Eilat for a day

I am two days behind on the blog:) Today is a traveling day so I have much time to write. I will be sending these blogs in the short hop through Israel to Jordan. There I will be off grid again for two days (probably, depends on if they have free wi-fi in the hotel) so those entries will also be delayed. Now without any further ado (and everyone knows, this show has plenty of do) let me tell you about our morning in Eilat.

Had our usual early wake up call, and that morning I struggled to get up. Because we did not have a hectic travel day we had a free morning in Eilat. On the way through the crater I mentioned before we saw much in the way of rock formations and such. I have so many pictures of those from the previous trip that I decided to forgoe the pictures.

We made a stop at a kibbutz that is well known for it's dairy products. Bought some chocolate milk. Very good!

Our options for the day in Eilat were snorkeling, visiting the mall or going to the aquarium. I obviously chose the mall! Just kidding :) I decided to snorkel. I really wish I could have taken pictures of what I saw. The fishes were amazing. The water was very clear. An amazing variety of fish. I even saw an octopus. It was being hassled by two fish and it moved. So I got to see it. Some of the fish came up close enough to touch. I really enjoyed it.



The lifeguard tower at the beach.

From there we went to the border. It was actually quite painless. I was surprised. From there we took the two hour drive to St Catherines Guest House.


It is across the road from the place I stayed last time. The new hotel was definitely an upgrade, but still spartan.


The rest of the day was spent relaxing. There is not much to do in Sinai except visit the monastery, and climb the mountain which would happen the following day. Had my first good nights sleep. More in the next post.

-- Post From My iPhone

Quick entry

Have entered Egypt. Will probably be going off grid for two days. Will submit blog when we get to Israel again!


-- Post From My iPhone

Location:Egypt

Wine in the desert?

The desert. Cruel. Forbidding. A place where new members of the IDF can be tested to the ultimate. A place of harsh extremes, where only the strong survive! A land where vineyards grow... What? Vineyards? In the desert? Well that was the dream of David Ben Gurion, first prime minister of Israel. He wanted to see the desert bloom. Just like in the Bible. He honoured God's Word (at least the Old Testament) although if I understood correctly, he was not religious. What he wished was for Israel to be strong. So today was mostly Ben Gurion day.

We started the day at his house in Sede Boker.


Here we discovered that while Ben Gurion was a statesman he was actually very down to earth. He resigned as prime minister twice simply because he wanted to live simply on the kibbutz in the Negev and make the desert bloom to benefit his country. This is his house.


Very basic. But that is the way he wanted to live. No pretentiousness. He wasn't perfect, but he helped make Israel the country it is today.

From there we travelled to Ein Avdat. There is some connection to Moses which John promised to tell us about tomorrow. We did see water from the rock which is supposedly how Moses did the striking the rock trick. Yeah and I'm the Easter bunny. While this trip has been better on the facts there are some places where weird stuff slips in. More of that later. The canyon we hiked through was beautiful. Makes me wish I had studied geology. From a creationist perspective of course.


I have a few even better pictures on the main camera but I was so tired after the walk I didn't want to take any more pictures. I can still feel it in my legs :) No matter. Good practice for Sinai in two days times.

Food became a priority after that and we went back to another part of Sede Boker to get a bite to eat. I bought snacks and also learnt that it is ok in Israeli culture for kids to jump the queue and push in anywhere. What we would call incredibly rude they consider normal. At that site there was also the graves of David Ben Gurion and his wife.

Our last official stop explains the blog title. We went to a superb wine farm in the Negev. It is run by a family and no machines are used. Picking and sorting and all the rest is done on the farm by hand. The wine there is very good. If they had had any port I would have bought some but they were fresh out of stock. Ah well.


Vineyards in the desert. Who would have guessed it. The farm also has guest houses for holiday makers. The owner tells us that neither the government nor the banks would give them money because they thought he was crazy to start a wine farm in the desert. Well he built the farm up without their money and has been going for 12 years. Did I mention the wine was very good? :)

Then it was back to base camp at the hotel with a short detour to the rim of the crater that Mitzpe Ramon is built next to. We saw a stupid video telling us about all the millions of years and a heck of a lot of nonsense. Not being a geologist it was difficult to pick out the good from the bad. It seems that the crater is formed by erosion.



Back at the hotel I had a swim in the pool and spend some time in the steam room. Then came down to do the blog. Will have to take a picture of the pool if I remember.

So that is all for today. I must say I was really excited tonight when I went out and spotted Orion and Canis Major constellations. And Orion was the right way up. That was so cool!

Tomorrow we go snorkelling in the Red Sea and take the looooong drive to Sinai.

This is Robert le Clus reporting,from Israel :)

-- Post From My iPhone

Location:נחל האלה,Mitzpe Ramon,Israel

In the Negev

I write this from the Ramon Inn. These people think that R50 per hour is an acceptable price for wifi access. They are wrong.

So what did I do today after the last entry? First off I must apologise. No photos. I took a few. But with my main camera. No way to transfer them till I get home. Hopefully I won't forget tomorrow.

One place we visited was Yad Mordeciah. It is a kibutz named after a Jewish man who made a big impact in WW II. He lead a rebellion against the Nazi exteminators. The visit had two parts. We learnt about the history of the place, how the place got started and how it was run. Started with very poor people who got a meager daily food allowance. Was populated with Jewish people from all over the world. However this kibutz was very secular even liberal. The part of the tour I really enjoyed was when we went to the 1948 war of Independance memorial. There was a decisive battle fought there against Egyptian forces. The Israeli forces retreated after six days but this gave the other troops a chance to get ready to win the war which they did! They fought with the strangest of weapons (I have photos) some home made. That part of the tour was really good because I had watched a documentary that included that battle. I have it on my computer at home if you want to take a look at it sometime.

Then we had lunch. Had a swarma and coke for $9. Not cheap. Then off to Be'er Sheva. If you are wondering why that sounds familiar, it's one of the places Abraham stayed in and dug a well there. There are excavations that go all the way back to the time of Samuel. Not to the time of Abraham as he didn't build any structures. We also saw a pagan Jewish altar there. Jewish because it had four horns, pagan because it was made of cut stone and God had said that only uncut stone could be used! The last thing we looked at at Be'er Sheva was a cistern that was dug to store water inside the city in the event of a seige. Man was that thing deep.

Then we were in the bus for the trip to Mizpe Ramon. The town is near the edge of a large crater . The crater is not created by a meteorite and probably wasn't volcanic. Haven't had a closer look yet but hopefully tomorrow.

No coffee included with the meal at this hotel. Incredibly cheapskate if you ask me! Still have one more night here so might have a coffee breakdown :) Just kidding!

It is interesting to note that on my first day of touring I visited no places that I had been before. So it's a truely new experience!

And there was one place where the flash may have been useful. I think I should send someone a bill for every photo I miss!

One final thing before I sign off and get some sleep! In Hebrew the 'b' and 'v' are often switched! So if you switch the 'v' in Be'er Sheva with a 'b' you might recognize the place name better *grin*

Till tomorrow then!

-- Post From My iPhone

Location:נחל האלה,Mitzpe Ramon,Israel

On the way to the Negev

Spent the morning exploring Jaffa. This, for you bibliophiles, is the ancient city of Joppa. This is where Johah went to catch a ship to Tarshish when he was supposed to go to Nineveh. This was also the place where Peter has his vision of the animals in the sheet.

Started the morning early. Called at 5:30. Now you will ask why so early? Well actually it was at 6:30 but Israel is on daylight saving so they are an hour later than we are. So ZA time it was 5:30.

First stop was Beit Immanuel. It is a CMJ ministry site in Jaffa. We listened to a talk on the history of the place which is very German. I recorded this talk but mobile blogging has its limitations and a 100MB audio file would be expensive to upload. There is a beautiful church there.


CMJ has a great ministry to the Jews here and we were told that the attitude of Jews to their Messianic brethern is changing. This is very good news!

From there we went to the traditional site where Simon the Tanner lived. Yes, it was his house where Peter had the vision.



We are now on our way to the Negev. Passed a few Phillistine cities, notably Ashdod. Check your concordance or appropriate software.

The next Phillistine city is Ashkelon


Not much to see but that's what happens when you ride past quickly in a bus!

More to blog later. After we actually stop!

-- Post From My iPhone

Location:Rishon LeZion,Israel

A bad start

So here I am on the plane on my way to Israel. So why am I upset? Well first of all my flash that I spent R3000 for is not here. It's still in Johannesburg. Why? Because I was robbed. Typical Gauteng you say. No not typical. It was taken by Israeli security. Oh they promised to return it. Well honestly I will believe it when I see it. It seems that the laws of a country mean nothing. Anyone with some supposed authority can break the law with impunity. Why didn't I fight it? Well these guys have the ability to stop me from flying at all and in doing so might have cost me 10 times the price of the flash since then I wouldn't even be able to go to Israel. They say I will get it on Friday trouble is that on Friday I will be in Egypt. I bought the flash for use in Israel. There is NOTHING harmful in a flash. Nothing. But no they have to check it more. For what. I love Israel. I pray for their peace. I have great respect for the Jewish people. I hate the way they have been treated through the centuries. I would never do anything to harm them. Heck I am going to be spending a lot of money there and already have. So why would they take my stuff. Should I trust them? Why? They certainly don't trust me!

Yes they need to protect themselves. Yes there are those who hate them! I AM NOT ONE OF THEM!

Will the tour improve from here on out? I hope so. Will I get my stuff back? I hope so. But this incident had certainly left a very sour taste in my mouth. Will I fly El-Al again? Probably not. If that means I never visit Israel again, so be it.

No pictures at the moment. Don't want to provoke an incedent and lose my phone as well.

More tomorrow!

PS: The phone is in airplane mode (no cell, wifi or gps signals). Will upload at the hotel tonight.


-- Post From My iPhone

Testing 123

Downloaded an app for mobile blogging. This will be my blogging outlet while in the Holy Land. So as behooves a software developer such as myself, I need to test to see if it will work!

So this is my first mobile blog entry.


A view from the company office!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Stellenbosch,South Africa