Mitspe Ramon
Mitspe Ramon was originally to be our first night in Israel, but was extended by a day and later 5 days due to the airlines and Israel constantly changing their minds. We arrived in the late afternoon from Avdat and after checking in, immediately took the short drive to an observation point overlooking Mitspe Ramon's in-your-face attraction, the Makhtesh Ramon.
The Makhtesh Ramon is the largest erosion crater in the world. The sheer scope of this place is too big to capture in one photo, but where ever you stand on the edge, the cliff walls disappear into the distance on both sides. It was formed around 5 million years ago when a river shifted course. The earth in this part was significantly softer than its surroundings, made up primarily of sandstone, and today we are left with this massive hole in the ground. It measures 40 kilometers in length and up to 10 kilometers in width. The drop off is around 300 meters, although the bottom reaches 500 meters deep in some areas.
The point we chose was on the north eastern side and as the sun gradually lowered we were gifted the most insane natural light show that I have seen to date in my short 39 years. The sky had a few clouds which turned from hues of purple, orange and red. The sand at the bottom of the crater changed from yellow to a deep orange within minutes before turning to a purple haze as the sun disappeared in the horizon. This magical moment was briefly ruined by a hippy who thought it appropriate to light up a cigarette next to me, but this became a very short lived moment after he received one of my famous death-stares, which I have developed and perfected ever since Alex was born 10 years ago. The photos below barely do the place any justice, but I do hope they give a general idea at least.
The town of Mitspe Ramon is the only civilisation in the entire area and was founded back in 1954 on the northern end at the top of the crater. During the planning phase of our trip, I changed our hotel from a small apartment, to a decent hotel. But as I am a generous man, I decided at the last moment to go full-retard and put us in one of the best hotels in the entire country, The Be'ersheet. We stayed in a small cabin with one of the best crater views possible.
The Be'ersheet is a five star hotel and this was the first time I have ever stayed in one. There are walking paths, but most people get around with the on-demand chauffeured golf carts, which is an adventure in itself. Some of the staff treat these things the same way other people treat Mitsubishi ASX 2WD Budget rental cars. The g-forces endured, particularly if sitting on the rearward facing seats, makes you feel like you are in a F-16I Sufa jet. We used these services frequently and nearly experienced two head on collisions with other golf carts twice. The bent fenders and scratches on these workhorses suggest many of them have been to hell and back.
The star attraction of this hotel is certainly the swimming pool, which was recently voted the best in the world. The view is unbeatable, and even though we were here in early spring, there was no wind and the sun was perfect. I attempted to record myself gliding gracefully through the water, but as the water was well below freezing point, I ended up looking like a plucked chicken with Tourette's syndrome. I will spare you all the vision of that. There is a large heated indoor pool and spa which we quickly retreated to where we bumped into a small group of Australians, of all people.
Our stay included dinner and breakfast. The meals are nigh on perfect and there are heaps of options. Our waitress was very nice, suggesting we should try one of the house specials, one of which was described as being "accompanied by a sauce of mish-mish". This was particularly worrying as we had a Golden Retriever with us at our previous night in Midreshest, who just happened to be called Mish-mish as well. Thankfully we are not in China and the dog lives. Mish-mish, apparently means apricot in Hebrew and we added this to our ever expanding vocabulary (currently an impressive six words). And Iris, if you are reading, the breakfast here, as excellent as it was, doesn't compete with yours!
The view from the hotel balcony was simply stunning, but you've all seen enough sunrises by now so here's a pre-sunrise photo from the balcony and the view from our room instead.
We checked out after breakfast, knowing we had a huge day ahead of us with a 250 kilometer drive south to visit Hai-Bar Yotvata and Timna. There were a couple of spots we wanted to check out at the base of the crater in Mitspe Ramon first however. The road leading to base of the crater is fantastic, a very steep zig-zag affair. There are two sites worth checking out here right next to the road.
The colored sands
As the name suggests, this area has a number of coloured sands that can be taken as a souvenir. It is all sourced from within the crater and placed into pits next to the lake. There is a beautiful lake adjacent to this giving off an unusual blue and green colour from the minerals inside. Despite signs asking people not to enter the water, humans will human and these were completely ignored. Once this small group had left, I was able to get a photo of the lake with the crater ridge in the background. At the top of the hill, there are lots of various coloured and painted rocks. Unfortunately this place is also frequented by back-packers who camp in nearby proximity and use the site as their own private dumping ground for their own human waste.
Sawmill Mountain
Sawmill mountain is a very unusual geological phenomenon at the foot of the crater. This was formed by magna intruding into the sandstone and heating it as well as the ground water beneath. Under extreme temperature, evaporation was prevented from occurring, which caused the sand to melt and form into quartzite, a much harder material than the original sandstone.
As the magma cooled and crystallised, the quartzite which was relatively close to the surface, underwent rapid cooling which caused hexagonal and pentagonal fractures to occur. As the sandstone eroded over time forming the crater, this massive quartzite formation was exposed and small bits would crack off literally creating a mountain of the stuff in fairly neat 1ft sections!
We did lament in bringing one of them home, you never know when a two kilogram block of quartzite will come in handy after all, however decided we still had some shopping to do at the end of the trip. Vinci also assumed it would go in my backpack, albeit briefly, and then decided she didn't feel like lugging it around with her for the next couple of weeks.
Again, the recent rainfalls are bringing life to the desert and hundreds of flowers are blooming between the rocks. A nice path leads halfway up the mountain and from the end it is very easy to walk up to the top using the fixed quartzite as steps.
Driving through the Negev
The Negev desert from Mitspe Ramon is very beautiful and constantly changing as you drive through it. The road (route 40) heading south really showcases much of it including very imposing mountains and unusual plateaus.
There were a number of times we would pull off to the side of the road to photographs the array of wild flowers lining it. Despite all of the signs warning us of the threat of hitting a deranged camel or a startled mountain goat, no animals were seen.
At the southern edge of the crater, the road rises slightly before another steep descent into another vast plain. The road from here is dead straight for a 12 kilometer section (I know this is comically small compared to what we have in Australia, but quite unusual for Israel).
Speaking of comedy, along this particular section we saw the military in certain spots playing with their new toys - full sized inflatable SCUD missile launchers! A total of 4 were seen with a small radar site attached. I understand these are used for improving missile targeting technology, however it is nice to think that after a hard day of trench warfare, the soldiers are allowed to have a jump on the army's interpretative bouncy castle.
"In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land." - Psalms 95:4-5
An unusual mountain showing of spectacular rock layers
One of the many plateaus seen in the Negev
This tree for some reason was deemed too important to cut down for the road and so it now enjoys its own personal traffic island
Continue to Part 13 - click here