Fri 22 December 2006   (Chanukkah VII)

At 6:30 in the morning I visited the Ramon Crater observation platform, and took some panoramic photos of this massive canyon. Then I started driving towards the Big Crater (50 km northwest of Mitzpeh Ramon), but as I approached the low valleys of northeastern Negev, the weather became so foggy that visibility was limited to a hundred meters. This was not good news for my photographic activities, so I changed my travel plan and turned towards Beer Sheva — leaving the lower valleys of Negev for the afternoon when the morning mist would have cleared up.

On the way to Beer Sheva I took a few photos of the numerous outlawed Bedouin villages, which are lacking any municipal services or public funding. The Jewish state would love to absorb these people into towns with a Jewish majority and a Jewish culture. Bedouins are not Jews, however, neither do they have any intention to become such. They prefer to preserve their traditional lifestyle and live in their desert villages, even if it means political and economical isolation from the Jewish state. Modern sewers may be rare in these villages, but satellite televisions are not.

After eating breakfast in a small Arab cafeteria at 8 o’clock, I visited the so-called “old city” of Beer Sheva. I was unable to find anything old or interesting there, however, so I continued to Tel Beer Sheva national park, which is a few kilometers east of modern Beer Sheva. This place was not open yet, but I took a 360° panoramic photo set from the hill next to the national park.

Twenty minutes of driving towards east brought me to Tel Arad national park at 9 o’clock, where I spent 15 minutes exploring these extensive but rather modest ruins. Then I continued to modern Arad (10 km further in the east), looking for the road to Metzadah, but all the roads north that I tried seemed to lead somewhere else than to Metzadah.

There was an elder gentleman walking by the street in Arad, perhaps 80 years of age. I stopped my car and walked to the man, hoping to get directions to Metzadah from him.

“Excuse me, do you speak English?”, I said to the man. But he shrugged his shoulders and said: “Yiddish, Yiddish.”

Then I tried with: “Attah medabber Ivrit?”, hoping that he speaks some Hebrew. But again the man shook his head and said: “Yiddish.”

I master the basics of numerous languages, but unfortunately Yiddish is not among them. I decided to try German, and said: “Sprechen Sie Deutsch?”

The face of the gentleman brightened a bit, and obviously he understood what I was saying. He replied in impeccable German: “Was wollen Sie?” We discussed in German for a while, and I received the information that I needed.

I drove from Arad to Metzadah via the western mountain road, stopping briefly at Kfar Nokdim to admire the camels that are available for desert rides of various lengths. (I had planned to try riding a camel and a donkey during this journey, but my tight schedule did not leave me time for desert rides, and the five-minute walks offered near tourist resorts would not count as “riding” anyway.)

At 10:15 o’clock I arrived at the western entrance of Metzadah national park, but my schedule did not allow me to enter the site (which would have taken at least one hour). I took a few panoramic photo sets from the western mountain road, and then I drove back to modern Arad, where I spent half an hour dining and strolling in the shopping mall.

The time and weather were ripe now for entering the low valleys of northeastern Negev, which had been filled with fog on the cool morning of this winter day. The Gorer plain 10 km south of Arad caught my attention with its landscape and location, which seemed not at all unfavourable for human settlement. I stopped my car on highway 259 to take these panoramic photos of the region. (The chimneys of Rotem industrial area spoil the view towards south, but the tall sand piles hide most of the factories, and the rest of the factories could be hidden behind another sand pile or two.)

Driving yet further towards south, I arrived in the Small Crater at 12:20. I only took a few photos of the rocky landscape, and then continued to the ancient Nabatean city Mamshit, which is located northwest of Small Crater, just south of Dimonah.

After exploring the ruins of Mamshit for 20 minutes, I headed towards the Big Crater. Several examples of low-cost industrial architecture caught my attention along the road, devaluing many landscapes in the region. Photography was forbidden in some areas, however, because of the presence of military facilities, so I only took this one photo of a civilian railway bridge. (The ancient cultures knew how to build esthetically pleasing bridges, but this knowledge was apparently lost somewhere during the 20th century...)

At 13:40 I finally arrived in Big Crater — which was supposed to be my first destination in the foggy morning. The arid landscape failed to impress me, but with some water and vegetation the area would certainly become attractive. I photographed this 360° panorama at the center of Big Crater.

Half an hour later I paid a visit to the small pond called Yeroham Lake, which is located ten kilometers west of Big Crater. Despite its small size, the lake is a refreshing oasis of life in the middle of the vast and dry desert. More such oases would be most welcome in different parts of the Negev, to give mankind and animals some moments of joy in the midst of the endless desert.

My next destination was the national park of ancient Avdat, 20 km southwest of Yeroham Lake. I spent half an hour exploring this ruined city, and then continued further south to Mitzpeh Ramon, where I was planning to sleep another night.

The last but not least enjoyment of the day was a visit to the Alpaca farm near Mitzpeh Ramon, where I arrived at 15:15. The lady at the ticket office gave me a small paper bag of fodder, and instructed me to take some of the fodder on my palm and offer it to the alpacas. The animals would then come and eat from my hand.

I followed the advice, and offered some fodder to a sweet little alpaca, but the unruly creature stole the entire paper bag from me, tore it to pieces, and ate it all up in a few seconds. Being thus defeated and humiliated, I retreated to other parts of the farm to take photos, pat the animals, and listen to a lecture about alpacas and llamas.

At 16 o’clock I was back at Mitzpeh Ramon youth hostel. This was the Shabbat eve, all tourist attractions were closed, and the sun was about to set, so I spent the rest of the day relaxing, dining, surfing on the Internet, and watching sports on television. The trip meter of the car showed 1270 km, of which 370 km had been driven today.