After a very early start to the day, a climb to the top of Mt Sinai and more driving through the wilderness of the Sinai Peninsula, we finally arrived at the Border Crossing going from Egypt into Israel.
Out first instruction before leaving the bus – make sure you go to the toilet before going through Immigration on the Egyptian side !!
Our second instruction – make sure you don’t leave anything behind.
We dutifully did as we were told – which in hind sight was very well we did.
After our tour guide talked nicely to the Egyptian official, Hamish was able to get a stamp in his Passport, and we proceeded across “no mans land” from Egypt to Israel. We arrived at the Israeli Immigration and Customs and we had about 10 people in front or our group. Our group of 22 made it 32 people. Just as well we had been to the toilet because it took over 2 hours to get through the challenges of an Israeli Border crossing.
When you think of the security that exists, the country of Israel being continually under threat, you can understand the need for them to be careful. But when poor Hamish fronted the Immigration officials (with Heather) the interrogation was intense!! They had never seen a Teddy Bear present to Immigration before – yet alone with a passport. The official didn’t know what to do – and he had to keep a very straight face. That must have been the rules.
Heather did make a comment that she now understands why it took the Israelites 40 years to get into the promised land. If it took 32 of us over 2 hours to get in, then imagine what would have been like for 600,000 people!!!
We then hopped on our bus and on to our resort just a few kilometres form the Taba Border to the outskirts of Eilat.
We had a great view from our room – we could see the patrol boat cruising up and down the coast in the Gulf of Aqaba.
But the view from our room looking over the Gulf of Aqaba to the Arabian Peninsula in the evening was great looking at the lights of the city of Aqaba.
For more information about Eilat