Sat 23 December 2006   (Chanukkah VIII)

I packed my luggage into the car at 6:30 in the morning as usual, and began the journey towards Eilat and the Red Sea, which are 150 km south of Mitzpeh Ramon. The highway number 40 went first through Ramon Crater, and then through numerous other valleys, until it joined highway 90 on the low plains of Aravah Valley, along the border of Jordan and Israel.

At 8 o’clock I arrived at Yotvatah Chai-Bar zoo, which is located 40 km north of Eilat. The place was not open yet, so I continued to Timnah national park 10 km further in the south. Also Timnah park was still closed, so I drove back to Yotvatah and waited until the zoo would open at 08:30. Meanwhile I took a few panoramic photos of the region, which has plenty of low vegetation concentrated in funny humps on the sandy ground. It remained unclear to me how much of this landscape is natural and how much is manmade.

Visiting a zoo is rarely a happy experience for anyone who understands how lively and enthusiastic the animals would be in freedom, compared to the sleepy and meaningless boredom in captivity. I took the risk, and bravely entered the gates of Yotvatah Chai-Bar zoo — ready for the worst. The worst was not to be seen here, however. The animals were generally more lively than the average residents of an average zoo.

Taking a good photo of the leopard below proved to be very difficult, because the animal was constantly in movement. Also a pair of jackals were actually running in their small cage, which is quite rare activity for any large animal in any zoo. (More commonly they just sleep and eat and sleep.) Later on I realized that my timing for visiting the zoo had been fortunate, just before the feeding hour. After a good lunch these predators would turn into the usual sleepy zoo kittens — also in the wild.

After an hour of zoology I continued to Timnah, where I explored the rocky landscapes and ancient copper mines for another hour. Then I continued driving towards Eilat, and took this 180° panorama of Aravah Valley just a few kilometers north of Eilat. (The Red Sea and the beach hotels of Eilat can be seen on the right edge of the photo.)

Two female students were waiting for taxi at a bus stop along the highway, but they were also trying to hitch-hike to save the taxi money. Their gamble paid off as I stopped my car, and they called the taxi company to cancel their reservation. The students were travelling to a study center some kilometers south of Eilat, and fortunately I was heading for Coral World yet further south, so this became effectively a free taxi ride.

I arrived in Coral World at 11:50, and this tourist attraction succeeded in entertaining me for nearly two hours, including a glass-bottom boat ride along the coral reef, numerous aquariums, and a sea-themed movie with seats moving and shaking in unison with the action in the movie. As I walked past a family of tourists, the small children were begging to leave the place and go somewhere else, but the mother replied sternly: “For this price we should spend the whole day here.” Welcome to the world of capitalism, little ones... you will learn that sometimes money talks in mysterious ways.

The next three hours I spent exploring and photographing the beaches of northern and southern Eilat, mainly in the regions of New Lagoon and Coral Beach. Then I checked in at Aviv Hostel, and relaxed for two hours in my room. (This proved to be another low-budget hostel with a good price-quality ratio, having hot water in the shower and a television in the room. Neither of these are available in many places in the same price category.)

At 18:20 I entered the King’s City, a large theme park that contains mainly science-related tricks for schoolchildren and teenagers (while I had expected a more historical theme, for the same age groups though). Some historical entertainment was available too, enough to entertain me for two hours. A three-dimensional movie about ancient Egypt was shown in an auditorium with shaking seats, which also sprayed air or water on the faces of the spectators, when the three-dimensional figures in the movie seemed to nearly touch the audience or splash water on them. The air spray was a nice effect, but the water spray was rather pathetic and certainly uncomfortable for many.

After the visit to King’s City I finished the day with yet another show with special effects, watching the Alien Adventure film at the IMax 3D theater. Having seen two movies in shaking seats during the day, it was a bit disappointing to be sitting still for 50 minutes in this 3D theater. And unlike the historical and educational movies in Coral World and King’s City, this film had no reasonable theme or message. I still prefer the traditional movies and movie theaters, but some 3D shows would be nice variety from time to time — if you also give me the shaking seats.

At 22 o’clock I was back in my hostel room, tired but quite diversely entertained. The trip meter of my car showed 1550 km, of which 280 km had been driven today.