A week has gone by and another stack of bits and pieces to talk about have piled up with some really great stories but I don't have time to do them all justice on here and I am not sure who reads this at the moment so I'll just write a skimmer.

I wanted to write about the Caesarea and Hoff Habonim last time, great places if you are ever here. Ceasarea has some fantastic ruins built out into the coral of the Mediterranean sea AND

* The town was built by Herod the Great about 25-13 BCE as the port city Caesarea Maritima. It served as an administrative center of Judaea Province of the Roman Empire, and later the capital of the Byzantine Palaestina Prima province during the classic period. Following the Muslim conquest in the 7th century, the city had an Arab majority until Crusader renovation, but was again abandoned after the Mamluk conquest. It was populated in 1884 by Bosniak immigrants, who settled in a small fishing village. In 1940, kibbutz Sdot Yam was established next to the village. In February 1948 the village was conquered by a Palmach unit commanded by Yitzhak Rabin, its people already having fled following an attack by the Stern Gang. In 1952, a Jewish town of Caesarea was established near the ruins of the old city, which were made into the national park of Caesarea Maritima.* Pulled from Wikipedia….

Hoff Habonim is an awesome beach camp secluded off the bitumen with some good snorkeling away from Eilat in the South. I saw my first squid there and about twenty or so fish species, cooked up some Kebab and pita on a coal bbq and had an all-round great night.

I have hired a car a couple of times lately which makes life easy, though something is up with my bank account and their billing to the effect of about a grand and I don't remember crashing so I have to sort that this week. Anyway the hire car has also allowed me to get to sites this week including the Ramon Crater, which is like visiting mars., if you are interestedhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makhtesh_Ramon

On the same trip I went to visit the Ramat Negev Desert Agriculture Centre and thanks to the experience of organizing student field trips managed to negotiate a private tour and get a sneak peek at suspended hydroponic strawberries, Goji berries and tomatoes under brackish irrigation, sometimes above EC of 4. Interesting research into suitable varieties and then also research into the particular varieties including effects of salinity on skin thickness, taste and shelf life

Heading into summer the car companies are demanding a three day hire minimum too so to fill in the time (tough I know) I also spent a day at wadi qelt and En Prat which includes amazing desert and a stream full of fish not a half hour out of Jerusalem. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wadi_Qelt

We also spent some time in Palestine yesterday in Bethlehem to be precise but what was going to be a quick trip blew out to be a good tale so maybe I'll sit down and write tomorrow night. I think it's about time I put something here about the food and drink next time too… I could put in a bit on language too (I know all the important swear words now) anyway I'll have a think about it. Hope you are all grand.