Timna Park and Eilat

As I sit here back Blipping, Britain is allegedly about to have its hottest day in recorded history ... however, where the pics of my blip were taken, these temps are just a regular day.

We were lucky that Sivan’s friend Naama was also staying with them as proved to be an excellent tour guide! It’s not what she’s studying - she’s going to be a doctor like Sivan - but she has an interest in these things. She’d just been in the Sinai, around St Catherine’s Monastry ( more rocky desert ), calling to see our mutual hosts on the way back to her studies in the north of Israel.

So, Timna Park is an ancient copper mine. It is also rather warm there, so we went early to avoid the stupid heat that cranks up in the afternoons. We were back in Samar for lunch, then Sav and I headed off down to the tourist town of Eilat.

My favourite place is the underwater observatory, where you can descend down under the Red Sea and watch the fish and corals that naturally hang out around the observatory building sunk below the sea. It’s how I want my bedroom to be!

Then we drove a little further down the coast and used the snorkels that Sivan’s uncle had lent us - “ you can’t come all the way down here without snorkelling “. Amazing to see some of the fish we were looking at from the observatory just swimming around us!

Back to Samar for a dip in the pool before dinner. Jeez, this is the life!