, we were hard-pressed to have the remotest clue what it was we were looking at. The underwater pictures come out quite well we think. All of the pictures we took while snorkeling are provided here without specific commentary.

Footnote: Although we tried to pay the fellow that fixed Steffi's mask, he refused to accept anything in exchange. However, when pressed, he admitted that he really wanted to own one of those Marsoops mask covers and straps, but they are not available in Israel. So we sold him one of ours at cost. We wouldn't need it again until after the vacation, and we could easily replace it.

Timna Mines

Our next excursion from Eilat was Timna, located about 16 km North of Eilat, near the Arava Valley. This region was the site of mining activity from the time of Solomon until the twentieth century. We drove through the park, and did some hiking in the desert, too.

 

 

While hiking, we saw ancient mineshafts, and many other things, some of which are captured in these photographs. It was quite hot in the desert, and when we found some caves, we climbed inside and took a rest.

Our admission price gave us a discount at Hai Bar, which is a wildlife refuge nearby. We didn't have time to visit Hai Bar today, but we decided to try it another day. There was not a lot of wildlife to be found in the desert at Timna, but we did find a well-disguised lizard.

Mushroom rock is one of the highlights of this park. it was formed by erosion. Steffi posed underneath this enormous structure so that you can see how large it was.

Near the large rock structures that are called Solomon's Pillars, there are Petroglyphs of Egyptian origin.

Even though the conditions in this region are harsh, there was no end to the natural beauty here. You can see in the final picture from Timna how colorful the rocks containing ores appear.

Eilat Mountains

Eilat lies in a small area between the Eilat Mountains and the Gulf. While we were there, we took a drive up into the mountains.

Without going very far, we found that we could no longer see Eilat, because our view was blocked, but we could still see the nearby city of Aqaba, Jordan.

From one of the vantage points we climbed to, we could also look down across the Egyptian border to the town of Taba, Egypt, on this side of the Gulf.

On the far side of the Gulf, we could see the beaches of Jordan, to the left. But Jordan only has a short section of shoreline, beyond which is Saudi Arabia. The border between the too is roughly in the center of the photograph.

We drove to a point where we were very close to the Egyptian border. It was a lookout and it was manned by a pair of very young IDF soldiers. From here we could see the long roll of razor wire that marked the boundary and we could see a similar Egyptian lookout, but since it was built on lower ground, it was built as a tower so that it could be at the same height as the Israeli one.

Hai Bar

a wildlife refuge that is trying to collect animals that appear in the bible but are now endangered, and to protect them and prepare them for release back into the wild. We made arrangements to take a guided tour. The guide rode with us in our car as we drove through the enclosures containing the animals.

 

 

It's not as good as photographing animals in the wild, but some of these animals are very unusual, and all of them are mentioned in the Bible and were once plentiful. Hai Bar has had some success in releasing certain of these species to the wild. Regardless, Hai Bar was a very impressive place to visit,

Onagers are an Arabian wild ass. The Addax is from the bovine family. Undoubtedly the most unusual animal we saw was the Arabian Oryx, which is a very rare animal from the antelope family.

In addition, Hai Bar has two other sections. One is a building that contains nocturnal animals. You can view them but you have to enter the building and wait a while for your eyes to get used to the dark before you can see anything. In the third section they keep some captive birds of prey. These were too photogenic to resist, even though they were in cages.

Negev Desert

an enormous crater known as Machtesh Ramon. When we got to the far side, the road climbed the side of the crater reaching the observation point at Mitzpe Ramon. This picture was taken looking back at the crater we had just crossed.

 

 

This story continues when we explore the Judean Hills and return to Jerusalem.

[Intro] [Jerusalem] [Dead Sea] [Eilat] [Judean Hills] [Mediterranean Coast] [Western Galilee and Jezre'el Valley] [Northern Galilee and Golan Heights] [Index]