June 26th-28th, 2014
On my first full day in Israel Naomi and I drove up to Haifa
with Naomi’s cute little dog Bella for lunch with her parents (Naomi’s that
is). The plan was to leave Bella there
for the week while we went on a couple of small trips to various parts of
Israel.
Haifa is a major port city in the north of Israel and I came
very close to visiting it back in 1995.
At that time I was traipsing around Europe on the stereotypical
post-university backpack trip. I left
Athens on an overnight ferry boat from Athens to the island of Rhodes. My plan was to find my way down to Cairo to
see the pyramids. The water was a bit
rough causing many seasick tourists to lose their breakfast in the indoor
seating areas. The smell was enough to
force me to sleep outside on the back deck hugging my backpack in a futile
effort to stay warm. Eighteen hours
later and I arrived on the lovely island of Rhodes, home to one of the other
seven ancient wonders of the world: The Colossus of Rhodes. After a couple of amazing days on the island
my options were to either continue on to Egypt which entailed another 18 hour
ferry ride to Cyprus, another boat ride to Haifa and then numerous buses down
to Egypt. Or, I could take a boat for
two hours and arrive in southern Turkey.
Well I opted for option B and ended up spending a month in wonderful
Turkey. So Haifa had to wait until
another day, and that was this day.
Most of the hour and a half drive was on a smooth divided
highway. Initially we passed many small villages
on either side of the road with the seemingly ubiquitous power lines
crisscrossing the landscape. Naomi
pointed out that it was easy to discern the Jewish and Arab settlements by the
fact that the Arab houses were topped with black water tanks while the Jewish
ones had solar powered water heaters. The
design of the houses also gave it away with the Arabs possessing boxy
multi-storied buildings while there was a bit more diversity in the Jewish
abodes. As we approached Haifa the
terrain changed into evergreen tree covered hills. At the end of a long plateau stood a 30
storey building which was the University of Haifa. How strange to have university in a small
skyscraper?!? Not my idea of a college
campus. Just past the university the
hill began to diminish and on its slanted side were the many houses, shops and
apartments of Haifa. Just to the north a
crescent shaped bay stretched out as far as the eye could see in the hazy
conditions. It was easy to see why Haifa
was a port town.
Haifa's hilly-ness:
We arrived at her parents’ place and I was warmly greeted,
even offered a beer almost immediately!
We enjoyed a lovely lunch, and a large one at that. Her dad took us on a tour of Technion,
essentially the MIT of Israel. Naomi’s
older brother had attended the school in the 90s and her father proudly showed
us his award winning model of an amphibious plane in a glass case displayed in
one of the engineering buildings.
Later that afternoon we returned to Kfar Saba, sans chien,
and the following day woke up early and hit the road en route to Eilat, the
furthest point south in Israel lying on the coast of the Red Sea. The landscape changed from a relatively urban
one, to farmland and eventually to desert.
We lucked out and saw a few camels in fields grazing, my first sighting
of this animal in Israel. My next
sighting would not have to wait long as Naomi wanted to stop at an alpaca farm
in Mitzpe Ramon. Parents of a good
friend of mine back in Canada used to raise alpacas so I wasn’t too bothered to
see them but I was pleased that they also had a few camels at the farm. We fed the furry creatures with some little pellets
of seed that we purchased and got back on the road.
My first "Beware of Camels" sign:
Feeding an alpaca:
A face only a mother could love:
Please don't spit...please don't spit:
He looks pretty damn happy doesn't he?
Our next stop was the Ramon Crater or in Hebrew: Mahktesh Ramon. The crater was naturally formed over millions
of years and spans 40 kilometres in length and up to 10 kilometres in width
with a depth of 500 meters. It’s
essentially the Grand Canyon of Israel and it did not disappoint. The view from the top of the rim was stunning
but it was the type of place that’s beautiful to look at but I wouldn’t want to
have to spend much time there as it was oppressively hot.
The observation post:
A million shades of tan:
Surveying the crater:
Before heading up to the main observation point, we first
ventured into the visitor’s centre which contained two major themes, the first
was about Ilan
Ramon, the Israeli astronaut who unfortunately perished when the
space shuttle Columbia disintegrated as it re-entered the atmosphere in
2003. The second was about the flora and
fauna of the crater and an explanation of how it formed. I was impressed with the quality of the small
visitor’s centre and did learn quite a lot.
A shuttle you could park in your garage:
Holding hands with Ilan:
Walking up to the observation deck:
Yup, it's hot:
Nice hat lady!
Maybe I should get one of my own:
Back on the road we passed by a military installation which
had a defunct tank sitting by the entry road so of course I had to have a few
pics on that. As we continued further
south the mercury continued to soar and hit a phenomenal 46 C which was even
hot by the local standards, yet it was a “dry heat” so it wasn’t as bad as it
sounds but still damn hot.
Way cooler sign than the camel crossing one...
There's something about tanks...
My "Dr. Strangelove" impression:
Onward!
See, I wasn't lying:
We finally rolled into Eilat in the late afternoon and
checked into our hotel, the Orchid Reef Hotel, which was situated right on the
Red Sea coast, just a kilometre or so from the Egyptian border. Across the bay were the hills of Jordan lit
up in the late afternoon sun. We wasted
no time in getting into our swim suits and plunging in the water for some great
snorkelling just off the shore. There
were many colourful fish including one of my favourites, the parrot fish.
The hotel's beach. That's Jordan in the background:
And if you don't like the sea, go for the pool...but we didn't. This was the view from our room.
That evening we ventured into town with the goal of locating
a skating rink that was in the centre of a circular shaped shopping mall. A skating rink here?!? How decadent!
In the end we opted not to skate as it was going to cost $40+ and the
ice looked like crap (not a big surprise) even though I would have looked like
Wayne Gretzky out there as next to no one could skate. Most people slowly pulled themselves around
the boards, struggling to stay standing.
We finished the day with a nice burger meal at Moses
restaurant near the harbour front. We
sat at the bar as the place was packed and for some reason the bartender took a
shining to us and offered free desert.
We were both stuffed but felt it would be rude to turn down the offer so
we merely had some sorbet. Time for bed
with full bellies.
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