Adventures down South to the Negev

Today's itinerary was a very unique one for me and my kids, however it started the usual way with our GPS unable to locate the destination. We were headed into the Negev, southern desert, to go jeeping and sand surfing (sand boarding). While I was planning this trip months ago, I realized that I would only have two big boys with me. This meant that we could do slightly pricier activities (because admission x2 or 3 will always beat admission x7) and we could do more extreme, active activities. No strollers, no height limits, no age restriction issues (very few places limit 10 year olds from participating). I had never gone jeeping in Israel. I knew I didn't want to go up north. There is a jeeping company local in Ramat Beit Shemesh call Jeeping Berama. My sister got the information for me to try and decipher. It was a scanned in menu of options that made no sense (at least not to me) and it was all in Hebrew. I tried for a few minutes and then moved on. Some where along the way I heard of going Sand surfing or sand boarding. Now that was something new and different! After doing some lengthy Google searching I came across Dror Bamidbar who does both and then some (www.drorbamidbar.co.il). He has a website, he has a Facebook page, he answers emails promptly and in English! I inquired about combining jeeping and sand surfing and he quoted me a price for 4 hours for up to 6 people. While I wouldn't say it was a bargain, it was a very fair price.

      We were supposed to meet Dror at Ben Gurion's tomb at 10 am. The drive was approximately 1 3/4 hour long. My GPS is not creative or forgiving when it comes to vague locations. We finally found something close enough to get us to the area (Ben Gurion's home) and off we went. Since the price quote was a flat rate for up to 6 people I insisted that 2 of my sister's kids come along. (And if at all possible I like to take a Hebrew speaker with me). We called Dror when we got to where our GPS decided we were done driving and he told us to stay put and met us.

      I was imagining a beat up, open or rag top jeep that jostled us around for 2 hours, but much to my surprise and delight Dror pulled up in a fancy Range Rover. He told us we don't need our seat belts as we are just driving through the Moshav. After about 45 seconds of listening to him my seat-belt-wearing-trained self just had to fasten it up. He drove up on some piles of dirt to show us what the Rover could do (like in a commercial) my nephew asked to go faster and he complied all along Mendel bounced around in the back. 

     We pulled over at a lookout spot and showed us where we were going. He also showed us some of his desert treasures (colored stones, ancient fragrant rocks that were used for perfumes, animal skeletons...). We then drove (bounced along) into Midbar Sin. After a short while we pulled over again, this time to go on a brief hike. Dror stopped us along some plants to explain about what makes them unique, which ones are edible. One plant has leaves that are salty. The plant uses the water and extracts the salt which coats the leaves. Another plant can be crushed in your hands and when you add a bit of water to them it makes suds when you rub your hands. We hiked a long a stream until we got to a waterfall that came out of the rock and filled a pond that is about 8 meters deep. As much as our driver Dror is our guide, he is even more a lover of nature and the desert, a conservationist. He is really a teacher at heart. We hiked back to the car and drove out of the nature reserve. We drove to where we were originally supposed to meet him and then back to our car. From there it was about a 30 minute drive to the sand surfing area. We followed in our own car off road to the dune.

     He set up a mat to sit on, gave us instructions, handed us boards and set us walking up the dune. Up and down the hills we went, some braving the more challenging positions on the board down the sand, some (old, out of shape moms) stuck to the basics. It was a lot of fun, yet exhausting and challenging. When everyone was pretty much worn out we stopped at the jeep for some tea and cake. The kids who could muster up enough energy for one more run chose to do it in the special little kid barrel just for kicks.

    I offered the kids to do one more activity on the way back up, but they were spent. Such a fun day!