Riding to the Dead Sea

[Karter]

The phone woke me up this morning which was not an easy thing to do. I had spent most of last night celebrating my mediocre dodgeball performance in an after-hours round-robin tournament with about 30 colleagues to include some local nationals. Following the game, I went to my neighbors apartment to help her celebrate Texas independence day and eat her Tex-Mex cooking. Apparently the wrong thing for a native New Yorker to say at these parties is "so I saw the movie the Alamo and wow, you guys had your asses handed to you". Well, following that remark I had to apologize to the Texans and have a margarita, which led to a late night in the city center trying to explain in broken Russian to a novy-russkie bouncer/doorman that some of the Christian arabs that I was with at that point in the night were not in fact Al Qaeda members. So like i said it was a late night and hard to get up this morning. Once I woke up and had some breakfast, I extremely delighted to learn that the sun was shining. Most weekends as of late had been spent working or raining, so I figured why not go for a ride.

I hit the street on my bike and headed West towards to Jericho, the ride out of Jerusalem towards the Dead Sea is on an Israeli controlled highway that leads through the West Bank, down around the Sea and passed Masada, an ancient fortress built high atop a mountain (or something, you can Wikipedia it later). The tricky part about riding a bike like the r1150r is that the roads are way too dusty and have a constant film of fluid and dirt all over them. The abs work fine, but when there's little traction, you're not going to be happy around here. So, I stopped on the way down the hill from J-Town (Jerusalem) at Sea level and thought I'd take a picture. Met a nice man named Assa who makes his living off of tourists like myself who think riding a camel would be fun. Assa lets me take a picture with his camel and I'm off again towards the sea. As I forgot my shorts, I figured I'd take a ride for an hour or so and head back to Jerusalem before sun down, which when I have to be off the road. Anyway I had a nice ride, took some nice pix and thought I'd share them, but I just realized after reading the FAQ that I can't post them without first putting them on a publicly accessible web page, arrrggghhhh..... Iowa Beakster gave me some tips on a website (thanks), let's see if this works, if not I can send them out.

I'm off to Tel Aviv tonight as the jewish holiday Purim is being celebrated here. It's like Carnival, only no nudity or beautiful Brazillian girls, but I hear its supposed to be fun anyway. The ride to Tel Aviv from J-Town is about 40 minutes, all windy and downhill. Should be fun!!!

Craig

The Road from Jerusalem to Jericho



Sea Level with Boomer



Boomer Looking Pretty



Trade-in Value at the Dead Sea



The Road to Masada



Resting by the Dead Sea



Dead Sea Riding



Dead Sea Resting

[iowabeakster]

oooh, i think i can safely say that we would all love to see pictures.

smugmug.com and Photobucket.com are commonly used picture posting sites. they have basic services available for free.

thanks for the report

[Karter]

Thanks for the info. I went with photobucket. Quick, easy and painless. I plan on riding around a bit, so I'll have more photos to add.

Craig

[DJ Downunder]

Great pictures Craig...and beautiful looing bike..

DJ

[OU812]

LOVE the camel! Did it spit?

[R4R&R]

I love visiting these unique places in our world shared by people with a common interest. Because of your post, I learned more about the Dead Sea, and enjoyed your pictures.

Thanks!

[iowabeakster]

thanks very much for taking the time to post.

Awesome! Like R4&R says, it is great to see places that we may never get a chance to see in person.

keep 'em coming.

[Biff's R]

How does the R run at that low of an altitude?

[Karter]

I haven't had any problems riding the R at low altitudes. Jerusalem is on top of a mountain and I try and take opportunities to ride down to Tel Aviv and the coast when I get a chance, so I'm constantly running up and down the hill. The roads as I said are covered ina slight film of dust and grime and sand. The winters here are mostly rain from November through February, so the add the wet roads to the sand and the powerful R engine and you can spin out if your not careful, which makes those windy mountain turns a little menacing at times. The only physical damage issues I've had so far were shipping it here from NY. The seat was torn by a ratchet/buckle strap taht was tied over it and like an idiot, I forgot to unplug the battery and the clock wore it down. Luckily I had my battery charger and was able to plug the bike in after walking it through a hallway and sticking it halfway into my storage closet. Of course that's after I removed most of the side paneling and started to take off the tank that I remembered I had an exterior plug to the battery, (dohh!).

The other issue I just developed looks like a possible small oil leak. I'll have to check the level this evening. Any guidance? there's a BMW shop in Tel Aviv, about 45 miles away and I should still be under warantee, anyone know if warantee's are honored internationally?

[socalrob]

Thanks for the posts Karter. Its easy for us over here to forget that normal people have normal lives in places like Isreal. Sounds like a great life. Ride safe!

[Just-Beeming]

One of the best things about riding is that we can all share a common bond
yet we can enlighten each other.

Thank you for sharing your pictures from this exotic place.

I will remember your social tips as well,

[hirsty]

One of the best things about riding is that we can all share a common bond yet we can enlighten each other.

Thank you for sharing your pictures from this exotic place.

Weird isn't it? The Pacific NorthWest & Los Angeles seem pretty exotic to us in Europe... I also have envious moments whilst looking at DJs beach pictures, or Gypsys pool too (in February, when it's raining). I'm able to ride my bike almost every day year-round outside London, but some others are still snowbound - weird.

Floating in the Dead Sea has to be one of the Top 20 things you've got to try whilst you're here - amazing.

I guess the important thing is to not take for granted where you happen to live - we can't help but get used to it, but to others it's a whole new world.