Shortly after we arrived here, I had taken a short afternoon walk on the gravel road that goes part of the way up the hill. I took some great pictures from there and, I believe, did a post about it here. That part, of course, is easy, since there's an actual road. Above that, however, there is NO road, and the hill is VERY rugged and rocky, with lots of small, loose rocks under one's feet. There IS a trail (not marked, but still visible), but it's very steep, going up a narrow ridge. In fact, going UP is really the easy part; it's coming DOWN that's a bit more tricky. This is something I'm always keenly aware of as I ascend: how will it be when I'm coming back down?
I arrived at the top quite suddenly and gave a great gasp of joy! The view, of course, is spectacular in all directions. The top of the hill is actually a fairly broad ridge with 3 distinct peaks near the same height. The trail comes up just to the right of the middle peak, so that's where I went first. Here are cropped versions of 3 of the many pictures I took from there.
The first one is the view approximately south-southeast. On the left is the lowest of the 3 peaks. To the right of it, you can see the extreme southeast corner (and newest part, including continuing construction) of the Shakhamon neighborhood (and of the city of Eilat, in fact). Behind all of this, of course, is the Red Sea. The mountains lost in the distant haze are probably in Saudi Arabia, but the more visible ones on the left are in Jordan.
The picture looks about southeast. Now, the lowest of the 3 peaks is on the right of the picture. Our building is barely hidden behind it from here, but you have a fantastic view of our neighborhood's beautiful green strip. The mountains the other side of the Sea are, of course, in Jordan.
Here's the view looking northwest towards the highest peak. You can see the flag on it. In the distance is הר שחמון Har Shakhamon, which is probably the highest mountain in this area (though I'm sure the mountains across the valley in Jordan are higher). It is VERY rugged, but I must investigate sometime the possibility of getting to the top of it, or as near as I can. We'll see...
Next, I walked over to the highest peak of THIS hill, of course. Here's the view from there with the somewhat tattered flag in the foreground. Nevertheless, it waves proudly here, as well it should! Just above the flag you can see the white mountain that I climbed to the top of and wrote about here just a while back.
Finally, here's the view in approximately the south-southwest direction. The very distant mountains on the right are definitely in Egypt. If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you may be able to see a little of a white mountain with a fairly flat top, well to the right of the center. I'm quite sure both that this is in Egypt and that it's the same one we can see on clear days from our מרפסת mirpeset (balcony).
Indeed, it WAS pretty tricky coming down, but I made it safely without so much as even a small scratch on my legs, arms, or hands (I was wearing only shorts, a tanktop, and socks and shoes). I will say, though, that my leg muscles were still just slightly sore this morning.
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