FUN-travel: Holy Land – Eilat to Mitspe Ramon, Israel – Day 8
April 8, 2013 by Susan Clarke
The ABC’s of The Holy Land
A = Awesome
B = Bummer
C = Celebration
Trip Day 62 – Monday, April 1 – Eilat to Mitspe Ramon, Israel – sunny, very hazy, windy in mtns – high 80’s
- 7:00 – wake up
Coral World
- B – no yeast items – still only matzo – I have never been so kosher!
- 8:15 – pack picnic of hard boiled eggs, sliced cheese & matzo
- 8:45 – take off
Moses
- 1st hour – drive consists of flat desert w/mtns on each side, then huge date palm farms
- 2nd hour – wind through mountains
- A – last 15 mins switchbacks to top
- 11:00 – arrive Isrotel Beresheet Hotel @ Mitspe Ramon
- B – room not ready
- 11:15 – drive to Avdat
- A – gas stop – vintage Marine 3 * General Vietnam jeep driven by Moses from Tel Aviv dressed in US military fatigues – too funny!
- 12:00 – Advat – ancient Nabatean city 300 BC on incense route – building remains, temple complex & pottery workshop included – Roman tower, Byzantine wine press, caves & churches added later centuries – 7000 AD earthquake destroyed it
- 1:00 – lunch – Kornmehl – hippie cheese farm (more kosher but actually pretty good pizza w/o yeast – cornmeal & tapioca)
- 2:30 – drive back to hotel
- 3:30 – stop @ Makhtesh Ramon visitor center (next to hotel)
- B – it’s 1 hr on more geology! I need a break!
- 4:00 – seriously ready for room R & R
- C – crater top room is fabulous suite w/balcony – clearly 5 * (the best of the trip so far)
- BB – big bummer – huge sand storm basically creates a white out
- 6:30 – visibility nonexistent
Avdat
- B – internet charge = $7.50 for 1 hr (at least it’s not consecutive 60 mins)
- 7:00 – dinner included – really nice buffet spread of salads, appetizers, breads & spreads – 8 entrée options – ordered lamb & chicken, nice bottle of wine blend
FF – (FUN-fact) – Makhtesh Ramon is Israel’s most spectacular natural phenomenon: a crater 25 miles long, 5 miles wide, with a depth of 1,300 feet believed to be formed more than 500,000 years ago by a combination of tectonic movement and erosion. Some of the fossils and rock formations were created 220 million years ago. The highest peak is over 3100 feet above sea level.
Aqaba