|
It has to be said that Eilat is odd. That's not to take away any of its magic but rather to add to it. Just eleven kilometres of Israeli coast, wedged between Jordan and Egypt, is Eilat; a bustling strip of coastal development that's called The Arab Riviera.
Eloth was its original name, meaning 'tall trees'. We stayed in the rather lovely King Soloman Palace hotel which is owned by an Englishman called Lewis (in fact he owns five of the hotels in Eilat!). King Soloman did in fact set up base here, or very close to what is now Eilat, and called his town Etzion-Geber from where he exported his copper all over the world.
Eilat is such a small place that there is very little point in me explaining where different attractions or sites are. The fact is you are never more than ten minutes away. Towards Egypt is a silly little wooden town built for the sole purpose of making movies. They did actually make six movies here, the most famous being 'Trinity' with Ben Tracey. At the top of main street in 'cowboy land' you will find a camel safari company. These trips are great fun but rather long (three hours or so) and camels are not very comfortable!
Just up the road from the western film set is Coral World, which is a real life coral reef. Everything inside has been gathered from the Red Sea. Everything within the display is only kept there for a few weeks and then returned to open water. The sharks are worth a look, as is the under-water observation post.
Moments away is Dolphin Reef. This is a must and not to be missed. They have nine dolphins there, five adults and four young ones, who were actually born there. The great thing about this study area is that the dolphins come and go as they please and only do tricks if they want to. The crowds gather to watch at feeding times but if the dolphins (the smallest member of the whale family) don't want to play, they will simply eat their fish and disappear, as they did when I was there.
On the other side of town near the border with Jordan we found a palm tree plantation. From the age of five these palms produce dates, making 100 kilos a year. By the time they are twenty they are ten metres high and no longer produce enough fruit, so they are re-cycled. The tree, which has a large onion shaped root, is moved and planted next to swimming pools or beaches etc. This region is also the big growing area of Eilat. In twenty years they have turned the desert into a big crop production area, mainly using re-cycled water (so it is a bit smelly!).
Eilat is a favourite centre for bird watchers, and with good reason. Most European birds fly south via Eilat as it's a good stopping off point before flying down the Red Sea. It therefore comes as no surprise to learn that Eilat has an international bird watching centre which is run by a marvellous man called Dr Reuven Yosef. Reuven took us out to the desert and up Mount Yoash, where on the 22nd May 1994 he saw just over 180,000 Honey Buzzards in one day. From there we moved on to Timna National Park which is so impressive it makes the Grand Canyon look like a crack in the pavement.
|
|
