Middle East - Anthony Ham [256]
Sleeping & Eating
Beit Yatziv Hostel ( 627 7444/5735; beit_yatziv@silverbyte.com; 79 Ha’Atzmaut St; dm/s/d 110/195/280NIS; ) Popular with visiting university academics, this place is clean and welcoming, with a swimming pool that makes for welcome respite on summer days. To find it, look for the three large radio antennae.
Beit Ha-Ful ( 623 4253; 15 HaHistradut St; mains 15NIS; 8am-midnight Sun-Thu, 8am-3pm Fri, dinner Sat) For a hearty dollop of fuul look no further than this local favourite. It’s a great town centre stop-off for refuelling on a long voyage through the desert.
Getting There & Away
On business days, bus 370 runs every 20 minutes to Tel Aviv (14NIS, 1½ hours) and buses 446 or 470 depart at least half-hourly to Jerusalem (32NIS, 1½ hours). For Eilat (55NIS, three hours), bus 397 departs more or less every hour via Mitzpe Ramon (23NIS, 1¼ hours). Bus services for Arad (14.80NIS, 45 minutes) run at least every half-hour.
From Be’er Sheva’s central train station, which is adjacent to the central bus station, you can travel comfortably to Tel Aviv (25.50NIS, 1½ hours) roughly hourly from Sunday to Thursday.
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SDE BOKER & AVDAT
08
Sde Boker Kibbutz, a popular stopping point for Jewish history buffs, contains the modest home of David Ben-Gurion ( 656 0320; adult/child 10/7NIS; 8.30am-4pm Sun-Thu, 8.30am-2pm Fri, 9am-3pm Sat), Israel’s first Prime Minister. The home is preserved as it was at the time of his death in 1973. At the entrance to Sde Boker, a visitor centre shows a 20-minute film (7NIS) about the kibbutz. Around 3km south of the kibbutz, at a spectacular clifftop setting, are the graves of Ben-Gurion and his wife, Paula.
The gravesite is close to the northern entrance of beautiful, canyon-filled En Avedat National Park ( 655 5684; adult/child 23/12NIS; 8am-5pm Sun-Thu, 8am-4pm Fri) where day-hikers can amble through the Wilderness of Zin, spotting ibex along the way, to the bizarrely chilly desert pools, En Avedat. A good place to start the hike is at the park’s northern entrance. Take the steep trail after the pools, to the southern entrance (this takes about 2½ hours), from which you can hitch or take a bus (one every 1½ hours) back to your starting point, or loop back along the riverbed path to the northern entrance (this longer route takes four hours).
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THREE HIDDEN TREASURES
Israeli tour guide, Galit Zangwill, gives an inside peek into her three favourite undiscovered southern treasures (without the precise directions). ‘The south is Israel’s jewel,’ she says, ‘With the best night skies anywhere on the planet. Just lie back in your desert bed, and watch the stars.’ Ask a local to show you the way to the following: though Galit was willing to disclose the destinations, she couldn’t be cajoled into telling us exactly where they are located.
Hike Mount Saharonim This hike on the slopes of the Maktesh Ramon Crater is one of its very best.
Ammonite wall Fifteen minutes from a southern road, you’ll find wall covered with ammonites, an extinct group of marine animals.
Climb Mount Tsfahot (near Eilat) Set off early in the morning before sunrise for an extraordinary view, as the sun comes up, of the Red Sea, Eilat Mountains, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
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A great place to stay is the British-run Krivine’s Guest House ( 052 712 304; krivjohn@netvision.net.il; s/d US$39/51) on the Ben-Gurion university campus. The guesthouse provides excellent tourist information, meals, mountain-bike rental and transport from the Sde Boker bus stop. Advance booking is essential.
Nearby Avdat National Park ( 655 1511; adult/child 23/12NIS; 8am-5pm Sun-Thu, 8am-4pm Fri), a ruins complex with Nabataean, Roman and Byzantine elements, is best known for the camel-caravan sculpture on the crest of the hill. Constructed by Nabataeans in the 2nd century BC, it served as a caravanserai along the trade route between Petra and the Mediterranean coast. More excitingly for some, parts