Galloping Donkeys!

When I was still at home there were a few categories of activities I wanted to try and locate for my kids to experience. One of those things was olive oil making or wine making. Unfortunately olive oil pressing is not in season right now (it conveniently happens to be in season just before Channuka). During my search for a place to do that, I stumbled upon Philip Farm. www.philipfarm.co.il On the farm in the northern Negev just south of Kiryat Gat they offer olive oil pressing, just not now. Their main attraction is Donkey riding. Of course we were going to do that! The farm manager/owner is named Yochai. He communicates well through email and speaks English very well. You do need to make a reservation to ride the donkeys so they can get the right amount ready for your arrival. The farm land is one of two places in Israel that is a shelter for donkeys. They were expecting 6 new ones from Tel Aviv to bring their total up to 81. The donkeys are free to roam the farm eating the grass at will.

Getting anywhere in Israel always seems to be tricky because nothing has a basic address. You need to go south on the 40, pass Kiryat Gat on the way to Be'er Sheva, just passed the Plugot Junction, but not til Kama. It comes up without warning on the right side.

Yochai had us park right near the donkeys because he felt it was too hot for us to walk up the path today. It was 34 C, which is about 93F. Hot, but I expected worse in the south. He gave a brief history of the area from biblical times (This was the land of the Plishtim) and some references of donkeys in Tanach (Avraham saddled his donkey, the Hebrews left Mitzraim on donkeys, Shimshon killed a bunch of people with a donkey bone, Bilam had a talking donkey and Moshiach will come by white donkey, but he said probably today it will be a white car...) He then asked us if we wanted 2-3 donkey chariots.  I looked around, there was only Yochai, his farm helper and us, Me, my niece, my sons and my baby. Who was supposed to drive these things. Us apparently! He explained to us how to steer the donkey carts and some safety rules, put us on with a chain seat belt, handed us the reins, told us which path to follow and off we went. We traveled with Dovie and Eli in one cart, Liba and Meir in another and Me, Bailey and Mendel in the third. Yochai and his dogs ran behind us.
Donkeys are fast. They can run/gallop and it is hysterical. We were all laughing so hard as our donkeys ran down the paths. They new exactly where to go so steering never was really an issue. We came to a small forested area and the donkeys stopped in the shade. Yochai spread out a large woven mat for us to sit on and then he told us about the history of his family and the farm and some more about donkeys. It was actually quite interesting. We then got back into our donkey carts (he called them chariots) and went back to the starting point. Dovie discovered if you tap their behinds a bit they will go faster, be we warned him to watch where he puts his hands; he's in the danger zone!
We ate our lunches in the picnic area while chickens, roosters, ducks and an emu looked on.

It was still early and the kids had plenty of energy, so we decided to add Beit Guvrin to our day.
http://www.gemsinisrael.com/e_article000012102.htm  For the first time the person at the gate actually asked for my ID when I handed her my Matmon, but all was well and we went right in. She circled key areas for us on the map. I drove to the first parking lot. We saw the presses that could be used for olive oil making (they need to be moved by donkey!) and then we came across an archaeological collecting ground.

The kids posed on the capitals and columns as if they were statues, climbed on top of a sarcophagus and touched a bunch of things that were probably destined for a museum some day that would no longer be able to be touched and climbed on. We finally realized the caves were across the road. We went down into these HUGE caves where they used to keep pigeons. It was interesting, but most importantly very COOL in there. Like breezy, stay all day kind of cool.

At the next stop Dovie lead us up the Tel Maresha. Lugging Bailey in the heat up a hill was not exactly delightful, especially since we were meant to go to the right instead of the left. That child gets his sense of direction from his father!! We found the interconnected caves we were looking for and once again were rewarded with nice chilly temperatures. They were so cool that we even laid on the floor to bring every one's core temps down.  There was one more set of caves we could have explored, but everyone was thirsty and tired, so we headed back to RBS.
Tomorrow is Rosh Chodesh Av and the beginning of the 9 days when swimming and meat meals are forbidden, so we decided to get in a both before it was too late. The kids splashed around the Berman's above ground pool and I made a run for some burgers and hot dogs. A nice filling and refreshing way to end the day.