Eilat - January 12th - 14th, 2012

Our annual trip to Eilat

We made our way south to Eilat on Thursday afternoon.

Some of us met at Shipudey Hatikva, near the Dan hotel. The food was OK, the service not so much.

On Friday morning, after a late breakfast (the dining room opened late), we drove to the beginning of our hike in Nachal Shlomo. While the drivers were taking the cars to the end of the route, a group of Eritrean refugees/migrant workers walked out of the mountains. They army was there waiting for them, gathered them up to be taken for processing.

We started our hike going up the hill and down the other side, where we met a few more soldiers. They had our guide sign the register.

We continued down the hill where we passed various items belonging to the refugees. We found some Ethiopian money and a journal, in English, that someone had left behind.

After going through a lovely sandstone canyon, we came to the Tzafra pass, where we tested our crawling and 'thinking thin' skills. Luckily, everyone made it.

The other side of the pass was Nachal Gishron. We turned left, and continued down the wadi.

There were a few mildly challenging descents along the way, where we had to help each other.

After about an hour, we arrived at the Gishron Ascent which was quite steep, but not too long. This Ascent was created because the natural path goes over the border to Egypt at this point.

At the top of the ascent, we stopped for some lunch and then continued down to the Rechav'am Bowl. We turned right, where we should have turned left, and continued down Nachal Rechav'am.

When we arrived at the end of Nachal Rechava'am where in spills into Nachal Shlomo, the guide realized his error, and we had another kilometer or so to walk back to the cars.

We were lucky that a ranger drove by just as we were getting into the cars, since he took some people back to our starting point, so we didn't have to go back and forth too many times.

We all arrived back at the field school in one piece.

We went to the, now traditional, Friday night dinner at the nearby Orchid Hotel.

On Shabbat, we did various things, and met back at the Field School for Seuda Shilishit, and then made our way north.

On the way we saw the remains of the floods on the road.

Thanks to Judith for organizing the hike, the drivers who got us to Eilat and back safely and had a difficult off road drive, and to Gabi, our guide.

Pictures:
Gadi's Pictures
Hiedi's Pictures