2024 was not an easy year... and probably that's why you haven't seen something very big appearing here at the blog.

The year was mainly defined by the trauma of the October 7th, 2023 Hamas attack to Israel, which started a war that nobody in Israel wanted, which continues until this very moment. And I can say that the whole country is still stuck at the October 7th event and will continue there until the last of the hostages returns home.

In practical issues, the very North of the country with its forests and the mid-South (the area surrounding Gaza) with its deserts, two of Israel's most beautiful regions, were closed military areas, making them completely unavailable for any kind of leisure activity. Actually the whole North of the country was dangerous due to the Hezbollah constant shelling, so we needed to give up on motorcycle tours in these areas.

The solution that could be left for Israelis for having a vacation would be travelling abroad. But then most of the international airlines fled the country and stopped operating here until the shelling ends, out of insurance concerns among other reasons.

Anyway, there were some events that I can comment here, so let's try to summarize this year as best as I can.

(DISCLOSURE: I am NOT a Ride Vision employee, have NOT received any sponsoring from them, and bought the system in question here just as any regular customer. This article and the video published by me are the result of my enthusiasm with a system which can actually save lives of motorcyclists).

​Many years ago, in 2008, a system called Mobileye was launched onto the market. Mobileye targeted avoiding accidents with cars by using a camera at the front of the car and a strong image interpretation system for accident prediction. They did that by interpretating the video from the camera to warn the drivers that they were either too close to the car in front of them, or inadvertently diverting from their lane into another lane. These systems are today part of all the modern cars, and are active systems since they come from the factory in the car. 

At that time, in my condition as a technology writer with my own website, I was invited to the launch, in which we also had the chance to drive a car with the system installed on it in a closed circuit in which some obstacles were placed in strategic points. Thrilled with the technology, my first question was: "When will this technology be available also for motorcycles?". The response was quite disappointing: "Not on our radar. A motorcycle is a completely different beast, there are all the handles of inclination, and we are not intending to deal with this."

Fast forward 10 years, and a new company called Ride Vision (https://ride.vision) was founded by two riders, Uri Lavi and Lior Cohen, doing exactly what I asked Mobileye in 2008 - bringing safety technology to motorcycles. I was introduced to their technology by a friend in 2021, and loved it, but at that time for some reason I did not install it on my motorcycle.

Last July (2024), I decided to install it, and then I understood what I missed for 3 years. So, I decided to draft this article.

OK, 2024 was already here, and it was time to take a vacation.

Our friends, Louisa and Shmil, were unable to participate for personal reasons, so this time we decided to go alone. The destination chosen was Sicily in Italy. 

After some verifications, we decided that this year the trip would be by car, mainly for two reasons:

1. My wife Lily wanted a time-out from motorcycles this year.
2. I was informed that the driving culture in Sicily might be a little dangerous for motorcycles, and that the roads are not always in the best conditions.

So, I planned a trip of 9 days, including flights, which included:

• 4 days in Catania, with tours around the place (Mount Etna, Taormina, Siracusa and Caltagirone, and some exploring of Catania itself)
• 1 day in Milazzo, including a 10-hour cruise to the Aeolian Islands
• 3 days in Palermo including a tour through the west of the island
• 1 day of return to the Catania airport in order to return the car and fly back home

In the continuation you can read about the trip, see pictures and short videos from it (which were not necessarily included in the full video), and at the end, see the full video of the trip.

​One comment, if you aren't looking to read the full article and just want to learn some little things about Sicily, jump to my conclusions in the end.

Well, there was ONE beautiful road in Israel which was not mentioned in any of the articles in my "Riding Israel" series: Road 10.

The reason for that is simple: this road is not open to the general public most of the year. The army only opens it on some of the Jewish holidays.

Road 10 is 181 Km of length, and it runs from the very South of Gaza strip to the Sayarim Junction in the South, which connects it to Road 12 to Eilat. All the road runs in parallel to the Israeli-Egyptian border.

The road is closed most of the year to the general public because of the activity of very violent smuggler gangs in the Egyptian side of the borders, who sometimes open fire on the Israeli army or people in the border to be able to get in and smuggle drugs and arms into Israel. However, during the Jewish holidays of Passover, Sukkot, and the Jewish New Year, the army takes special security measures and opens part of the road for public visitation. And yet, although it is only a small part of the road, it is the most interesting part, with the best views and a stunning geography.

Geography

The following is my Google Timeline from yesterday, when I joined the BMW Motorcycle Club for a visit to Road 10:

The part of Road 10 that is open to the public is marked in a red rectangle. The rest is the 200Km in each direction that I did to get there.

​If you look at this from a closer perspective, this is how it looks like:

I open my eyes and see myself at Ben-Gurion Airport. Trying to understand if it's true. Just yesterday I was marrying my son in Kfar Saba, and now I am here drinking an ice-coffee with Shmil in our way to Germany.

Yes, this is true. This is how things came out. In the afternoon next to the wedding, we were at the airport travelling to Germany, and in our maps and agenda the 100-year commemorative BMW Motorrad Days, and a tour through part of the North of Germany and West Czechia for 12 days.

Introduction

Hello again, my fellow readers and riders.

During the last months we have been talking here in a series of articles that spread the details of riding the different regions of Israel. The regions covered were:

1. The Western Galilee
2. The Upper Galilee
3. The Golan Heights
4. The Lower Galilee
5. Jerusalem Heights and Jerusalem
6. The Dead Sea
7. Eilat, and getting there
8. The return from Eilat to Tel Aviv

With this post we are going to conclude the series "Riding Israel", with some logistics details that would be required when planning a trip to Israel.

After crossing the country from Tel Aviv to the very North of it in Metula, and then South to Eilat, now it is time to take our last itinerary in the country, the one which will take us back from Eilat to Tel Aviv.

Thus, this is our last itinerary article - and I will write one more article after this one talking about logistics details.

Our journey will be only in part the same route that we used to get to Eilat. We will begin through Road 90 until we get to Kibbutz Lotan, where we will take a left to Road 40 to Mitzpe Ramon. From Neot Smadar to Mitzpe Ramon we will be at the same route that we took to the South, just in the opposite direction. After we arrive to Mitzpe Ramon, we will take a completely different path.

We have already covered many parts of Israel (read our previous articles for that), and we finished our last article at Ein Bokek at the Dead Sea.

Today we will continue moving South, in the direction of the Arava Desert and its capital, Eilat.

For regular tourists, travelling in cars, the most straightforward way to get to Eilat from Ein Bokek would be travelling straight down Road 90 until you get there. But this is a straight and boring road. Instead of travelling in the straight way, we are going to pick the beautiful and interesting way.

There are many things to see on the way to Eilat, but since they are not so close one to the other and we want to get to Eilat on a single day, we are going to divide them between our two trips, the trip to Eilat and then the trip back from Eilat to Tel Aviv. So be patient, and we will cover all the possible visit points in this area.

So this is the way we will do today:

The idea is to follow alternate routes to Road 90, finding interesting places to see, interesting roads to ride, and specially arriving to Eilat from the mountains, one of the most beautiful sceneries to see in Israel. Nevertheless, the initial kilometers in our trip will be through road 90, since this road is the road that goes along the red sea.

Well, we have already done the North of Israel, including the Western Galilee, the Upper Galilee, the Golan and the Lower Galilee. We have also visited the Jerusalem Hills, and also taken our time to visit Jerusalem, the end of our previous article.

​Today we are going to visit one of the most visited areas of Israel: The Dead Sea and the desert of Judea.

Hello again!

At this point we have already ridden the Western Galilee, the Upper Galilee, the Golan Heights and the Lower Galilee. I will leave the Tel Aviv and Central area to the end, since they are not really riding, but rather commuting - in most cases you will be riding in cities or main roads.

So today we will ride the Jerusalem heights and Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is 66 Km from Tel Aviv if you take the main highway to get there. However, if you do that, you miss beautiful places and sceneries that you wouldn't want to miss as a riding tourist. So, we will extend our trip to a ride of 98 Km with stops on our way through interesting places, which are worth the visit, travelling through beautiful and twisty roads.