Blogs from Eilat, South District, Israel, Middle East - page 3

So I'm not actually in Eilat, I'm on Grofit, one of the kibbutzim along highway 90, that cuts through the Arava valley of the Negev. The kibbutz itself is only where I live/sleep. I work at the Hai Bar חי בר which means "wildlife" in Hebrew. It is part wildlife refuge, part national park, and part zoo. But all the animals there (except for this one random specie of parakeet) are from the region of the Negev, which is pretty cool. There are Fennecs, Sand Foxes, Jackals, Ostriches, turtles, Spiny mice, snakes, owls, leopards, hyenas, hiraxes, bats... I could mention more but I think this gives the idea. Working in a zoo is a dirty job. It involves a lot of cutting up/preparing food for the animals, feeding them, cleaning crap and cleaning old food and ... read more

The title of this blog is inspired by a divingcenters slogan. In our last day of the first star course a photographer joined us in two dives. The picture he took are amazing! The first dive that day was to the Satile: - The Satil is a sunken navyshipwreck. - The deck is on 18 metres depth and the bottom of the ship is at 24 metres. - 18 metres was the furthest we went during our first star course. In the second star course we went to the Satil again only this time we swam at the bottom of the ship and we entered one of the mashinerooms. - The Satil was beautiful, really breathtaking. - The Satil was sunken 20 years ago for the purpose of a new diving site only. - During our ... read more

I spontaneously decided to go to Eilat with three of Roees friends two weeks ago. We bought bustickets and left at midnight. The busride is five and a half hours from Haifa to Eilat. We arrived there very early in other words. Our first diving lesson started at 9 in that same morning. I first completed a one star diving class, which allows me to dive down to 18 metres. The course lasted for five days starting with lectures and movies in the morning and ending with dives in the afternoon. In the first three days we did a lot of excercises under the water like taking off our goggles under water and putting them back on, emergency excercises in case you run out of air or loose your regulator etc. During the first course I ... read more

So, after fourteen hours of traveling from NY to London to Tel Aviv, I am finally on Kibbutz Ketura, and it is AMAZING. From my room I can see the mountains in Jordan (the border is only three miles away). The kibbutz has around 140 members, a pool surrounded by mountains, tennis courts, soccer field, an algae farm which produces algae that changes color based on its stress level, date palm tree fields, experimental orchards, horses, camels, cows, and sooo much other stuff. On the five hour drive yesterday from Tel Aviv to the kibbutz, we stopped at מכתש רמון (machtesh ramon) which is the largest crater in Israel and one of the only three of this type of crater in the world, all of which are located in Israel! Tonight we are going to שמורת ... read more

I got up late today, did some laundry, and basically just chilled out until about one. I guess you could say that I am trying to conserve energy for tonight. At about one thirty I went to the reef beach with Ruth, Rafi, and David, and we rented some snorkel gear and took turns snorkeling over the reefs that are right at the shore line. They are incredible! I saw yellow coral masses that probably weighed twice my weight. They looked like big brains. I also saw teeny purple coral mounds, black urchins with spikes at least a foot long. You probably think that I am exaggerating, but I swear, they were HUGE! And there were fishes all over the place. I swam through schools of them and they just parted around me. It was soooo ... read more