After three busy weeks spent exclusively in Tel Aviv, we decided to take our first field trip and drive south to the desert. The Negev covers more than half of Israel inhabited by only 10% of its popoulation. It is bordered on the west by the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula and on the east by a bit of Palestine and a lot of Jordan. Most of these are menacing places that tend to take over the news headlines. We drove south on the new Hwy 6 that links the North and South of Israel through the middle of the country.

About an hour into the drive, the landscape changed from cityscapes and industrial zones to desert. Sandscapes as far as the eye can see - what all of Israel looked like only decades ago. The settlements in this area are often makeshift and belong to the Bedouin - the gypsies of the desert. The Highway shrinks to two lanes and the signage changes from green and blue freeway signs to various directional and warning signs.

We stopped at a goat farm we read about - i say this because if i hadn’t known to look for the abandoned looking railcars, corregated carports and fences - i would have not known there was an adorable little modern cafe tucked inside. The Kornmehl Farm raises goats and makes a variety of their own cheeses and milks. The menu highlights the dairy products almost exclusively - cappucino with goats milk (gorgeous!) a goat cheese platter, peppers stuffed with goat cheese, philo cigars stuffed with goat cheese (delish!), goats milk with honey and so on. The vintage railroad cars are cantelivered off of a hill and fitted with large glass windows - a view to the desert and the outdoor terrace covered with worn carpets, low wooden tables and fabric lounging pillows. The bright blue skies were cloudless and still until they were interrupted by a low flying camoflauged bomber jet which broke through the sound barrier as it flew by.

Seemingly Abandoned Railroad Car is actually......

We arrived in Mitzpe Ramon to Beresheet, a hotel famous for its location on the edge of the crater. The hotel is built from local stone and looks like a Flinstones version of the Four Seasons. The suites are arranged in groups of four - top suites have the better view and lower suites have plunge pools encrusted with another smaller, whiter, version of local rock. There are stunning sunrises and sunsets - vivid pinks, purples and golds smear the sky - a fitting backdrop for the Ibex - families of majestic rams that clop and clatter around the property. Their prehistoric horns arch behind their ears and are engraved with notches that end in a piercing point which would be threatening, but the Ibex are obviously well taken care of by the hotel and just seem comfortable and curious. As we settled in and admired the view of the crator from our terrace, two fighter jets raced through the sky.

Most people arrive at Be’resheet for a spa vacation kind of weekend. There is not much to do in the area, so most activities are focused on what you can do in the crater. You can hike through it, ride dune buggies across it or take a Segway tour of it. We opted for a guided dune buggy tour. I had never driven one before and after all of the initial warnings and disclaimers i wondered why we didn't go for the hike? I tried to ignore all the ways you could flip a Dune Buggy described by our guide, and just focused on the one thing I knew I could do - stay steady on the gas. We zipped around the fairly flat crater floor for 2 1/2 hours navigating stones up to 200 million years old. It was amazing to be one of three buggies kicking up dirt with the wind in our hair, skidding up and over rocks and boulders almost sideways at times. After a few super steep crossings, we stopped to share cookies and an herbal tea harvested from the hotel garden. We hung out under the shade of the one tree that grows well in this terrain, and learned that Mitzpe Ramon was an Erosion Crater. Our guide carefully crated a mound of sandy and poured water on it showing us how the crater formed. I loved the visual explanation. There are 3 ways a crater can be formed, an erosion crater is unique because it isn’t made from a meteor (impact crater) or a volcanic event. There are only 9 Erosion craters that exist in the world, 7 of them are in Israel.

I felt like a modern day Penelope Pitstop

That night we decided to have an out of hotel experience at in another hotel which we had considered booking. Chez Eugene is a modern space made cozy by carefully chosen objet and vintage pieces - an eclectic mix curated by the Owner Arnaud. It’s controversial on Trip advisor because the loftlike rooms are housed in an industrial zone just 5 minutes from the crater, but we found it more charming than the lux Beresheet. The menu at the petite restaurant is based on the fruits, vegetables and fish from local farmers. A had handmade Mergueze sausages with a mustard ice cream while i tried the filet of Baramundi with cauliflower cream. The Over dinner we met the owner, who introduced each course, chose our wine and gave us restaurant recommendations in Tel Aviv and Haifa where he lives. I mentioned that we were headed to Akko (30 minutes from Haifa) for A’s birthday the following weekend and asked about restaurants in those areas. While he named the one restaurant everyone mentions when you are head to Akko (Uri Buri) he said there is nothing he could recommend in Haifa. His wife, he said, was the best chef in all of Haifa. I asked if that was an invitation? Yes! he said, Yes it is.

A few days before we arrived in Mitzpe Ramon, militants in the Gaza strip had fired six rockets in the direction of Ashkelon. Thankfully there was no damage, they warned the ruling Hamas party to make it stop. The night before we arrived another rocket was fired across the border. The day we arrived Israel retaliated and struck “a target” in Gaza - which I think explains the jets we saw from our terrace. Just two days later, on our way back to Tel Aviv, we ended up driving north along the Gaza Strip and then through the town of Ashkelon. Knowing all of the activity that took place during the past week and that rockets could have been flying overhead as we drove, was surreal. But there was no feeling of worry or fear, no visible military presence. All I could see looking toward Gaza was a grass covered burm.

These articles will have more details than I have provided, if anyone is interested:

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.569300

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.569327