As Mondays have been my day off this summer, and as they have coordinated with Fr. Bob and Deb's day off, we decided on a we adventure for my last week in Jerusalem. We rented a car and set out for the Ramon Crater in the Negev desert. The Crater is not an impact crater, but rather the world's largest erosion circle. It's enormous, stunningling beautiful and when you're down in it, perfectly silent.
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| Ramon Crater |
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| Ramon Crater |
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| Down in the Ramon Crater |
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| Where I sat down in the Ramon Crater |
To really navigate the desert for perfect silence, you'd need 4 wheel drive, which we did not have in our Mitsubishi rental...so when we took a break to sit in the middle of the Crater, we were periodically interrupted by passing cars.
The Negev is no Arabian desert with miles and miles of sand dunes. It is filled with large hills/small mountains of hard compacted sand and rock. The rock faces change frequently, in colour and texture: from PEI-like red, to white and from crumbling rocks to smooth surfaces. And then you can quickly find yourself in a plain.
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| South of Ramon Crater, military operations, roadside. The tank just shot into the mountain, you can see the impact smoke |
After coming up to the Crater, Fr. Bob, the only driver for the day and with no coaxing from Deb or I, suggested we keep driving and head to the Red Sea. I have a large smile of encouragement and onward we went.
There really is very little between Beersheba (mid desert) and Eilat (tip of the Red Sea) except rock and sand, which made for a lovely drive. And as you approach Eilat, the Jordan mountains are on your left, and the city just springs up before you, quite bustling and modern. In fact, it looked a little like Daytona Beach on Spring Break (smaller version). The water was jam-packed, the beach-front hotels are filled with families. And it was ridiculously hot.
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| The Red Sea |
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| Me and the Red Sea |
We sought the comfort of the air conditioned Meridien Hotel, ate lunch, and enjoyed the view of the cobalt blue water against the very close Jordan mountains on the other side of the water.
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| View from our lunch table |
Our trip down to the Sea followed a route pretty much in the middle of the desert. Our route back to Jerusalem follwed highway 90, hugging the Jordan mountains (which we could not see because of the haze) and through the Salt Pans to the Dead Sea, Masada, Qumran and the Jordan Valley. It was a fantastic view as the sun began to set and the light hit the mountains.
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| Between Eilat and the Dead Sea |
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| Rock formations just south of Salt Pans, south of the Dead Sea |
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| Salt, extracted along the Salt Pans |
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| Salt Pans |
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| Between the Salt Pans and the Dead Sea |
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| Along the Dead Sea, coming up toward Masada |
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| Masada |
For a day spent mostly in the car, it was wonderful!
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