11/11/17: Our last ride day
Posted 11/11/17
Our Last Ride Day
Monday, our last ride day, began with 6:30 am breakfast. Debra wanted to do a shorter distance so she stayed with the Shomrim group. In the morning they took a bus and toured Timna, a geological park with ancient temples and copper mines and then visited the beautiful Solomon’s Pillars. That group then joined all of the participants for lunch at a mountaintop above Eilat.
I wanted to bike a bit more, so I rode with the middle group, Tzofim, that put on 50 miles. We began biking in the morning on the back road to Eilat, past the Ovda air force base along the Egyptian border.
We ate lunch near one part of the Egyptian border fence. At the end of lunch, Levi, the Bar Mitzvah boy, blew the shofar to bring us all together just before we began our descent down to Eilat. There were still a couple of steep hills to climb, and then a stunning ride down to Eilat where we ended the ride on the beach with a wonderful party and were given medals at the finish.
We are grateful to have made friends with some of the alumni from the Arava Institute who rode with us on the trip like Alma and Matan. Also, we enjoyed getting to know the Bar Mitzvah boy, Levi, and his family. The ride and experience is more than we can explain in words or pictures. Hopefully you have been able to get a taste of it. We will continue to send blog entries as we can and look forward to sharing our adventure upon our return. For now, enjoy the “ride”!
David and Debra
