Israel

5 April

We had a 100 minute flight from Athens to Tel Aviv. Somehow it took 7 hours!

At the airport, we had allowed extra time for El Al security procedures which turned out to be very quick. The aircraft which was to take us arrived into Athens a bit late, but took over an hour to turn around. We were wondering why this was taking so long, until we saw all the crew, cabin and ccckpit, strolling on to the aircraft with all their duty free shopping! It seems that getting the flight back on schedule was a lower priority than the crew shopping.

I heard an irate Israeli passenger ask the girl at the desk about our departure time, which was 1145. He said "Is that today or tomorrow?" Brilliant, I thought.

The flight was fine, and Tel Aviv airport has been completely rebuilt in the 20 years since we were there. Customs procedures took a while, but we soon arrived at the hotel, and met up with John & Bronia and Amy, and Linda & Mark. After dinner, Geni & Peter arrived, so the whole group was together for the Israel adventure.

6 April

On the bus and on our way at 0800, with our guide Aidel, a friend of Sylvia's, who we had met a few weeks ago in Melbourne, when she was there for a wedding. The bus was great, just the right size for us and all our luggage, heading south towards what is called the Salad Trail, which is a Moshav, a commercial farming venture, which grows vegetables in what is, in reality, a desert. Our guide, named Peter, turned out to be the uncle of our vet in Brighton! Really!

He was excellent, keeping us entertained with stories of the history of the place. The use of drip irrigation and other techniques, including recycling water for the plants, and then recycling the recycled water again, produces prolific vegetable "gardens", which we walked around and through, sampling the produce as we went. They don't sell any of their produce, but instead take groups such as ours for tours, and charge a fee. They take 45,000 people a year through the Moshave, which is about 7 km from Gaza, and about the same from the Egyptian border.

Peter told us not to worry if we heard explosions, that, in fact they would be coming from Egypt, which is in the process of clearing a kilometre wide strip along the border, eliminating terrorists and tunnels as they go, which, of course, the Israelis are very happy about.

The rainfall in the area is around 80 ml per year, which well and truly qualifies it as a desert.

Peter told us they have a local beer called ISIS! He asked us what we thought its motto was; Peter (our Peter) said, "Knock the head off this one" which broke us up. He was actually pretty close, it is " The beer to blow your head off".

Part of the history of the area involved the original kibbutz, a little closer to the Egyptian border, where, in 1948, 39 people with minimal weaponry, faced off against a 1000 strong Egyptian army. Eventually, running low on ammunition, they used the most reliable system of communication, carrier pigeons, to send for help from Tel Aviv. The supplies did arrive, but were dropped too close to the Egyptian lines. The Egyptian general, who happened to be Nasser, made the mistake of trying to encircle the Jews, and finally failed in his attack.

In the process, 8 of the Jews were killed, and to commemorate that, carrier pigeons are kept at the Moshav, and the tourists release them, and they fly around for a while then re enter their cage at their leisure. We all were given a pigeon, and released them on cue.

Next on our agenda was a visit to Makhtesh Ramon in the Negev Desert. Makhtesh is a Hebrew word, which is used world wide to describe this phenomenon, which appears to be a crater, 40km long and 9km wide, but was formed by millions of years of erosion, rather than a volcano or meteor. Prior to checking out the information centre, Amy and Elly climbed over the safety fence to the edge of the cliff and Odid some Toyota jumps for the cameras - most out of character for Elly, who freaks out near cliff edges.

We then filed into the restaurant and managed, without any difficulty at all to order about 3 times as much food as we could eat.

They have an excellent information centre, the first section of which is dedicated to the memory of Israel's first astronaut, Ilan Ramon, who loved the area and flew over it often as an airforce pilot. They had a movie of his training and actual flight on the shuttle Columbia, which broke up on re-entry. Later, his son, who followed his father into the airforce, was killed in an air crash.

The next section was a video dedicated to the wildlife in the Makhtesh, which is fairly prolific, but much of it nocturnal.

Driving from the Makhtesh to the hotel on the Dead Sea, the children were starting to get a bit out of control, spotting non existing animals, and generally arguing about how to connect iPod music to the bus speakers.

7 April Ein Bokek on the Dead Sea

On the bus for a 30 minute drive to Ein Gedi, for a hike up to a waterfall, an unlikely scenario, given that the hike, which took a little over an hour, followed a narrow valley, with the only trace of water being a small stream at the base of the valley, the rest being stark, dry and almost treeless. You can elect to walk to the waterfall along the stream, but Aidel suggested the track above the steam. Bronia was tempted not to try the climb, but finally decided to give it a go. She was greeted with applause as she reached the falls - well deserved.

We expected large crowds at the waterfall, but not so. Only a few others were there. We all had a dip in the falls pool, which was great after the walk in the heat, and we dried off on the walk back to the bus.

Speaking of crowds, we had picked our time well, because, on the way back there were hundreds of people climbing up towards the falls, it must have been jam packed later in the day. This is holiday season in Israel, with us being here for the Passover week - this means lots and lots of crowds at every site, no bread, no beer, and no various other things.

Back at the hotel, all the troops were determined to float in the Dead Sea. I wasn't so sure, because last time I did that, it was agony. My crappy skin! I didn't have any infections, but was still a bit dubious, so I gently waded in, and sure enough, I got the message; my skin and the Dead Sea are mutually incompatible.

All the others had a great swim, and I stayed ashore admiring the view across the sea to the hills of Jordan on the other side. Afterwards we smuggled some gin, vodka, and various other goodies onto the beach for a group Happy Hour.

8 April

Today was the day to visit Masada, which was only 20 mins north from our hotel.

For those of you who don't know about Masada, I will give a brief history, beginning during the rule of King Herod, between 37BC to 4 BC. Herod ruled Judea on behalf of the Romans, and was quite paranoid regarding his own security. He knew of Masada, which is a flat topped mountain adjacent to the Dead Sea.

He created an impenetrable fortress there, consisting of palaces, well stocked store rooms, and an elaborate water system, which he used until his death in 4BC, whereupon Masada was used by the Romans as a garrison station until 6AD and then became deserted.

History records the Great Revolt of the Jews against the Romans in 66AD. The Romans wiped out most of the centres of revolution, including the destruction of the 2nd Temple in Jerusalem. During this time a group of about 1000 Jews made their way to the top of Masada and set about modifying the palaces, etc, to provide for their modest lifestyle.

They lived there for about 7 years, until, finally, the Romans came in force to destroy them. There was no practical way for the Romans to gain entry to Masada, so, while they thought about it, they built 7 camps around the base of the mountain, as well as an encircling wall, to prevent any escape path.

Finally, the Romans decided that the best way to tackle the problem was to build an enormous ramp up the western side of the mountain. That ramp is still there today. When the ramp was finally completed, and the Romans entered Masada, they found complete silence, along with the bodies of the Jews, who had decided to commit suicide, rather than live as slaves to the Romans. They had drawn lots as to how the suicides would be completed, with ten men killing their own families, and then the ten killing each other, until the last one killed himself.

As it turns out, 2 women and 5 children were found hiding, and it was through their stories that the sequence was pieced together, by the first historian, Josephus Flavius.

There are 3 ways to get to the Masada, one, less popular is via the ramp, which now has a pathway incorporated, but the main ways are to climb the "Snake Trail", which winds up the eastern side, or via the cable car.

Some of us elected to walk up the Snake Trail, and others took the cable car. Because of the blazing sun, I wimped out and took the cable car. Elly, Linda, Mark, Geni, Peter and Bella walked the Snake Trail, with Mark, who is a masochistic bike rider who climbs 3 mountains in a single day on his bike, was the clear leader, as he cruised to the top with barely a sweat.

Aidel gave us a great, really informative tour of the ruins at the top. It really does concentrate the mind as you walk through ruins, much of which are designated as the original walls as they were found, along with some wall paintings in the bath house section, as to what actually occurred here nearly 2000 years ago.

After our tour, we boarded our trusty bus, and Sergei, our driver took us to Jerusalem.

We said goodbye to Sergei, and also to Aidel, and met our new guide, Mitti.

Our hotel was in a great position, right in the centre of Jerusalem. One of its best features was Happy Hour, of which we took good advantage, on an outside deck area. The Happy Hour was especially good, because the wine was free!

Amy left us, sadly, as she had to be back home for work, but we soldiered on.

The hotel staff marked a recommended restaurant on a map for us, saying that it was a 15 min walk, so Mark was designated map reader and navigator. He did an excellent job, and after much uncertainty interpreting the map, took us to the spot where the restaurant was marked. The problem was, there was no restaurant!

We asked at an adjacent hotel where the restaurant was, and the lady said, yes, turn right and it is on the other side of the road. We obeyed, and after a while, when the map indicated we were way past the restaurant, we were about to give up, but our fearless navigator, who had only recently almost run up Masada and back, volunteered to run back and see if the instructions should have been left, instead of right.

Sure enough, that was the case, and he found the place. That 15 min walk took an hour!

Never mind, the restaurant was great, and we will probably visit it again when we return to Jerusalem later on our voyage.

Elly received a few greetings, starting with son Daniel, who said it was her birthday in Australia, even if it wasn't yet in Israel.

 

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