71 Masada - Eilat

20. Feb 2010

The morning after landing, I went with Shlomo to explore the Masada rock. The place where more than 900 Jews had taken refuge some 2000 years ago under the pursuit of the Romans, and where they – after resisting a siege for months - finally ended up taking their own lives rather than being captured by the Romans, who built a ramp to scale the walls of the fortress.

Again I had a very knowledgable man in Shlomo, but even better, a friend of his, an expert in the history of Masada, took us on a free tour of the site. Very impressive indeed! 

After some hours walking around in the ruins, and a visit to the museum, we were off to Ein Gedi, because I wanted to experience the feeling of swimming in the Dead Sea. Well swimming, as it turned out is not quite possible. The only way is to lie on your back and float. It was a strange feeling.

Then it was time to hurry back to the airport, because I really preferred to get to Eilat in daylight. Again Shlomo was an indispensable help. He was unsure if I would be allowed to fly to Eilat without him accompanying me – but he knows a lot of people, so he managed to arrange, that I could take off on my own – but not before I over the phone assured a Traffic Controller, that I would not land in Aqaba, the Jordanian airport  right next to Eilat.

With the written documentation, that I had landed on the lowest lying airfield in the world, I took off, and after circling the Masada Rock a couple of times flying VFR, I climbed to 7000 feet and flew IFR all the way to the Eilat VOR. Then I did the whole VOR runway 03 procedure, before landing at sunset.