The International Bird Observatories Conference 19 was being held in Eilat, Israel so we decided to make an early start by flying in on the Monday before and spending a few days birding on the way. The flight was an early one so it was a 2 o'clock drive to the airport collecting John from Alderney BO on the way. It was a 5 hour flight passing over Greece and the Med before landing at Ben Gurian Airport, Tel Aviv. We went through security fairly quickly and after a short wait, picked up the shuttle bus to the car hire compound. Collecting the car was quite lengthy but we were out and on our way in a Honda that was not quite as roomy as expected but proved adequate.
We were headed towards the Dead Sea on route one until we hit Jerusalem, where we got lost and spent some time driving round and round Mount Scopus. Using the GPS on the phone, we managed to work our way out back onto route one where we stopped at a roadside cafe and sampled the local Falafel which was very nice and filling.
As we drove east we had our first sightings of Ring-necked Parakeets, *** By the time we got to the Dead Sea it was dark and we headed for Ein Gedi, expecting to find a selection of hotels but there was nothing. At the point where the road went to Metzukei Dragot the road was closed and the road man put his hands across his chest and told us to go back. Fortunately, before we'd turned round he said, 'Road open' and waved us through after removing the barrier.
The drive down the Red Sea was interesting and there was lots of evidence of the recent storms. We were expecting to find accommodation easily but there was nothing until Neve Zohar where there was a complex of large hotels all of which were full except for one room for the three of us at 4000 shekels. The receptionist in the last hotel we tried was very helpful and got us onto Booking.com where we contacted The Lowest Place on Earth who were happy to book us in. We followed the instructions and arrived at a barrier where the watchman let us in, after checking that we weren’t going out with torches looking for birds, and told us to go straight down the road and it was on the right. When we got there we couldn’t see anyone. I phoned through and, apparently, we’d missed a right turn just after the barrier and had arrived at the lower entrance. The owner met us, jumped in and directed us round to the upper entrance. We unloaded and settled in with a cup of tea before turning in for the night.
The drive down the Red Sea was interesting and there was lots of evidence of the recent storms. We were expecting to find accommodation easily but there was nothing until Neve Zohar where there was a complex of large hotels all of which were full except for one room for the three of us at 4000 shekels. The receptionist in the last hotel we tried was very helpful and got us onto Booking.com where we contacted The Lowest Place on Earth who were happy to book us in. We followed the instructions and arrived at a barrier where the watchman let us in, after checking that we weren’t going out with torches looking for birds, and told us to go straight down the road and it was on the right. When we got there we couldn’t see anyone. I phoned through and, apparently, we’d missed a right turn just after the barrier and had arrived at the lower entrance. The owner met us, jumped in and directed us round to the upper entrance. We unloaded and settled in with a cup of tea before turning in for the night.
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