After much (read: an embarrassing amount) of deliberation, we decided to visit Mitzpe Ramon, a city in Israel known for the Ramon Crater, hiking, and beautiful outdoor views and activities. On Tuesday morning, we packed for the night, bought some vital road trip snacks, and hit the road! It was surprisingly freeing to be back in a car; I've grown so accustomed to taking the bus that I forgot just how incredible it feels to blast music with the windows down on the highway. Our plans were fairly loose; we had nothing planned for Tuesday and only a Jeep tour scheduled for Wednesday morning so we ended up stopping in Be'er Sheva for lunch and cool views of the desert.
One of my roommates, Chelsea (pictured above), knew of a vegetarian Indian place that had my name written allll over it. I love Indian food and hadn't had any in months, so to say I was excited would be a bit of an understatement. From the moment they opened, they were mobbed with delivery orders so I knew my meal was going to be goooood.
For my non-Hebrew readers out there, the place is called Little India and I got the most incredible Chana Masala and Potato Wara, both of which were vegan, gluten-free, and fucking delicious. If you're ever in Be'er Sheva and looking for Indian food I can't recommend this place enough. My entire meal was less than 20 dollars and was enough for both lunch and dinner that day. I already can't wait to go back.
Our next destination was a roadside scenic stop in the desert outside the city of Be'er Sheva. We saw a bunch of cars parked next to the highway, so naturally, we also had to stop and see what the big hoopla was about. I'll never get over how tiny and insignificant I feel whenever I'm in the abyss of real nature; it really helps put things into perspective. Turns out it was just an awesome view of the desert, so we took in the sights, made a tiktok (as you can see on my Instagram story from today), and got back on the road!
After our first two pit stops, we stayed in the car until we hit Mitzpe Ramon and our first scheduled stop of the trip- the Alpaca Farm! As it turns out, I was the only one interested in actually seeing and feeding the alpacas, but luckily Chelsea was kind enough to come along with me while everyone else waited in the car. My experience with the alpacas was fun, but not necessarily worth doing again. I will say, however, if you haven't seen an alpaca up close, they're hilarious. Chelsea said they reminded her of camels on hard drugs and I have to say that I think I agree. They're just so damn funny looking. Also, they thought my hair was hay and kept trying to eat it, which I also found hysterical.
Here's a photo of me actually feeding the alpacas; once they saw I had food I became immensely popular among the group.
This guy was one of the more majestic of his peers... if that's even a word one can use to describe an alpaca.
I know that was a lot of pictures of alpacas but they're somehow they're both cute and ugly at the same time and I really couldn't stop taking photos. I hope you enjoyed them because I know I enjoyed taking them.
After my somewhat surprising experience with the alpacas, we headed for the Ramon Crater to watch the sun go down. I added a couple of terrible photos here but they just don't do the sunset justice. Three of us (as seen in our selfie below) sat watched as the sun disappeared behind the clouds and took in the immensity of it all. It was such a beautiful way to end Day One.
Taylor, Chelsea, and I ventured a bit farther to get the best view of the sunset we could find and took this golden-hour selfie :)
I took a photo of this statue at the crater because I thought it was cool but I seriously have no idea why it was there or what it means. If anyone has any insight as to what this half-man structure is I'd love to hear about it because the more I look at it, the more interesting I think it is. Once it got cold and dark we grabbed some dinner and headed for the hotel, where we went to bed early because we had to be up at 5:40 the following morning for the activity I was most looking forward to, the sunrise Jeep tour!
At promptly 6 am, our tour guide was waiting for us in the lobby, ready to take us on an adventure! At first we all thought it was going to be a waste of money because the guide was just driving down the main highway of Mitzpe Ramon, but after about 10 minutes of driving things got a bit more interesting. Our guide took us offroading into the 'machtesh,' or the crater, to see the sunrise! We drove for awhile, deeper into the crater, over rocks, uphill, into this amazing spot. He made us tea, we took tons of pics, and then he explained how the maktesh was formed and what exactly it was that we were exploring. I won't bore you with the details here, but if you're at all interested in geology, I would highly recommend checking it out and even visiting. I'm already brainstorming a future camping trip in Mitzpe Ramon!
Our view just a few minutes before the sun truly came up, you really can't make this stuff up.
My wonderful roommate Sami and me :)
If I recall correctly, the maktesh is about 27 miles long which blew my mind. It's crazy that in such a small country you can find these seemingly never-ending nature preserves!
Chelsea and me doing a bit of machtesh-yoga #namaste
All five of us waiting for the sunrise!
Ending this post with a super cheesy photo of the five of us right before we headed home from the Jeep tour because I highly doubt anyone wants to see any more photos of the same five girls and some rocks! And yes, Sami and Taylor do have a bit of machtesh clay on their foreheads; they really wanted the full outdoor experience. After the tour we decided we missed Ben Eliezer Street too much so we got back in the car and headed for Rishon! It was a quick adventure but still an awesome way to make the most of our time off from school.
I love traveling with my Ben Eli girls and I'm counting down the days until our next road trip. Any suggestions?
xx, lindz
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