thurs 3
th. may: Packed my 45 L + Salomon backpack with a down sleeping back, mosquito net, 3/4
Therma A rest mattress, a few t-shirts, extra shorts,
towel, toothbrush+ past, sunglasses, a few extra tubes and tools money passport and digital P
entax camera + lens and left Tel
Aviv for a 4-days bicycle tour that would end up in
Taba the
Sinai, Egypt. I
decided to travel very light without my
Ortlieb front - rear
panniers, which I have been travelled with in Asia. Only my
Ortlieb handlebar bag for
camera and a
MSR drome 6 L bag placed on the bicycle frame close to the front tire.
Around 13:00 I left busy
Jaffa, Tel
Aviv and bicycle from
Jaffa Old Hostel to Jerusalem street and south towards Bat Yam for taking the fast road out of Tel, to get a feeling off being on the road. Went on
road #20 south passing
Holon and went into road #4 south for heading towards
Ashdod,
Ashkelon and Gaza. I only had 4 days to reach
Eilat 365km from Tel
Aviv so I
decided not to get on the small trails or roads but keep to the bigger roads in the beginning. 35 km south I passed
Ashdod and
decided to get off the very traffic road #4 and went left on road # 232 at
Nitsanim, to
Hodiya and
Giv'at Junction and continued south for another 20km, passing a few
Memoral monuments on the way and ended up in
Sderot. Went left on road #34 south towards
Beer Sheva, passing a very green landscape and farm country. Road became #25 the Beer
Sheva road that goes through the town. Passed the market and stopped to buy some bananas for my
further tour south. Stopped at a shopping center just outside Beer
Sheva to buy some water. Here I had a flat tire and I had to buy a 15" ranch for taking the back tire off, due to it didn't have a quick release. I was lucky that there in the same neighborhood was a
Citrone sale shop and here I bought a key for
NIS 20,- (USD 5 )so that I could continue with out waisting time for finding a ranch at the market. So around 30
min. later I was on the road again and took #406 to get out of Beer
Sheva, where I found a place to sleep. A kind of green house close to the road, where I made camp.
Went into #40 some kilometers south, in the direction of
Mitzpa Ramon. Passed
Sde Boker, Ha-
Tsinim cliff and around 88 km later
arrived in
Mitspe Ramon.
On the way south I was running out of inner tubes but was lucky to buy some pads at a rental store in
Mitspe, even though the shop was closed. For
NIS 10,-(approx. USD 2,5) I called the owner and a guy came to open the shop, which was closed due to
Sabbath. before
Mitspe I met a Israeli, who was going to bicycle in the crater and he told me about the shop. The first road into the
industrial area before coming into town and the first left. In the same area you will find one of Israel's best known dance companies,
Adama and a very nice place to sleep for
NIS 80,- per night in a kind of
Bedouin camp. I didn't have time to stay there but had something to eat in the same area and continued south on road #40 going down in the amazing crater, all downhill very nice. I didn't bring enough water or food and was slowly running out but was lucky to pass a kind of plant where and
israeli/
arab was
guarding and asked for water. He was even so kind to get me some cold water from his
frezer and a cup of tea. I continued south and past and area where
two
English guys some years ago got attach by
arabs and there is a
monument for them on the way up the only mountain from the crater and
arrived at the junction
Ne'ot Smadar where I had to make a
desition either to continue on #40 or to take the longer road #12 through mountains before reaching
Eilat. Due to I was out of food and needed a sandwich I took the #40 down to #90 where I found a shop in
Yotvata. Got on the bicycle again and bicycled the last 50km to
Eilat, past the check point where soldiers were sitting, so I stop some distance away and called them so they would not take me for a
suicide bomber attacking them on a bicycle with bags full of explosives. They were very nice and
laughed when they heard that I have been bicycling from Tel
Aviv. From the check point I could really see the
siliuet of the big hostels in
Eilat that are different than the ones on the other side of the Golf in
Aqaba. I was in
Eilat at around 15:00 and went to the
ATM machine in town and got something to eat and was heading for the border to Egypt, which is another 9 km. I was just going to cross into Sinai, so I didn't need a visa, only to pay the Israeli exit fee of
NIS 67.50 and entry fee of LE 46,00 to get into the Sinai.(around 1:1 compared to the Shekel) To cross with the bicycle was no
problem no signing papers or alike, but went to the Israeli and
Egyptian custom just to be sure.
In
Taba I bought some bread and cheese and went a bite south on the beach and tried to settle in but was told to leave so I went more south when I have
decided not to bicycle down to a camp close to
Nueiba, which I in the first place had
decide to go to, another 40km. I didn't have the time, due to I have
promised to be back in Tel
Aviv Sunday. I found a nice piece of beach for myself and put out my sleeping bag and mattress and fall asleep under full moon.
Next morning I woke up early and packed my stuff together and bicycled back to
Taba Village
and was surprised how easy it was to cross the border not to many questions.
At the Israeli border I had to take apart the bicycle ,wheels off due to they wanted it through the x-ray
machine to make sure it was not a bomb. Went to the bus station at 8:30 and bought my ticket back to Tel
Aviv including my ticket for the
bicycle so
NIS 65,00 +
NIS 32,00 and another 5,5 hours until I would be back in civilization.
Long distance buses would
alowe you bicycle on the bus for around half price, so instead of bicycling up hill back to Tel
Aviv I took the easy way.
