Planet Brompton

Israel – cycling with a Brompton folding bike

Cycling in Tel Aviv: no special pleasure!
Cycling in the rest of Israel: terrific!

We came to Israel from Sinai via Eilat. We already knew a little bit what would expect us.
On our bicycle (world) trip 2009-2011 we already took this way. But at that time not with the folding bikes.
We could actually enjoy it this time so much more. We planned the stages so they were not too long. In the Negev desert we did not want to miss a moment, we wanted to enjoy.

We shimmied from kibbutz to kibbutz until we finally arrived in Mitzpe Ramon at the crater Ramon. In front of us the crater rim, rising steeply. Our last stage in 2019. It’s an evening before New Year’s Eve. On the way up the serpentines we are stopped by a car driver who can not believe it. With a Brompton (he has one himself) can not actually go. But it goes.
And of course we are rewarded with a breathtaking view.

The way up to here!

The roads are super developed. Of course, there is no bike lane, but there is also only little car traffic. This desert landscape is breathtaking and actually you should not believe that anything grows here. But it does. The Israelis are conquering the desert. I don’t want to write about sense or nonsense here.

So we visit different Kibbuze among other things Ne’ot Semadar and Lotan.
So we spend the night in a mud house, learn something about viticulture and even about handicrafts. Oh, much more.
We came by bike, which once again makes everything a little easier. For Israelis, the thought of riding from Cairo to Tel Aviv is as far from feasible as a flight to Mars is for me.

A not really nice experience is when rockets fly over your heads and the firing is practiced.
Large parts of the desert are military territory.
The „friendly desert“ is what they call the Negev, which at 12,000 square kilometers covers about 60 percent of the state of Israel.

So we’ve made it through the desert and our next longer stop will be in Be’er Sheva.
Not a place for tourists, but for photographers :-).
A bit hilly, but that’s no problem.
Otherwise, I can only recommend the place to you if you are interested in architecture.

About the distances!

From Eilat to Mieze Ramon it is only 150km. I don’t remember how many days we were on the road in the end, but the Landschaf impressed me so much that it seemed like weeks.
The next stage to Be’er Sheva was a little more than 100km. Scenically completely unattractive we did that in one day.
From there you can take the route to the Gaza Strip, down to the coast and make a stopover in Ashdod and the next day comfortably cycle in to Tel Aviv. Always along the sea.

The best encounter ever:
A selfie with R2D2!

Finally, we had to go back home to Berlin. We went to the Brompton Store in Tel Aviv, asked for 2 boxes for the flight back and of course they were very helpful and gave them to us.