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magidShabbat morning I went down to breakfast, thinking I'd take advantage of the gentle yoga class one of the riders was leading, then perhaps on to shul (I knew there was no way I was going on the walking tour of the machtesh when it was completely unclear where the eruv boundaries might be (and the hotel staff were surprisingly clueless on the matter)). Instead, I got sucked into interesting conversations, starting with this one when that one left, and somehow, three hours passed. It set the tone for my physically lazy day, staying in the hotel, happily out of the sun for a whole day.
After lunch, there were two talks. The first was a huge panel of Arava students and alums (read: a lot of the crew), describing the program, the challenges in coexistence in the school setting, and how the work done on that can be parlayed into greater things. Unfortunately, there were far too many people on the panel, so just the introductions took a while, and there were lots of people who didn't get to ask/answer questions. (Of course, with crew, it's easy to ask some other time.)
The second talk was an interactive study of a few texts about food and responsibility led by Nigel, based on sourcebooks put together by Hazon. The lounge was getting warm from too many people crammed in, so I had a more difficult time focusing on this.
There was some down time; I tried to nap, and failed. On the plus side, I finished one of the books I'd brought with me and passed it on to someone else. And there was time for some always-needed stretching.
After dinner, people gathered to walk to the edge of the machtesh for havdalah together. I tried to convince a couple of the Jordanian crew I was hanging out with that they should come, but they said they knew what it was like, and it wasn't a religious rite for them. I wish I could have convinced them, because it turned out to be much more about building group ties with a bit of religion alongside.
We walked out to the cantilevered observation platform over the machtesh, exclaiming over the views (I really wished I use my camera on Shabbat at this point: there were shots I would love to have). As the light started to fade, we gathered in little groups of three or four, discussing our week so far, then some people volunteered highlights, ranging from the visit to Sderot to appreciation for the crew to the one high schooler saying he was glad people talked with him, not down to him. Nigel taught a song in Hebrew and English, and one of the Arab (Palestinian or Jordanian, I don't know) Arava students taught the Arabic (which unsurprisingly didn't stick with me at all; I know a few words in Arabic and that's about it).
Adamah, v’shamayim, chom ha’aish,
tslil ha mayim
Ani margeesh zot, b’gufi, b’ruchi,
v’nishmati
Love the earth, love the sky
heat of fire, drop of water,
I can feel it, in my body, in my spirit
and in my soul.
We sang as the sun set, and it was time for havdalah. Two candles were lit in lanterns, spices passed around, and the brachot said. And as soon as we finished, those who'd brought drums started playing them, and people started singing again, and a circle of dancing formed in the middle. I felt awkward about the prep on Shabbat for after Shabbat, but I wasn't going to impose my views on anyone else, and the drumming was fun. It wasn't long until people were heading back to the hotel, getting ready for the night's (late) briefing.
I was later than most to the briefing (but there: they took attendance, and if anyone missed, they wouldn't be allowed to ride the next day), which went on and on with announcements about upcoming events, and our powers of fundraising, and so on. Sheldon was at the back by where I was sitting on a counter, and we snarked at each other through this, wanting to get to the essential part of the briefing so we could get a reasonable night's sleep. Most of it could have been in email after the ride...
Back up the unlit outdoor staircase to the hotel, where I found one of the mechanics, did a quick change into bike shorts, and went out to find my bike so the handlebars could be moved up. The mechanic had seen my wrapped hand Friday and suggested this might help the situation. We looked through truckloads of bikes, but didn't find mine, so we pushed it off until early the next morning (5 am, maybe?).
I went back to pack and do the usual routine, this time distracted by the view oout the living room window, showing the crew in the light from some trucks as they organized for the following day, moving food and supplies and so on. It struck me yet again how little I knew of how much work they all did to make the ride go so smoothly.
Sunday morning was the usual getting up early to finish packing and have breakfast. I went out before breakfast to find my bike, and the mechanics adjusted the handlebars upward for me. It definitely helped. And I got my hand wrapped again.
My room wasn't ready when I got there, which was the perfect excuse to hang out in the air-conditioned guesthouse lobby, aka gift shop/snack bar/computer room (well, one computer, anyway, with an odd, flexible sort of keyboard, the keys being more like bubbles than I've seen before) drinking lots of cold water and considering the commercial opportunities :-).
When we were let into the room, it turned out to be a studio, basically. There were three beds, a mini-kitchen along one wall, a decent-sized bathroom (again with no defined shower stall other than the curtain), and sliding glass doors out to the patio at the back, which gave a great view of the cliffs we'd come down.
I didn't get organized early enough to take advantage of both tour slots, so ended up choosing to see the experimental orchards over the kibbutz as a whole, which meant missing some interesting stuff (next time...). I also missed another meeting with other students, and everyone hanging out by the pool.
The kibbutz is a mixture of trailers, more permanent dwellings (none of them huge), group buildings (cafeteria, shul, lounge, etc), and agricultural construction. It felt more like a farm than Mashabei Sadeh (I don't know their principal activities other than the petting zoo), and more self-sufficient because of that. Or perhaps I was just given the chance to see more of the kibbutz.
Dinner was outside by the pool, a great buffet with some sort of interesting tomato salad (little tomatoes, rather than cubed bigger ones). There was the usual briefing, and a five-minute clip from the movie Ana's making, about food in the US. There were technology glitches (It was outside; no clue how they did whatever cables they needed (Or was it all wireless?)), but it's obviously going to be interesting.
It was fascinating seeing the landscape changes. Just behind the kibbutz, the cliffs rise, and it's fairly barren, especially compared to the green parts of the kibbutz. I could see another kibbutz nearby (on a hilltop, which struck me as strange, because the hill was abrupt, not gradual, so it's a restriction on growth, whether they like it or not), and across the way, beyond the date palm groves, there were other cliffs rising up from the valley, redder cliffs, which are Jordanian. I was surprised at how cliffs so close to each other were such different colors.
The regular evening routine of putting laundry out to dry, setting out the day's clothes, refilling water containers, figuring out how to get up on time in the morning. I was rooming with Ana and Anna, and one of them had appropriate technology :-).
After lunch, there were two talks. The first was a huge panel of Arava students and alums (read: a lot of the crew), describing the program, the challenges in coexistence in the school setting, and how the work done on that can be parlayed into greater things. Unfortunately, there were far too many people on the panel, so just the introductions took a while, and there were lots of people who didn't get to ask/answer questions. (Of course, with crew, it's easy to ask some other time.)
The second talk was an interactive study of a few texts about food and responsibility led by Nigel, based on sourcebooks put together by Hazon. The lounge was getting warm from too many people crammed in, so I had a more difficult time focusing on this.
There was some down time; I tried to nap, and failed. On the plus side, I finished one of the books I'd brought with me and passed it on to someone else. And there was time for some always-needed stretching.
After dinner, people gathered to walk to the edge of the machtesh for havdalah together. I tried to convince a couple of the Jordanian crew I was hanging out with that they should come, but they said they knew what it was like, and it wasn't a religious rite for them. I wish I could have convinced them, because it turned out to be much more about building group ties with a bit of religion alongside.
We walked out to the cantilevered observation platform over the machtesh, exclaiming over the views (I really wished I use my camera on Shabbat at this point: there were shots I would love to have). As the light started to fade, we gathered in little groups of three or four, discussing our week so far, then some people volunteered highlights, ranging from the visit to Sderot to appreciation for the crew to the one high schooler saying he was glad people talked with him, not down to him. Nigel taught a song in Hebrew and English, and one of the Arab (Palestinian or Jordanian, I don't know) Arava students taught the Arabic (which unsurprisingly didn't stick with me at all; I know a few words in Arabic and that's about it).
Adamah, v’shamayim, chom ha’aish,
tslil ha mayim
Ani margeesh zot, b’gufi, b’ruchi,
v’nishmati
Love the earth, love the sky
heat of fire, drop of water,
I can feel it, in my body, in my spirit
and in my soul.
We sang as the sun set, and it was time for havdalah. Two candles were lit in lanterns, spices passed around, and the brachot said. And as soon as we finished, those who'd brought drums started playing them, and people started singing again, and a circle of dancing formed in the middle. I felt awkward about the prep on Shabbat for after Shabbat, but I wasn't going to impose my views on anyone else, and the drumming was fun. It wasn't long until people were heading back to the hotel, getting ready for the night's (late) briefing.
I was later than most to the briefing (but there: they took attendance, and if anyone missed, they wouldn't be allowed to ride the next day), which went on and on with announcements about upcoming events, and our powers of fundraising, and so on. Sheldon was at the back by where I was sitting on a counter, and we snarked at each other through this, wanting to get to the essential part of the briefing so we could get a reasonable night's sleep. Most of it could have been in email after the ride...
Back up the unlit outdoor staircase to the hotel, where I found one of the mechanics, did a quick change into bike shorts, and went out to find my bike so the handlebars could be moved up. The mechanic had seen my wrapped hand Friday and suggested this might help the situation. We looked through truckloads of bikes, but didn't find mine, so we pushed it off until early the next morning (5 am, maybe?).
I went back to pack and do the usual routine, this time distracted by the view oout the living room window, showing the crew in the light from some trucks as they organized for the following day, moving food and supplies and so on. It struck me yet again how little I knew of how much work they all did to make the ride go so smoothly.
Sunday morning was the usual getting up early to finish packing and have breakfast. I went out before breakfast to find my bike, and the mechanics adjusted the handlebars upward for me. It definitely helped. And I got my hand wrapped again.
- ride to the overlook.
There was a group photo here. Some people had gone earlier to daven/meditate at the machtesh. I wish I'd had the focus and energy to get moving earlier, but opted for the more leisurely prep time. We all crammed in, some people standing on the wall (more power to them; I'd be nervous I'd slip, if I were up there in bike shoes). I'm glad many of the crew were in this photo too: all the riders were given a copy of this photo at the end of the ride, and it wouldn't've been the same without the totally amazing crew. There was also time to stretch here, and get tips about really long downhills.
Of course there were the amazing views. Another plus: seeing an ibex and its baby just on the other side of the wall. - straight into the machtesh.
"Straight" being a relative term: for the descent, it was switchbacks all the way; we went down about 300 meters in something less than 3 miles. Also, they let us go in pairs, rather than as a group, to keep from getting too bunched up. There was passing, but not nearly the kludge it would've been otherwise. It also helped that the police closed the road for us.
Not surprisingly, more amazing views. I never managed to stop to take photos in the middle of a segment, though... - cross Gvanim Wadi.
I almost never noticed the wadis we crossed, in the sense that I could see places that were likely wadis, but I don't know how what I was seeing matched up with the cue sheet. - rest stop.
Memorable because of Alon's demonstration of how a machtesh is formed, and how it is not a crater! - cross Wadi Paran, steep climb from 290 meters to 500 meters.
There was little shoulder, with a cliff on our right. I made it much of the way, but ran out of low gears before I ran out of hill, so I walked the rest. There was a cheering crew on the other side of the road (where there was room for a car to pull out, with the usual drumming, tambourine-ing, dancing, water-gunning suspects joined by a couple of soldiers. Unfortunately, there was enough traffic that they couldn't use the water rifles on me: I can't say I was shot by Israeli soldiers after all... - rest stop.
Memorable for me because it was the only time I needed the 'bush toilet' set up for women after the second day. Men still just meandered off to enjoy the view, as it were, but it would have been too far to go in the desert to get away from the group, so the crew set up a three-sided screen. It felt weird, with voices right there reminding me that there were people waiting. - cross Ovil Wadi, then Zihor Wadi.
- right at Tzihor Junction.
- lunch at Shitim.
I was so glad for lunch. I must not have been having enough snacks, because this was the only day I was ravenous for meals. The kibbutz (I think it was a kibbutz) had an area with many small trees that provided reasonable amounts of shade. Still, I was pretty overheated, so I started with a bunch of cool melon before the rest of the meal. And we were near a building that had a couple of outside sinks with high faucets, so it was easy to get my head underneath. It felt a bit wasteful using water for cooling like that, but oh so good (and I assume they have a graywater system in place). - back to the road, then cross Qezev Wadi.
- pit stop by the Shizafon Army Camp bus stop.
I was so glad of this stop; the shade felt wonderful. Plus I got to chat with Omar and Muhammed :-). People called out as they passed, checking I was ok, which was really sweet. Another rider stopped as well, but once the back-of-the-group bus arrived, it was time to go. The time out of the sun really helped.
We continued on past the army base. There was a firing range by the road, and I could see plumes of dust ahead, then the booms that went with them. I saw a tank go by, and I assume that was what was firing.
Also: this was the one day I saw the kangaroo crossing sign! It was on a sign for Machaneh Shizafon that day. (The Australian contingent had brought a yellow kangaroo crossing sign, and it was put up somewhere along the route each day. The person who noticed it most days got a prize.) - rest stop at Neot Smadar.
- steep descent into the Arava Valley (480 meters to 100 meters).
- right towards Eilat at the T-junction (onto a major highway).
- right into Kibbutz Ketura.
There were people cheering us on as we went through the kibbutz towards the back where people were staying. Ironically, there were a bunch of places on the kibbutz roads that were heavily graveled or had big gaps, so there were at least one or two falls as we finished the day. I was glad not to be one of them. And yay, for another metric century! On the down side, someone had said that the saddle soreness was worse after a day off, and it felt like that was right.
My room wasn't ready when I got there, which was the perfect excuse to hang out in the air-conditioned guesthouse lobby, aka gift shop/snack bar/computer room (well, one computer, anyway, with an odd, flexible sort of keyboard, the keys being more like bubbles than I've seen before) drinking lots of cold water and considering the commercial opportunities :-).
When we were let into the room, it turned out to be a studio, basically. There were three beds, a mini-kitchen along one wall, a decent-sized bathroom (again with no defined shower stall other than the curtain), and sliding glass doors out to the patio at the back, which gave a great view of the cliffs we'd come down.
I didn't get organized early enough to take advantage of both tour slots, so ended up choosing to see the experimental orchards over the kibbutz as a whole, which meant missing some interesting stuff (next time...). I also missed another meeting with other students, and everyone hanging out by the pool.
The kibbutz is a mixture of trailers, more permanent dwellings (none of them huge), group buildings (cafeteria, shul, lounge, etc), and agricultural construction. It felt more like a farm than Mashabei Sadeh (I don't know their principal activities other than the petting zoo), and more self-sufficient because of that. Or perhaps I was just given the chance to see more of the kibbutz.
Dinner was outside by the pool, a great buffet with some sort of interesting tomato salad (little tomatoes, rather than cubed bigger ones). There was the usual briefing, and a five-minute clip from the movie Ana's making, about food in the US. There were technology glitches (It was outside; no clue how they did whatever cables they needed (Or was it all wireless?)), but it's obviously going to be interesting.
It was fascinating seeing the landscape changes. Just behind the kibbutz, the cliffs rise, and it's fairly barren, especially compared to the green parts of the kibbutz. I could see another kibbutz nearby (on a hilltop, which struck me as strange, because the hill was abrupt, not gradual, so it's a restriction on growth, whether they like it or not), and across the way, beyond the date palm groves, there were other cliffs rising up from the valley, redder cliffs, which are Jordanian. I was surprised at how cliffs so close to each other were such different colors.
The regular evening routine of putting laundry out to dry, setting out the day's clothes, refilling water containers, figuring out how to get up on time in the morning. I was rooming with Ana and Anna, and one of them had appropriate technology :-).