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| My 10 year old Night Heron was looking beat up and I was embarrassed to take it to the beach so I gave it a new layer of fiberglass epoxy and varnish.Lynn helped me with the work and now it looks as good as new. just in time for the trip from Ashkelon in the south back to Sdot Yam. About 107km to be paddled in 3 days |
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| Wednesday evening we loaded up and drove down to Ashkelon, slept on the beach so as to get an early start in the morning |
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| It didn't take long to load up and get going |
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| The skyline of Ashkelon was lit by the rising sun as we went past |
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| Ashdod marina looked like it may be a good place for breakfast |
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| but when we got inside there was nothing available , no restaurants no cafes nothing at all |
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| so we carried on a bit to the next beach and sufficed with our own coffee and cookies. We decided to eat light during the day to make paddling easier |
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| After the marina we passed the port of Ashdod, there is a very long breakwater |
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| protecting the port, but we didn't see any ships moving at all, they must have been on strike |
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| Just past the port the beaches change to a rocky shelf stretching for miles and miles so we stopped at the last sandy beach for lunch and a rest from the burning heat of the day |
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| Still eating light we had salad and thina for lunch and a nice rest before continuing on to our next stop Palmachim beach |
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| The beach at ashdod was disgustingly dirty with tons of garbage strewn along the coast. what a pity |
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| We arrived at Palmachim in the late afternoon and set up camp for the night |
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| the beach was just under the houses of the Kibbutz, what a beautiful place |
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| While we were getting ready for the evening Yosi noticed a swimmer in trouble getting swept out to sea and ran to his kayak and paddled out to save the poor fellow. |
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| meanwhile we had a meeting with Jack on the beach |
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| After a boisterous night filled with drunken neighbours and kareoke singing all night long, we left early in the morning |
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| Just past Palmachim there is an army base and a firing zone out to sea and so we were a bit wary while paddling past hoping there were no exercises planned for Friday morning |
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| The next landing point was the beach of Rishon Le Zion then Bat yam and then the beaches of Tel Aviv |
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| We stopped in at Jaffa port and had breakfast with Ronnie at his club there |
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| for some it was the first time alighting onto a floating pier, getting back in the kayak was also a bit tricky |
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| Paddling the Tel Aviv coast was a new experience for us |
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| all the high rise buildings and packed beaches with lifeguards shouting at us to stay away from their swimmers made us feel a bit like intruders |
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| The yoga class on SUP was a welcome sight |
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| Yosi tried to participate but didn`t look as good |
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| at least the beaches were nice and sandy and easy to land and launch from |
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| We stopped in for a cold beer at the yacht club in Hertzlia before carrying on to our next camping beach at Gaash |
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| Sunset at Gaash beach and a good place for camping. We made sure that there were no all night parties planned nor any kareoke singers nearby |
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| Passing Netanya Karl showed us where he works |
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| Next stop was Neurim where we stopped for a cold drink and said good bye to Karl |
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| Lunch at Olga just half an hour from home |
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| Finally we made it back to Sdot yam where Hadas, Avi and Omer were waiting for us with a celebratory drink |
