Negev Desert, Israel

On the way back from visiting David's uncle Oded in the desert, we finally put in a couple of good days on the bikes. We passed by the tents and shanties of bedouin villages on the way to Be'er Sheva. We admired the herds of goats and camels and met this one by the side of the road. Apparently Hannah didn't have anything good to offer him. Hard to guess his tastes--if you look too close at the photo you see he was nuzzling around the grass under the decaying remains of another camel that ended up as roadkill.

We needn't have worried that bicyclists on the highways would be a strange sight in Israel. Pedaling down from Jerusalem we first crossed paths with a sunburnt Australian wearing a keffiah who'd bicycled from China. He'd been on the road for two years and we were the first cyclists he'd come across. Then, in the afternoon, we met up with about a hundred lycra-clad roadies from Tel Aviv. They told us cycling has really taken off in Israel in the last ten years.

Oded's Jeep tour business is booming--check out his tours at http://sabajeepeto.co.il/index.html.