The Dash South

With En Gedi behind me there was nowhere to go but South, the objective being Eilat on the Red Sea and border with Jordan. It promised to be a full day driving but I had planned to break it up following a recommendation to go walking in the desert on the Southern tip of the Dead Sea. This area is strange because huge (and I mean really HUGE) areas are flooded then dyked off and the sea water allowed to evaporate leaving the mineral deposits.On the edge of all this is the Kibbutz Neot Hakkika where my friend Lor once worked and was recommended as a fascinating landscape to walk. More like a moonscape it is a range of desert with steep little gorges and canyons cut by flood water. Rising straight from what would have been the water's edge had it not been for the evaporation my plans for a walk across the top of it were thwarted by the fact that the sand was still damp and collapsed as soon as it tried to get up it. Eventually I realised that if I continued I was going to get buried and withdrew- which was a shame because it was supposed to be really good!

Back into the car and the prospect of another 4 hours down to Eilat through a baron desert wasteland inhabited by a few Kibbutzers, (who in hell would think "wow, this is a nice place let's move here" is beyond me but some were eaking out a meagre existence from the limited resources available) and some very delapidated and closed tourist attractions which with the battering sandy wind looked more like the sets from a Mad Max film. It was interesting to look across to my left for the whole journey and see Jordan again rising from sea level into pink mountains.

Most tourists visting Eilat would arrive at the grandly titled Eilat International Airport. The runway is a few feet from and parallel with the road in and the aircraft skim the tops of the highest buildings in the town before plonking onto the tarmc at the last second. This is pretty intimidating when driving into the town and you see a jet bearing down on you. The other downside is that the town smells constantly although in varying degrees of aviation fumes.

I found eventually, the TIC and got some details of hostels. Next door was a travel agent who got me a good deal on a b & b but it was near the bus station which put me off so I booked into the youth hostel which was very well located, well set up and very very cheap. The reason for this was that not only was I sharing a room with a complete stranger I was actually sharing a double bed with him- that's what they do in these places so I moved in and waited to see who my roomie would turn out to be. As it happened Guy was very nice and friendly, Israeli he had recently come back to his homeland after splitting up with his Irish wife one Kathleen O'Malley. He described her as crazy, I asked did she have "red hair and green eyes?" He said "yes, how did you know"- he obvioulsy hadn't met many crazy Irish women before. The downside, apart from sharing a bed with a bloke who hasn't even bought you a drink was that he worked on a seafront stall selling tribal jewellery until about 1am, then after a few beers which is only natural he rolled in about 3 am and slept until about midday. I on the other hand wanted to sleep at about 11pm and be up and about at about 7am- which meant we would interupt each other sufficiently to ensure very little sleep. I decided to lash out the extra 7 quid a night making it about 11) and have a room to myself, which was very nice, maybe I'm getting old!