The Negev Desert

The guide book describes Mitzpe Ramon as "something out of a science fiction movie" because it looks like a "moonscape". Katharina, a fellow teacher working at Birzeit, and I spent a few days exploring this moonscape this week. It reminded me profoundly of the desert of southern Utah!


 Here are some photos.

1. The sunrise from my apartment on the day we left. 

Katharina, in Maktesh Ramon

Neither of us had good backpacks for hiking.  But neither were we weighed down by the recommended 5 litres per person - that seemed a bit much; though I can't imagine what a furnace this crater must be in the summer.

Sunset selfie. Right after this we reached the road and hitchhiked to the next trailhead. It was my first time hitchhiking - though Katharina did the heavy lifting (of the thumb). The first car stopped. And later on when we hitchhiked back to Mitzpe Ramon the first car stopped again. We're all friends in the desert! The first time it was an Israeli couple, and second time a couple of tourists, a young woman from Nebraska and a young man from Paris. They told us very quietly that they lived in Paris, as if afraid we would question them about November 13th. We didn't. 

There were loads of different rock formations in the same area, a geologist's playground. At the end of our hike we heard gunfire. There are firing ranges near the crater, part of the larger network of military training bases in the Negev. At first I felt alarmed, then I realised, "Ah, it's OK, they're just shooting at targets." But I quickly realised that the gunfire I hear from my apartment in Ramallah is the "real deal" that the new soldiers are training for in the Negev. 

This set of instructions from Lonely Planet is right on. Somehow that doesn't change the level of adventure and possible error in getting of the bus, and seeing the dirt road.  "OK, there's the road. Is that the right road? It's the only road. It must be the right road. Is this is the right stop? Yes, there's Camel Ranch on the sign. OK, but am I sure this is the right road? I don't see the Yam Suf hotel. But that's Camel Ranch - how many Camel Ranches can there possibly be? And in fact this street is paved, it's just dirty." So I waved down a few cars until someone spoke English, and asked, a bit embarrassed at the name, if this is "Wadi Schlomo - because I'm a schlomo, can't hike very fast..." and they told me, yes, this is Wadi Schlomo. 

It is my dream to always be able to hike with my neck bare on New Year's Day! It was beautiful in Wadi Schlomo. Quiet- I was the only one until I came across a group of Americans on birthright. Probably 60 teens, all taking pictures of themselves at the summit as if they were flying off of it. One of them obliged and took the picture below. 

It took about ten minutes, but eventually all the teens continued down to a less windy point to talk about God (I'm not making that up, I heard the speaker as I walked past later). I also heard someone pipe up loudly "How long is this talk going to be?" When they had all gone and I had the summit to myself, I took this picture with the Red Sea in the background. 

As I hiked down the God talk must have been boring because each of the 120 eyes followed me the whole way. Also, the nature of the trail was such that from their vantage point I was visible for about the next two kilometres. I thought "Perfect, if I fall (it was sandy and steep going down) someone will see me and race down to help me!" Each time I looked back up I should see little heads and shoulders spaced along the ridge line, watching me. American surveillance in the Middle East!