Magic Sunrise Eilat

... colorful mountains in the distance on either side. Men and women in the towns wore particularly conservative head-to-foot garb, despite the heat (actually, we never saw anyone in anything immodest in the least). Once, we paused while a young boy herded some goats over the freeway, and we often saw signs indicating that one could expect camels to cross. Our driver/guide was surprisingly taciturn, once in while offering a factoid or a place ...

... of Jordan rise across the water into the hazy blue sky. Then it was back to the hotel for an hour by the pool, which is serenaded by Israeli pop over the loudspeakers. The place is called the Prima Music Hotel, so there's a music theme: album covers line the corridors and the lobby; and there are music shows in the evening. After waiting a bit for it to cool, we went across to the street for dinner, finding a great spot literally on the water: a nice, clean beach ...

... and fire pit, and the cooking and family area (where we didn't venture). There was also a small covered corral for the goats and an out building or 2 (the loo?). Water is brought in by tanker truck periodically. A wonderful Bedouin meal was served with pita, hummus, and a vegetable curry - we just broke off a piece of pita and scooped up the food - no plates or cutlery required (my kind of meal!) and washed it down with hot sweet tea that has been heated ...

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... an ancient engraving on the face of the rock. It was an engraving of a person. As legend has it, this drawing is to mark the location of a treasure. Hence, around the site there are several ditches where people have brought bulldozers to excavate the area illegally in the dead of the night. We spent maybe 10 minutes here and then moved on. Our next destination was the top of a large hill. From the top of the hill we held 2 races (one for girls and one for boys) to see who ...

... jostling there is at the buffet. Do Israelis know what a line is? There is so much yelling at each other across the tables and people seem to be having such a good time! Multiple families seem to be spending holiday together. We see one child who is curious, walking around, climbing on chairs, but not yelling like many of the others. Curiosity of kids! As we grow older, does that get conditioned out of us? We are born without fears - fear of ...

... detailed itinerary with our luggage in Eilat! That would have solved everything so quickly! Later, Harvey takes off to talk with Shor and asks him to double check with the Desert Tours office about the reservation time. Shaharut is on a plateau and at sunset we stand and watch the sun set over the desert. The big, wide, open space and the slight wind feel good. It makes you want to take a big deep breath! At dinner, we eat in the big main building ...

... oldest copper mine. It's also the location of one of the earliest copper smelters. Although the Midianites, Romans, Arabs and others extracted copper here at various times, it was the Egyptians who conducted the largest mining operations during the 14th to the 12th centuries BC. The Egyptians used metal tools allowing them to build vertical shafts up to 90 feet deep that branched off to a series of horizontal tunnels. Still ...

... in the air.' Believe me, it's a far cry from Egypt, even if it is only a few km's away. · They use freshwater Noun: freshwater 'fresh'wotu(r) 1. Water that is not salty Hear that Egypt? Yes, they actually have fresh water coming out of the taps here. I swear to Allah, the water spewing from our hotel room shower faucet this evening was pure heaven-sent. It was the first time in a week that we washed with fresh water and it felt good... and we ended up ...

... Nami struck me as a cheerful, friendly teenager, so I was surprised when she told me that she finished her 2-year army service last year. Now she lives on a kibbutz up north. Kibbutzim are popular collective communities across Israel. Nami was born and raised on a different kibbutz, where her parents still live. In the old days, the kibbutzim were different - everything was shared. Her mother didn't have her own clothes or jewelry. No one was ...