Day 6 - Red Canyon
Trip Start
Mar 21, 2008
1
6
15
Trip End
Apr 05, 2008
Eilat,
Israel
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
The Hamsin had broken and wind and temperature were now a much more seasonal 16 degrees. That's quite a drop in temperature!! Today we'd take a trip to the Egyptian border. Steffen peed through the barbed wire into Egypt right in front of an armed Egyptian guard on a watch tower. He's still alive to tell the tale.
On the way we observed some wild Ibex mountain goats with their large majestically curved horns (in the males). We'd seen them pretty much every day. But today was special as some of them were actually standing on the branches up in an acacia tree! They are truly avid climbers.
We then hiked and climbed through the eerie narrow Red Canyon
Ibex mountain goats in an acacea tree
. The atmosphere was transformed by Israeli student groups singing deep within the tight chasms with their chants resonating off the canyon walls. The Red Canyon is a particularly narrow squeeze in the course of a wadi. It's probably lethal if you're trapped in here when a sudden winter flood comes cascading through. Eva found some very impressive fossils along the gravel riverbed that are now on display in our living room. Israeli school groups can be found on the go everywhere. They are usually accompanied by 3 armed men per group wherever they go. Guns are abound everywhere in Israel. If you go to a supermarket there tends to be a guard at the entrance with a handheld metal detector. But they seem to let everyone with a pistol pass. So quite a few customers are armed: they would usually be private security forces or soldiers.
Soldiers are also a common picture wherever you go. Israeli men get obligatorily drafted for 3 years, women for 2. During that time even if they are not with their battalion they are required to travel in uniform and with their weapons. So it's a completely normal sight to see a soldier go shopping or board a bus with their Uzi slung across their back. We've even seen groups of soldiers clean the beaches with their Uzis. It's probably a good thing soldiers (and school groups) clean the beaches, because no other Israeli would dream of disposing of their trash responsibly. They have to be one of the most careless nations I've ever been to. Trash everywhere. Even worse than English chavs. Of course I shouldn't be generalising.
