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Mitzpe Ramon etiketine sahip kayıtlar gösteriliyor. Tüm kayıtları göster
Mitzpe Ramon etiketine sahip kayıtlar gösteriliyor. Tüm kayıtları göster

Summer 2011: Mitzpe Ramon, Israel


August 17-19, 2011 -- After working on Kibbutz Lahav for two-and-a-half weeks and exploring the nearby city of Beersheba, my next stop in Israel was 85 kilometers (53 miles) south to the small town of Mitzpe Ramon in the heart of the Negev desert. Mitzpe Ramon is a popular tourist destination because the town overlooks the massive Ramon Crater. The crater is actually technically not a crater but the world's largest makhtesh --a geological formation that wasn't impacted by a meteor but instead was created by erosion. I also visited the tomb of Israel's founder and first prime minister David Ben-Gurion near Sde Boker and hiked through Tsin Canyon.

While in Mitzpe Ramon I stayed at the Green Backpackers Hostel, run by Lee and her husband Yoash. The hostel is cozy and clean and offers a free sunset tour of Makhtesh Ramon. The friendly couple was super helpful in providing information about sightseeing and hiking. The hostel is highly recommended if you find yourself needing a place to say in Mitzpe Ramon.

There are Nubian ibexes roaming freely and it takes some time to get used to seeing these harmless desert mountain goats everywhere you turn. When they are not munching on grass and leaves they will stand there and stare at you. Signs warn visitors not to feed the ibexes, cautioning that "human food is harmful to them and may cause death." Sadly, I saw many people violating this rule by carelessly feeding the ibexes, who don't know any better.


I also was somewhat surprised to see a tent city protest encampment in such a small place as Mitzpe Ramon. The social justice protests against the high cost of living and lack of affordable housing this past summer were centered in Tel Aviv and other big cities, but the fact that these demonstrations had spread to even rural areas of Israel shows how powerful they were and how much they resonated with not just big city dwellers but people all over Israel.

The sunset tour of Makhtesh Ramon was spectacular and our guide Yoash was very knowledgeable when it came to explaining how the area was formed millions of years ago and other geological facts. The next day I walked farther along the cliff's edge to the Desert Sculpture Park, which features 19 contemporary stone sculptures. Some of the sculptures are real head-scratchers, and many are missing their plaques with the title and artist. But these massive stone carvings are an oddity that should not be missed on a visit to Mitzpe Ramon.  After walking through the sculpture park, I stumbled upon the new luxury resort hotel called Beresheet. This swank spot features rooms with their own private swimming pool overlooking the Ramon Crater. If you want to see the Ramon Crater in style, then I suggest booking a room at Beresheet. Walking past the hotel there is the Visitors Center, which is currently closed for renovations to commemorate Ilan Ramon, Israel's first astronaut, who died during the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.

Later in the day I hopped on a bus to Sde Boker and Midreshet Ben-Gurion, where David Ben-Gurion and his wife Paula are laid to rest. As I walked the tree-shaded path to Ben-Gurion's tomb, I was greeted by more Nubian ibexes. The tombs are located on a cliff offering spectacular views of Tsin Canyon. Ben-Gurion's dream was for Jews to settle the Negev and make the desert bloom. When he retired he became a member of Kibbutz Sde Boker and when he died the Israeli government fulfilled his request to be buried in the Negev, instead of in Jerusalem like Israel's other leaders.


Next to Ben-Gurion's Tomb is the campus of the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, where cutting-edge academic research into solar technology and water resources occurs. There were also a lot of Israeli Defense Forces soldiers walking around the campus. After a traditional Israeli pita and hummus lunch, I went on a hike in the middle of the day through Tzin Canyon. Yoash told us the best time to hike is in the late afternoon/early evening when the Negev sun isn't as strong. So being the adventurous American, I ignored the advice and instead took a hike in the middle of a scorching hot day. I felt like Abraham or one of the other biblical prophets as I descended into the desolate valley. As I walked through the trail at the bottom of the canyon, I couldn't help but think back to Yoash's description of the mostly harmless mountain lions that wander the desert. It wasn't very comforting. I kept thinking a mountain lion could at any time leap out of one of the many caves and crevices. And of course running out of water was a concern as well, especially if I got lost. As it turns out, I made it without fending off any predators or dehydrating, although the last leg of the hike back up to the top of the canyon was brutal.

As I was waiting for the bus back to Mitzpe Ramon, I heard from a girl that there was a massive terrorist attack earlier in the day on the same bus route I was planning on taking to Eilat the next dayEgged bus #392 from Beersheba to Eilat. The bus was on Route 12 about 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) north of Eilat when terrorists ambushed the bus, firing automatic weapons at the passengers. The terrorists also targeted another empty bus, a private car and a military patrol, killing eight people and wounding dozens. My heart goes out to the innocent victims of these violent attacks, and I will always feel lucky and blessed that I wasn't on that bus, which I easily could have been had my itinerary changed by just one day. I thank HaShem, השם that I was not on that bus. After consulting with concerned family and friends, I decided not to travel to Eilat and Petra, but instead head up to Jerusalem a few days earlier than planned. Of course, this being Israel, there was a terror alert issued for Jerusalem the moment I arrived.

Later that night I joined an older Australian gentleman and two French girls on a drive to the outskirts of Mitzpe Ramon, away from the city lights, to lay under the stars. In the pitch black darkness of the Negev desert, before the moon had risen, the entire Milky Way galaxy unfolded before our eyes. We located some of the constellations and I must have counted at least five shooting stars. With the vastness of the universe twinkling above us on a starry summer night in the Negev, a sense of calm and peace overtook me for a fleeting moment in this troubled world we live in.

Peace. Shalom. שָׁלוֹם. Salaam. سلام‎.

Click here for more observations of Mitzpe Ramon and Midreshet Ben-Gurion on Green Forward Blog.

Here are more pictures from Mitzpe Ramon and Midreshet Ben-Gurion. Click here to see the photo set on Flickr.

Boarding the Bus: Beersheba to Mitzpe Ramon


August 17, 2011 -- After two and a half weeks working at Kibbutz Lahav I finished washing my last dish and dodging my last grad rocket and decided to head south via bus from Beersheba to Israel's Grand Canyon -- the small town of Mitzpe Ramon overlooking the massive Ramon Crater/Makhtesh.

The bus traveled through the heart of the Negev desert of southern Israel, stopping at Kibbutz Sde Boker and Midreshet Ben-Gurion along the way. This area is where the graves of founding Prime Minister of Israel David Ben-Gurion and his wife Paula are located. It was Ben-Gurion's dream for Jews to settle the arid Negev, writing:

The desert provides us with the best opportunity to begin again. This is a vital element of our renaissance in Israel. For it is in mastering nature that man learns to control himself. It is in this sense, more practical than mystic, that I define our Redemption on this land. Israel must continue to cultivate its nationality and to represent the Jewish people without renouncing its glorious past. It must earn this – which is no small task – a right that can only be acquired in the desert.


When I looked out my window today and saw a tree standing before me, the sight awoke in me a greater sense of beauty and personal satisfaction than all the forests that I have crossed in Switzerland and Scandinavia. For we planted each tree in this place and watered them with the water we provided at the cost of numerous efforts. Why does a mother love her children so? Because they are her creation. Why does the Jew feel an affinity with Israel? Because everything here must still be accomplished. It depends only on him to participate in this privileged act of creation. The trees at Sde Boker speak to me differently than do the trees planted elsewhere. Not only because I participated in their planting and in their maintenance, but also because they are a gift of man to nature and a gift of the Jews to the compost of their culture.

Midreshet Ben-Gurion is also home to the Ben-Gurion National Solar Energy Center, which is operated by the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev's Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research.

Riding the bus through the isolated desert, I really started to understand how much Israelis of all backgrounds rely on the buses to get to their destinations. Along the way we picked up college students, kibbutzniks, IDF soldiers, Bedouin villagers and military prison guards. Sadly only a couple of days later the very same bus route I took from Beersheba to Mitzpe Ramon was ambushed by terrorists near Eilat. Eight innocent people were murdered and over 30 were wounded in the attacks.

In Israel a cowardly act of terrorism does not stop citizens from engaging in simple acts such as boarding a bus. I would recommend Israel's excellent intercity bus system to any visitor traveling within the country. Boarding the bus is just one of many quiet acts of defiance that define this great country.

Here is video of the bus ride from Beersheba to Mitzpe Ramon.



Here are photos of the bus ride from Beersheba to Mitzpe Ramon. Click here for the Flickr set.

Photos: Israel Tent City Protests

This Friday I passed by the growing Occupy D.C. demonstration encampment at McPherson Square in downtown Washington and was amazed to see that since last weekend the park has been transformed from a few sleeping bags into a tent city. It is amazing how similar it looks to the tent cities I saw across Israel this past summer.

The Israeli Summer has turned into the American Autumn and while some of the issues being addressed by the demonstrators might be different (unemployment in the United States versus the high cost of living in Israel), there is a strong thread running through these movements, and it has to do with government being accountable to the people and not corporations and the richest 1%. The demonstrators on the East Coast and Middle East want to ensure that, as Abraham Lincoln so eloquently stated in his Gettysburg Address, "government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Click here for a link to photos I took last weekend of the Occupy D.C. demonstration (before the tents were pitched).

And here are photos I snapped this past summer of the demonstrations around Israel.


TEL AVIV
















































BEERSHEBA




MITZPE RAMON









JERUSALEM