The Negev and tel Aviv

The taxi drive to the Jordanian border crossing with Israel at Acqaba is like something out of an Arabian night’s fairy tale, with spectacular mountains and Bedouin tents along the way. The first Israeli conference for Conservation Science is being held in the small university town of Sde Boker in the Negev, so we walk across the border to Eilat and get our first view of the Red sea. We have a two-hour drive through the Israeli side of the same stony desert and mountains. Sde Boker is near an ancient Nabatean Incense Route way station called Advat (a Unesco World Heritage Site), that connected the Arabian Peninsula to Petra and eventually Gaza (see map).  It is a spectacular site with views across the desert in all directions. The Romans also occupied the site too and built a wonderfully preserved bathhouse.  The Byzantines later built a small town there and grew grapes, adapting the ancient cisterns built by the Nabateans. Apparently Nabatean means ‘cistern diggers’ in Aramaic - the language of the Nabateans. It is so dry here that my lips crack and I am continually putting on lip balm! The weather is beautiful -cool yet sunny as it has been since I arrived in Jordan.

Our last day in the region is spent in Tel Aviv and we have the chance to explore the old port city of Jaffa or Yafo as it is now known. It is lovely to see the sparkly blue waters of the Mediterranean after our time in the desert. The old twisting streets of Jaffa are delightful and we have a delicious lunch by the sea – without saying anything the waiter brings twenty-two delicious dishes of mezze and warm bread – all vegetarian – it is heaven! It has been an amazing trip in the Middle-east and I’m glad I took the opportunity despite the fear of war and terrorism. Now the Washington chapter of our lives begins – stay tuned