Last update - 00:00 22/06/2007
48 Hours in Eilat
Israel's southernmost city is rich in nature and scenery, but finding a good place to eat can be hard.
By Ronit Vered
Noam Weiss is graced with strong hands that gently handle fragile bird legs, a relaxed, patient approach to novices, and a Zenlike tranquillity for dealing with bureaucracy and organizations out to destroy the ecology. Only when he brings his jeep to a screeching halt and performs an odd hopping dance while chasing after three fluffy Stilt Bird chicks, candidates for banding, are we reminded that ornithologists are a strange breed.
On the surface, they look just like ordinary folk. Their flashes of mania become apparent only when you get close to wastewater treatment pools, the main habitat of birds and bird-watchers. When migration season nears, they enter a deep trance state and start making wild gestures like compulsive duck-counting, imitating the hoots of owls in heat and chatting obsessively about the winter warbler.
For thousands of years, the Eilat salt flat, a salty stretch of ground that absorbs humidity, has served as a way station for migrating birds. Eilat is the farthest point that birds migrating north from Africa - a 3,000-kilometer nonstop flight - can reach before having to stop to rest. The hotels, restaurants and salt factories we've built have taken up the space the birds used as a rest stop, and threaten not only the local ecology, but also that of the birds' countries of origin and destination.
The birding center is trying to cope with the circumstances by building small artificial lakes, by planting vegetation to replace that which was covered by concrete, and by monitoring the situation closely. And as an ad-hoc immigration police, they don't shy from such prosaic tasks as organizing public transportation to take 40 kilometers farther north the bee-eaters that each spring wipe out the local apiarists' hives.
You don't need a bird flu-like mania to enjoy the fascinating tour of the International Birding and Research Centre or to be thrilled by an encounter with Trumpeldor, an endearing amputee falcon doomed never to take flight again, or with Barbara, a Royal Buzzard who arrived at the center's hospital half-blind and with a palm thorn embedded in her brain.
At the salt pools, another important bird-watching site, you can watch Royal Jordanian airliners, looking like paunchy Orca whales, climbing slowly into the air against the backdrop of the red mountains; you can also see flocks of pink flamingoes, ducks, plovers and titlarks, as well as amateur birders trudging around with telescopes that could double as space-exploration equipment.
The International Birding and Research Centre in Eilat, by appointment only, 052-3377714 or 050-2112498, www.birdsofeilat.com. Salt pools - free entry, guided tour recommended
3 Fish
Fish enthusiasts have the same messianic fervor as bird enthusiasts, but luckily for them, most of their rites take place in the shadowy undersea depths. The National Center for Mariculture is working on intensive breeding to replenish the world's dwindling fish supply. The fish are bred in environmentally friendly seawater pools, which are being used in place of fish cages, and whose biological purification systems include algae, clams and other marine life forms. It took 25 years to crack the secret of domesticating and breeding the sea bream (denis). They've been working on the grouper (lokus) for 18 years and have yet to succeed, and are also attempting to domesticate the mullet (buri). This is generally an inexpensive fish, but the ovaries of its females are considered a delicacy that can fetch as much as $200 per kilo.
The National Center for Mariculture, 08-6361400, tours by appointment only, www.ocean.org.il
4 Mountains
Eight-thousand-year-old burial mounds were discovered in the mountaintops surrounding Eilat. Many millennia ago, people would trek through the desert in order to lay their dead to rest in a place where they could enjoy the view. Nowadays, their descendants reside in dreary gray housing blocks. It's easy to forget the great majesty of the Eilat mountains when you're inside the city, but just 10 minutes away are beautiful routes for jeep trips and unique natural landscapes. Tour guide Colin Porter leads small groups to observation points overlooking ancient geological formations, and along the ancient pilgrimage route to Mecca and to the peak of Mount Yehoash. There, the view on a moonlit night makes the tour guide get carried away in a bout of uncontrolled romance, which culminates with a marriage proposal on bended knee.
Dromit Desert Tours, 08-6374773, 054-5487332
Organic food
Keen on saving the earth and all its creatures, we went to Sumsum, the only organic center in Eilat, which has a shop that sells natural products and a small restaurant whose chefs are women from Kibbutz Samar. Two years before, we'd had a wonderful meal here that made us wholeheartedly believe in the organic myth that says health food, with the coarse and natural flavor of its raw ingredients, can compete with the finest culinary pleasures. We remembered organic tehina that had a marvelous nutty taste, roasted eggplants and tomatoes with sage, and a fresh little salad seasoned with lemon slices and flax seeds.
This time the tehina was on the verge of fermentation, the brown rice-stuffed vegetables were frozen on the inside and came on a bland mountain of quinoa, and the natural fruit ice cream was so sour it was inedible. Saddened, we went off in search of some roasted animals.
Sumsum, 3 Midian Street, 08-6342111
Plain old food
Before they cross deserts, birds must eat huge quantities, and then their digestive and reproductive systems become dormant so that the nourishment is converted into fat. It is impossible to eat in flight in any event, and mating would also be an impossible luxury. This efficient trick ought to be copied not only for crossing a wilderness, but also for staying in loud, tourist towns. We didn't have any trouble letting our reproductive systems lie fallow (Contrary to the prevailing belief, Eilat can be an immediate turnoff). The digestive system, however, which sends us traveling to the ends of the earth like birds, proved that the physiological structure of our winged friends is much more advanced, and led us again to be tempted by the flashing lights of the tourist traps.
Olé, a chic bar-restaurant that opened two weeks ago, is apparently called a tapas bar in order to entice romantics to dream about small and sexy Spanish-influenced appetizers coated in olive oil and Mediterranean herbs. But most of the meat, seafood and fish here is served in heavy cream and butter sauces; "crispy" cauliflower in aioli and anchovy sauce turns out to be mushy cauliflower in mayonnaise; and the chorizo sausages are purely commercial.
Josephine, which also opened this past year, is called a bistro - another word that sets gullible taste buds salivating. The grandiose white-themed decor is not the least bit reminiscent of the modest and practical simplicity of such eateries in other places. Nor is any simplicity apparent in the kitchen - we were left to wonder why the meat in the carpaccio had to hide underneath such a surplus of truffle oil, sweet roasted peppers and a huge mound of sprouts. And some more questions: Where did the little bits of grit that accompanied the levrek fillet with hazelnut gnocchi come from? And why not clean the pickled shrimp served on a bed of Waldorf salad more thoroughly?
Olé, at the front of the Bell Hotel, 08-6325566; Josephine, 3 Ayalot Street, 08-6323787, www.josephine.co.il