Weekend in the desert

Friday morning we drove south to Ein Advat, a national park located in the middle of the Negev desert, between Ber Sheva and Mitzpe Ramon (by Sde Boker kibbutz). We were lucky to have a sunny Friday and we enjoyed the almost empty park throughout the afternoon. It is located in a deep canyon where a small stream flows.


It feels like an island of life in the middle of a hostile desertic environment. It reminded me all the post apocalyptic movies like Mad Max where you always find a settlement of survivors hidden in a green canyon in the middle of the desert. Well it could be there. We were the last out of the park, which let us meet a few not so wild ibex (some kind of local mountain goats).


We then drove through the large crater and stopped a few times before sunset to enjoy the scenery. We were stunned by the size of the petrified trees laying down by the gravel road, somewhere lost in the crater in the middle of coloured sands.


We spent the night over at kibbutz En Gedi, by the dead sea. On Saturday we hiked in the En Gedi park, following streams of water this time in the deep valleys of the Judean desert. The weather was not as nice as Friday but we enjoyed the fresh atmosphere. We also had the company of a rock climber ibex that did a skill demonstration just for us, while we were playing with marmots.
The pictures are on Zenfolio as usual, but for now the En Gedi ones are missing (I've been slacking I know).

Winter sun in Akko

We spent this saturday in Akko with Alex, visiting from Oregon. It was a nice sunny and windy day. We enjoyed the view from the walls and in the harbour before relaxing with a narguila playing sheshbesh. The light was really great, I took most shots in the market, but my favorite for the day is this one:

Rust and Blue

Rosh Hanikra

On a sunny Friday afternoon we drove north to the Lebanese border to visit Rosh Hanikra caves. There is not much to say besides the site is beautiful, and that I did lots of pictures of which you can find a sample on Zenfolio.

Ski in Tignes

This is pretty representative of our first week into 2008. Ski, Snow and Sun.

Happy New Year 2008