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photo page 26 |
The Aloe Vera from Anneke's garden is doing well in its pot on the balcony. Spring is apparently in the air, as it suddenly sprang
three buds. We wonder what they will show..... |
Wow! three little buds, almost touching the ceiling. The color is a soft tone of yellow, en before the flowers actually open, they
bend down and seem to wilt. Only then the stamen will show, and Sonja noticed one day a kind of bumblebee visiting the flowers, using
a kind of retractable sucking tube. A sticky substance is leaking from the flowers, so that will be quite a treat! We never knew
Aloe Vera would give such beautiful flowers, but now we see them everywhere in Eilat!
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Rain is rare in Eilat, but just after returning from Holland, we get some bad weather. The design of the apartment clearly did not
take rain into account, and the water pours unto the floor. |
Unusual sight: wet streets glimmering of rain. That night brings some very harsh weather: storm and rain, and a few hundred
kilometers to the west, the ferry Al-Salaam Boccaccio 98 capsizes on its way to Egypt, carrying 1400 passengers. Only 400 survive. |
Eilat even makes the Israeli TV news: heavy rains in the Arava. All the water from the valley and the mountains passes through a
little canal to sea. Near the border terminal with Jordan, it crosses the road through 3 sewage pipes. No problem, as they are
almost always dry. Not this time: the pipes cannot drain the water fast enough, and in no-time the border terminal and all
the agricultural lands of kibbutz Eilot are flooded. |
Herons are wading in between the palms, and thousands of onions are scattered in the fields and hanging in the fences.
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The end of the canal, where it flows into the sea, has changed into a giant mud flat.
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The mud on the canal banks is ploughed with vehicle tires. Clearly, the jeep owners have had a ball, in the mud in stead of
the dry desert. Shauli???
Well.... yes: he ruined his jeep by getting water in the engine, flooding the cabin and also the motor management computers that
are situated underneath the dashboard. Over 3000 euros of damage, and still lucky, as landmines were found all around the flooded
area and the canal, from a mine field from the previous war with Jordan. Next trip in the desert again? |
This is the road to the bird sanctuary. Or rather, was..... |
Another bridge over the same canal, also too small. The verges of the road are completely gone, and pipes and cables are
hanging in the air. Someone mailed us a power-point presentation with some professional photo's of the flood itself:
flood.pps (2,3Mb). |
