Next holiday
This week we had the holiday called something like 'Sukot'. There are a lot of holidays this month (which makes it yet harder to get anything done, but is good if you can do a bit of touring around the country). This one is a celebration of the first few days when the jews left Egypt and started to wander around the desert. Apparently the first 8 days were hard, and were spent in little tents called something like 'suka'. So the holiday lasts 8 days, and people build little outdoor huts and spend most of their time in them, especially meals and prayers and sleeping. it's pretty interesting seeing what people build. The usual hut is a square frame, with sides of anything from plastic tarps, to palm fronds. There is usually a covering on the floor, and plenty of pillows - actually, it's a bit like a cross between a bedouin tent and an ice fishing shanty (with one side missing). My neighbors have strung up what looks like a parachute over their porch and have been sleeping outside.
I've been spending a lot of time in the lab. The bat research is moving along. I'm now as far as I can go until the holiday is over. I'm waiting for some supplies to arrive, which won't happen until after the holidays (postal service is sporadic this week, and the university is completely shut down, including complete shutoff of air conditioning, and mail service). I'm also waiting for some people to return from the holidays so I can use their centrifuge to process the blood samples I've been collecting. So, now I wait, and work on writing some manuscripts, and a large pile of job applications, and try not to get so bored I slip into a coma. The other problem with all these holidays, is that the bus service is pretty sporadic, so unless I can catch a ride with someone, I'm stuck here. Of course, even if I could go somewhere, I wouldn't be able to do anything because everything is shut for the holidays. At least in this part of the country. I'm sure Tel Aviv is different.
I did manage to get out yesterday with Carmi and a visiting bat person. We went into the Arava valley (the rift valley) to make some recordings of bat echolocation signals. We went the scenic route, which apparently used to be the only route between Beer Sheva and Eilat. Wow. The dropoff into the rift valley is truly awe-inspiring, and more than a bit scary to drive. We went down by way of the Aqribbim or scorpion pass, which apparently was an ancient Nabatean route out of the valley, and was later used by the Romans. It's not easy to get out of the valley, so the routes are well worn and ancient. The road looks like there is no way two cars can pass, and it would be a challenge for anything bigger than compacts to do it. The dropoff is basically a cliff with switchbacks on it. It drops a lot, I'd guess maybe 2000-3000 feet, and has about 20 switchbacks. They are so tight that the curves are more than 180 degrees. Looking down from the top, you can see the curves of about a dozen switchbacks - amazing. There was no way to get a photo of this - too grand a scale. The edge of the road was lined with rusted out barrels filled with rocks and dirt. I'm not sure why - there is no way that they would stop anything bigger than a pushcart. On several curves, there was a pile of rusted car wrecks several hundred feet below as testimony to how dangerous the road is. It is impossible to tell how old they were and some could be several decades old because there is no way to get them out. Every time I go to the rift valley, I'm absolutely in awe of the landscape.
After succesfully navigating the Aqribbim, we went to Hazeva, where there is a bit of a research station, and where I hope to be able to collect Uromastyx, if I ever get new permits. The Nature Reserves biologist seems to have evaporated off the face of the planet. No one seems to be able to get in touch with him, and he is supposed to be working during the holidays because a lot of Israelis go camping during Sukot (sort of like wandering the desert for 40 years, only the 8 day version). Anyway, we drove around in an area with a lot of acacias, went 'ooh' and 'aahh' at the scenery and temperature (it's bloody hot down there below sea level), then went to a small reservoir to set up to record bats.
The reservoir looked a lot like a small pond in a park, and had signs posted around saying how dangerous it is to swim there. Dangerous because there is water there, not because of any particular hazards in the water. There was a nice lawn around the pond, and lots of date palms (it's date season here right now). We set up an array of fancy microphones and equipment to record the echolocation calls of bats, and some mist nets to catch the bats to see what they were. Unfortunately, the two car batteries we brought to run the fancy equipment were both flat, so we spent the first half hour of darkness recharging one with jumper cables attached to the car. After a while, the bats came in and cooperated nicely by foraging right in front of the microphone arrays. Unfortunately, there was a very bright lamp lighting the park, so the bats could see the mist nets, and avoided them. The only one we caught was one of the Egyptian fruit bats I've been working on, which wasn't terribly interesting for the echolocation stuff. A few hours of recording and we packed up and went home the less scenic way, which isn't nearly as terrifying as the Aqribbim.
I've been spending a lot of time in the lab. The bat research is moving along. I'm now as far as I can go until the holiday is over. I'm waiting for some supplies to arrive, which won't happen until after the holidays (postal service is sporadic this week, and the university is completely shut down, including complete shutoff of air conditioning, and mail service). I'm also waiting for some people to return from the holidays so I can use their centrifuge to process the blood samples I've been collecting. So, now I wait, and work on writing some manuscripts, and a large pile of job applications, and try not to get so bored I slip into a coma. The other problem with all these holidays, is that the bus service is pretty sporadic, so unless I can catch a ride with someone, I'm stuck here. Of course, even if I could go somewhere, I wouldn't be able to do anything because everything is shut for the holidays. At least in this part of the country. I'm sure Tel Aviv is different.
I did manage to get out yesterday with Carmi and a visiting bat person. We went into the Arava valley (the rift valley) to make some recordings of bat echolocation signals. We went the scenic route, which apparently used to be the only route between Beer Sheva and Eilat. Wow. The dropoff into the rift valley is truly awe-inspiring, and more than a bit scary to drive. We went down by way of the Aqribbim or scorpion pass, which apparently was an ancient Nabatean route out of the valley, and was later used by the Romans. It's not easy to get out of the valley, so the routes are well worn and ancient. The road looks like there is no way two cars can pass, and it would be a challenge for anything bigger than compacts to do it. The dropoff is basically a cliff with switchbacks on it. It drops a lot, I'd guess maybe 2000-3000 feet, and has about 20 switchbacks. They are so tight that the curves are more than 180 degrees. Looking down from the top, you can see the curves of about a dozen switchbacks - amazing. There was no way to get a photo of this - too grand a scale. The edge of the road was lined with rusted out barrels filled with rocks and dirt. I'm not sure why - there is no way that they would stop anything bigger than a pushcart. On several curves, there was a pile of rusted car wrecks several hundred feet below as testimony to how dangerous the road is. It is impossible to tell how old they were and some could be several decades old because there is no way to get them out. Every time I go to the rift valley, I'm absolutely in awe of the landscape.
After succesfully navigating the Aqribbim, we went to Hazeva, where there is a bit of a research station, and where I hope to be able to collect Uromastyx, if I ever get new permits. The Nature Reserves biologist seems to have evaporated off the face of the planet. No one seems to be able to get in touch with him, and he is supposed to be working during the holidays because a lot of Israelis go camping during Sukot (sort of like wandering the desert for 40 years, only the 8 day version). Anyway, we drove around in an area with a lot of acacias, went 'ooh' and 'aahh' at the scenery and temperature (it's bloody hot down there below sea level), then went to a small reservoir to set up to record bats.
The reservoir looked a lot like a small pond in a park, and had signs posted around saying how dangerous it is to swim there. Dangerous because there is water there, not because of any particular hazards in the water. There was a nice lawn around the pond, and lots of date palms (it's date season here right now). We set up an array of fancy microphones and equipment to record the echolocation calls of bats, and some mist nets to catch the bats to see what they were. Unfortunately, the two car batteries we brought to run the fancy equipment were both flat, so we spent the first half hour of darkness recharging one with jumper cables attached to the car. After a while, the bats came in and cooperated nicely by foraging right in front of the microphone arrays. Unfortunately, there was a very bright lamp lighting the park, so the bats could see the mist nets, and avoided them. The only one we caught was one of the Egyptian fruit bats I've been working on, which wasn't terribly interesting for the echolocation stuff. A few hours of recording and we packed up and went home the less scenic way, which isn't nearly as terrifying as the Aqribbim.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home