David Sokol Photography: Days 14 and 15 - From the cold of Jerusalem to sunny Eilat

Greetings from Eilat. Israelis call this place the Israeli Riviera but to me it's more like Israel's Las Vegas by the (Red) Sea.

Yesterday we waved goodbye to cold, windy and wet Jerusalem (yes, it really started to pour as we were packing up the bus to hit the road). But an hour or so along the way the weather started clearing and once we'd made our first stop, in the middle of nowhere to get fuel for the mini-bus and stretch our legs the rain had cleared and it was warming up. Yes, we've swapped the big 43-seater bus which worked when we had 39 people touring to the small 15-seater now that there are only 10 of us heading south. There is no talk on the bus about the fact that two missiles landed in Eilat last week so I wasn't going to start that conversation. The biggest talking point is the fact that the staff at El-Al and Israel's two internal airlines have gone on strike. Since all the group, except me, is flying out tomorrow night or Wednesday morning and all of them are booked one of the three airlines there is much hectic emailing going on to their travel agents! The talk is that the airlines are out until at least Wednesday to make a point to the Government about the Minister's decision not to increase subsidies to allow greater price competitiveness. The airlines want to attract more patrons on the Israeli carriers without compromising the high levels of security but need Govt help to reduce their prices.

As we're heading down Highway 90 we make a quick stop by the road-side to look at a rock formation (& there are a lot of rocks around here - we're in desert country) called Lot's Wife, a symbolic memory of Lot's wife turning to stone (ok, so you have to use your imagination a bit when you see the rock to "see" the picture!)

Our first real stop of the day is Timna Valley Park - a copper mine from Egyptian times. Uri says that this is the Israeli Grand Canyon because the valley was formed millions of years ago when the rivers flowed through the area. As the river levels dropped the path of the river and the erosion that the water caused in the rocks created this valley. We look at three different rock formations (remember, this is desert country - lots of rock formations!) - the lizard, the mushroom, and Solomon's Pillars. This last site is actually a formation of three now-dry waterfalls.

We drive on into Eilat. How strange is this - the town has established itself as a free trade zone and doesn't charge sales tax on any purchase so fuel, clothes, and food are all much cheaper than anywhere else we've been. On the outskirts of town and overlooking Jordan's airport we spot Israeli missile launchers, armed, just back for the road - this is the first time we've seen any military presence since we've been here.

We drive through town and on to the Underground Observatory Marine Park where see ........ fish. Ok, we saw some sharks and turtles too, but mainly we saw ........ fish. After an hour of looking at ......... fish, we get dropped off at the Dan Panorama Eilat for our two night stop-over. Seven of the 10 of us are staying there. So they get us all to fill out the registration paperwork, they scan our passports, they take imprints of our credit cards .... all the standard stuff. Only then they tell each of us that they have a surprise for us ..... they have no rooms for us (didn't they know that up front??). The good news is that we're all being upgraded to their 5-star hotel, the Dan Eilat, for the two nights. The beachfront promenade is divided into two halves with a lovely bridge in between. Basically we've been moved from the "plebs" 4-star end of the promenade to the posh 5-star end, and judging by the types of shops on both halves there IS a difference!!

The Dan Eilat is superb and we feel almost embarrassingly out of place here. Unlike our experience at the Crowne Plaza at the Dead Sea there seem fewer Russian-speaking Israelis here and more Hebrew-speaking Israelis. Breakfast is on until 12:00pm - a dangerous thing when I'm around! I stay for over an hour at breakfast but manage to sample less than a quarter of what's on offer! I must be losing my touch. Everyone else on the tour is off to Petra today. I had already decided that I preferred to have a rest day today and knowing that I'm spending it in 5-star comfort makes the decision feel even better.

We return to Tel Aviv tomorrow afternoon after stopping at three places on the way and that's where the tour will officially end of those of us still on it, and then the rest of the week will be mine to spend on my own before I fly out next Sunday.