Midnight Rambling #2 - Eilat
Always had a thing for seaside towns. Don't know why or what it is about them. They all have the sea. That must have something to do with it. Even when you can't see it, it's always there. Vast, deep salt water force, constant, changing, always..
little fishing boats, huge container ships, yachts, sailors, pirates...
Sun came up this morning and cast a different light on the scene that left me feeling so bleak last night. Towering rocky mountains all lit up in red. Wind howling down 500 miles of the Jordan valley, north to south and out over the Red Sea, cares nothing for the lives of man, fish, bird, tree, rock or sand. Hard buildings stand defiant, rigid in the gale while palm trees bend to its merciless onslaught. Everything will succumb eventually to the wind and the sea. All will turn to dust eventually.
The people who live here know it too. Even if they don't know it, they know it. You can't not know it in a place like this. Faced with the wind and the sea. Surrounded by bare mountains and miles and miles of desert.
Visit the underwater observatory. Stairs take you down to a place where windows look out onto the silent blue world of coral and brightly coloured fish, all going about their lives unconcerned and unaware of another life on dry land. A world of people and wars and money, desert winds, dust, gravity. They're looking for food while trying to avoid being food for some other bigger fish. Simple life and very colourful. A bit like the life in this city.
Later on the beach, children build sandcastles and collect crystals, shells and bits of coral. Tourists from Scandinavia, Germany, France, sun themselves and pose in the January heat, admiring their bodies, admiring the sea, admiring each other, careless for the day.
Bearded Jews and their headscarf wives talk in Hebrew, walking along side by side with bearded men talking Arabic with their headscarf wives. African, Moroccan, Yemeni, Bedouin, Polish, Russian, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Atheist, man, woman, young, old, poor, rich, thin, fat... Everyone in the world is here in Eilat.
(That is a picture of a shark's egg, in case you are wondering - having never seen one before, as I hadn't until today)
It looks amazing... I can't wait to one day visit Israel ! <3
It's a good place to visit. Living here is another story..
Ah yes I feel you... It's the same with London !
Yes, I know that one too. I grew up in London. Glad you're in a better place now.
Perfect ending. What can possibly top a shark egg?
I haven't made it down there in years! Maybe it's time?
Glad you're enjoying yourself :)
You wouldn't recognise it. I also hadn't been here in years. Maybe it is time. Summer is very hot though.
what is in your last picture?? is it a fish or something??
It's a shark's egg. Amazing isn't it? We visited the sea life centre where they have a section dedicated to sharks. Very interesting. Unbelievable to discover that one hundred million sharks are killed every year by humans. Sharks have been around since before the dinosaurs, but 90% have been wiped out in the last ten years.
The shark's egg is quite strange looking. I thought it was some sort of a dead fish until I read what it exactly was. Eilat seems like quite a nice place and the photograph of it is beautiful.
Yes, it's really strange thing. Not something most of us see every day. Eilat is a strange place too, but it definitely has its charms. This is a good time of year to visit. Most of the time it's just too hot. For me at least.
Yeah Israel is hot so Eilat is supposed to be quite hot too. So you are in Eilat these days?
I live in galilee which is in the north of the country. Much cooler and greener than the south which is all desert. I'm just here on holiday for a few days
Ah right. Cool then :)
I love living by the sea. It nurtures and soothes me.