A Hike through the Northern Negev

Last weekend Amir invited me to join his wife Adi and 4 of their friend on a hike through the desert to view wildflowers and the rare and endemic desert iris (its the dark brown/purple one)

I love this picture of Amir and the picture below of his wife Adi! It was a balmy day for me (being from Alaska) but a bit cold for my Jewish friends.

I am not sure I could find this trailhead again if you paid me, but we took a southern road from the city or Arad and wound through a dirt road for 5 miles or so passing camels and bedouin villiages and regional schools.  We parked and one of Amirs friends paid a visit to the nearby resident to keep an eye on the cars.  I do not know if he gave him sheckels.  But I was told that while the Bedouins are extremely hospitable, it would not be unusual for cars to be rifiled if you were gone for a long while.  We were planning to be gone for 6 hours or so.  I was a bit surprised to learn that because Amir had also told me I would not need to pack a lunch so I was expecting a 3 hour hike.

This is a picture of a Bedouin graveyard.  The stones mark the grave and the upright stone marks the head of the deceased.  I was told that when the last living person that knew the deceased personally died that the stones would then be removed and scattered in the desert.

The tree in the distance is the only tree that we saw in the entire region. Actually, when I was starting to get hungry and regretting my decision not to pack a lunch, Amir said we would be eating a little something once we got to a shady tree.  As soon as I saw this tree in the distance and noticed tha my friends too were picking up the pace, I knew I would be getting lunch.

Even Tara the doggie got to have a little something to eat. The lunch that Amir and Adi packed was not your basic American picnic.  We had roasted eggplant and sweet potatoes with hummus (YUM) and there was rice.  Crackers served as plates on which to portion spicey fennel and tahini.  I cannot remember if chocolate followed, but I think I remember a
truffle.

Here is a picture from pretty far away of a Bedoin tending his camel (who has a baby...hard to see I know)

There are a ridiculous amount of pictures on this link (CLICK HERE)  but that is becasue Amir's friends wanted to see all of the pictures from the hike so I uploaded all of the pictures.  Usually I cull the pictures to about 20-30.  The hike was most excellent and the views were truly stunning.