Day 322-323 – 18.-19. March 2014

Day 322: Because of the very exhausting last day I did not intend to go very far. Today the wind was still strong but shifted and was now coming from the north again. The road had a light descending slope, so I was very fast.

After only 25 km I stopped at a big rest area with free wi-fi and I recharged my batteries and updated my blog.

I had time because my intend was to look for a place nearby to spend the night and go to Eilat the next day.

The day before I learned that my friend´s uncle  who is living in Eilat is not home and I had to look for another accommodation. I contacted Marcin, my Polish support and he managed to find a couchsufer for me in Eilat.

While I was sitting at the rest area I met manny people who where interested in my bike. At one point I was surrounded by a group of German tourists who I showed my promotion video and advertised my blog.

After my batteries where recharged I looked for a place for the night. I found a good spot under a tree and pitched up my tent and had a tomato-cucumber salad for lunch. The rest of the day I just relaxed.

Day 323: I was not in a hurry because my couchurfing.org host in Eilat was not home before 3pm and I only had 40 km to go.

I went back to the rest area and spend some time in the internet and at noon I left for Eilat.

The wind was very strong but this time in my favor so I made the 40 km in under 2 hours.

I contacted my host and after a short while I met Ameer.

He is a nice, funny guy who loves to host people in his one room apartment. Ameer had to go back to his school and left me with another german guest of his.

Marika, was about to catch a bus to Ein Gedi and I escorted her to the bus station and talked about our journeys.

When Ameer got back in the evening we took the bikes and he showed me the city. We went to the beach and talked till midnight.

Day 322: 28,71 km  all: 10.197 km

Day 323: 40.61 km  all: 10.237 km

Day 319-321 – 15.-17. March 2014

Day 319: The weather was nice again and I was cycling along the Dead Sea to the south.

After a few km I reached the 10.000km point.

I passed Ein Bokek, a town consisting big hotels only and some shopping centers.

After lunch I continued till the evening. I found a place to camp close to the road behind some bushes.

Day 320: The whole day I was climbing out of the Dead Sea area into the desert and nothing really special happened.

I enjoyed the ride and in the evening I was looking for a shop to buy some food. The last few days I could not find any shop or supermarket so I was running low on groceries.

In a small agricultural village I found a shop but it is open only from 5pm to 7pm. I asked some teenagers where I could camp and they said to camp on the gras right in front of the basketball court.

So I did and was able to go buy a lot of groceries for an unusually low price.

Day 321: After a good breakfast I continued to cycle through the desert. The first 20 km was easy. The road was almost level, the temperature was 25-27°C and the wind was from behind.

After a rest the wind changed direction and was now coming directly from the front. I had to go 20 km through the desert with no place alongside to stop or stay for the night. It was dusty and  the temperature was now 30°C.

The wind was getting so strong that I used my easiest gear and could only go 6-7km/h. I had to take many breakes and after more than 3.5 exhausting hours battling against the wind I made it to a big rest area and a Kibutz.

I asked in the Kibutz if I could camp anywhere but they only had a room in their guest house for 350 ils ( 72€).

I was so tired that there was no way I could go on.

Close to the Kibutz I found a little fenced area with trees and decided to stay there. The next morning I realized it was some kind of cemetery.  But I had a good sleep and nobody disturbed me.

Jordan

Day 319: 60,79 km  all: 10.047 km

Day 320: 61,47 km  all: 10.108 km

Day 321: 59,77 km  all: 10.168 km

Day 316-318 – 12.-14. March 2014

I only cycled 12 km to Ein Gedi and found a public beach where you are allowed to camp. You can take a bath and they have free shower and bathroom. So I stayed three nights.

I met a German couple at the campground and when they left I gave them Elad´s number in Tel Aviv.  Theresa and George stayed with Elad on the boat for one or two nights.

Most of the time I was relaxing. I collected some materials to make my 10.000 km numbers and take a picture.

In the Ein Gedi Kibutz, the hotel had a free Wi-Fi and I could recharge my batteries and update my blog.

The weather continued to be rather bad. Some rain showers and in the night thunderstorms and strong winds.

After 3 days the weather was getting better and I could move on.

Israel

Dead Sea, Israel

Day 316: 12,70 km  all: 9986 km

Day 315 – 11. March 2014

In the morning I had to climb only about 100 meters and then it was going down to the Dead Sea. The descent was from 650 m down to -400 m. It is a funny feeling when you are at sea level and you still have to go 400 meter down.

I stopped in Palestinian village of Yeriho and bought some vegetables and something to drink.

Some teenagers waved and stopped me in order to meet me and look at my bike. They where very interested in my equipment and seemed very nice. After some pictures they finally let me go on. After a few minutes I noticed my watch was gone. I turned around and went back. First they pretended not to know what I was saying, but after I insisted to get back my watch someone went to get it. They said they found it on the ground. I „thanked“ them for picking it up and left.

The border crossing to Jordan was very close. It is a special checkpoint, because it belongs to the Palestinian area and no Israeli citizen can cross here. I read that you can only cross when you already have a visa for Jordan. Someone told me you could cross if you have Jordanian money to pay for a visa.

Before the crossing there is a road-check point 3 km before the border. The soldiers were very helpful but I had to wait for an approval to pass. It was not possible for me to cycle the 3 km so I had to take a taxi. We loaded the taxi with my stuff and the bike was on the roof. After 10 minutes drive I was about 20€ poorer. I had to pay some kind of export tax (37€) and they checked my passport. Then they did not let me go to the Jordan side without a visa.

I got my export tax back and this time I was allowed to cycle the road back to the main road.

It was a nice try. It only cost me 20€ and two hours time 😦

My backup plan was now to go south along the dead sea to Eilat, cross to Jordan in the south and go via Petra to Amman.

I cycled on till it was getting dark. Everywhere I saw sings telling it is forbidden to leave the road and spend the night at the beach.

I went to a Kibbutz and asked if i could stay somewhere. After they denied my request I finally found a place. Not very nice, a lot of stones and the surface was so hard I could not use my tent-pegs. Just as I started to pitch up my tent the wind was getting very strong. I managed to use big stones to secure my tent. In the night the wind was even stronger and a thunderstorm with heavy lightening and rain passed my area. This was the first time my tent really was worth it´s money.

Day 315: 85,72 km  all: 9973 km

Day 314 – 10. March 2014

My plan was to cycle about 35 km to the top of a mountain to spend the night there.

Most of the day I was climbing up the road to the east. I could see the mountain, but there was no way to reach this hill because of all the military and Palestinian areas and all the fences and checkpoints.

I got the feeling that both sides must be really afraid of each other.

So I went on through a Palestinian check-point close to Ramallah and, on the road to the Dead See, I found a place to camp.

It was already getting dark and I cycled more than I planed, so I was happy to get in my tent, make dinner and go to bed.

Day 314: 52.48 km  all: 9887 km

Day 309-313 – 5.-9. March 2014

After almost 6  weeks not traveling by bicycle it was a strange feeling at first. But it took only a few minutes to get back into the habit. It was a wonderful, sunny day and for starters I only had to go about 30 km to a friend of the Berlin guys.

I cycled through Tel Aviv and noticed a big change in the east part of the town. In the center and at the beach you can hardly find any ultra-orthodox people. But I drove through a part where many of them live. They are dressed in black, always wear a black hats, have very long curly hair from above the ears and massive beards.

Ten km to my destination I had a flat rear tire. It took me close to half an hour to fix it and so I arrived at Ilan´s place close to sunset.

Ilan´s wife Hilit and his 3 year old daughter Romi showed me the apartment and we talked till Ilan arrived in the evening.

The next evening they had a barbecue for Hilit´s niece birthday and I got to meet some of their family.

The next two days we just watched movies and tv-shows, went out with the dog and just talked and played with Romi.

Because Hilit workes close to Jerusalem she drove me to a bus station and I could take the bus to the old town of Jerusalem. I visited the Wailing Wall, the Dome of the Rock and walked around the old town.

In the afternoon it started raining, so I decided I had seen enough and went to the bus station where Hilit picked me up after her work.

In Jerusalem you can see a lot of ultra-orthodox people. They don´t work, don´t have to serve in the army and mostly live on other people tax money. Many Israeli want to change this and just recently they changed the law to make them do their military service.

Temple Mount, Jerusalem, Israel

Day 309: 32,16 km  all: 9835 km

Day 296-308 – 20. February – 4. March 2014

The last two weeks I was on the boat at the marina in Tel Aviv. Most of the time relaxing and walking around the city. Tel Aviv is a very nice and active city with many beautiful beaches.

For two days we had some other German couchsurfer with us and one American for one night.

One big project I had to finish:

In North Cyprus I noticed a crack in the casing of my Rohloff speed hub.

When I  had to change the back wheel in Odessa they put the spokes back in a wrong pattern. So it was just a matter of time this would happen.

I contacted Rohloff and they send me a replacement casing to Larnaca. It took only five days and I had to pay only for the shipping. That´s what I call service!

In Tel Aviv I had to remove the spokes, change the casing and put back the spokes. It took only a few hours but I had to find a bike shop to center the wheel.

After Elad made some calls he found a very good bike shop about 30 km outside of Tel Aviv.

I took my back wheel and went there by train, bus and the last 3 km on foot. Milo the mechanic centered my wheel and Eyal, the owner showed me his workshop. He produces his own bike frames and uses only the best components. They are also the only official importer of Rohloff hubs in Israel. (www.chernichovsky.com)

The next day I took a 40 km test drive to see if the wheel was true. A few days later I cycled  to the bike shop to service the rest of the bike. Milo changed the barring of the crank arm, serviced my brakes and I got a new original Rohloff chain tensioner. Hopefully everything is fine and last for the next 10.000km.

my new bike 😉

Tel Aviv, Israel