Jerusalem to Askelon - 10/20/10 - 57 Miles

Fantastic, yet brutal, is the only way to describe the first day.  "Fantastic" because I love being on my bike, and seeing new countryside with every pedal stroke.  Couple that with the fact that I was riding in Israel, and how could it be anything but fantastic.  "Brutal" because we rode in 105 degree heat and 30+ mph headwinds.  To add more insult, the swirling winds kicked up alot of dust.  The Israelis call this weather a "sharav", and it is very rare.  Gee, lucky me.  The only way I survived the day was by drinking water and energy drink.  Without exaggeration, I drank more today, than in any other day in my life.  Luckily, I was aware of the threat of dehydration on a ride through Israel, so I began drinking right at the beginning of the day, and kept on going.  Others were not so fortunate and succumbed to dehydration.  On an organized ride like this, there is a bus called the SAG that "sweeps" the rear of the riders picking up people who are tired and can go no further.  Needless to say, the bus was full this day! 

The ride officially started with brief prayers and the blowing of the shofar.  The bicycle cavalcade than set out from the hotel lead by a police escort.  At 6AM, we almost had the streets of Jerusalem to ourselves.  It was so peaceful riding through a big city with no traffic and few people.  The people who we did see, looked at us like aliens.  It's not every day Jerusalemites (?) see 117 bicyclists streaming through their city at 6AM.  

 

Our ride took us from Jerusalem, in the Judean Hills, to Askelon, an ancient port city on the Mediterranean.  Once we left the foothills, we primarily rode through rolling countryside that has been turned into farmland.  As you ride through Israel, you must constantly remind yourself that this land was once almost entirely desert; that every tree and fertile acre wasn't just nature's gift, it took alot of hard work, typically manual labor.  We have professors from the Arava Institute on the ride with us, and at many rest areas one of them will speak about a social or ecological issue germane to that area.  The discussion that struck me on this day was the fact that in 1948, Israel had almost no trees, and yet as I stood in the Judean hills all I could see was trees.  Mark Twain, on a visit to Palestine in the 1880s, called Jerusalem one of the most desolate places he had ever seen.  In 1948, Ben Gurion, the first president of Israel, vowed to plant 1 billion trees; everyone thought he was crazy. So far, Israel has planted 240 million!  See for yourself the fruits of this labor.

 
After the surviving the morning sharav, and re-energizing at lunch, I rode into Ashkelon.  The sun was just setting, but that did not stop Kurt and me from jumping into the Mediterranean.  Ohhhh, the water felt soooooo good.  The water was a warm as the warmest day on Cape Cod.  After dinner, and a debrief of the next day's ride, it was off to bed.  I needed my energy if I were to accomplish a "century" the next day (100-miles).

One last thing, I love the multi-national feel of Israel.  Although 80% of the people are Jewish, there is still a broad mix of nationalities and backgrounds.  For instance, one of our bike mechanics, Gio, is from Vietnam, and married an Israeli women.  While riding through a moshav (farm), I was struck by this sight.  Renata, this one's for you!