having spent an amazing few days in eilat with my cousin and her family, visiting the city, timna park and the red canyon, it was time to keep moving… we had initially planned on making our way to masada to camp there so that we may rise early and make the climb by foot to witness the sunrise (who needs a cable car?)

unfortunately, when we looked into booking the camping accommodations, everything was full! no big deal really – we ended up taking a room in the city of arad, on the border of the judaean and negev deserts – it offered simple accommodations at reasonable prices.

we left eilat in the morning and made our way northbound along the 90, stopping for lunch and a swim (float!) at the public beach in ein bokek, a resort district on a stretch of the israeli shore of the dead sea. we then retraced our steps for a little while to catch the 31 to our accommodations in arad.

unbeknownst to me at the time, the camping excursion ultimately would have taken us to the same place, as the campground is only accessible by taking the road through arad. that road is the 3199 that leads to the west entrance of masada. it is quite simply incredible – there are not enough superlatives! driving on a freshly paved road through the judaean desert and passing the desert resort of kfar hanokdim in the late afternoon was sublime. but really, ‘les pièces de résistance’ are the views that are afforded along this winding road in the desert: in this case the citadel of masada from a peak i climbed onto from the side of the road.

this photograph can be found in the following gallery: landscapes