Mitzpe Ramon and Nitzanim camping trip

Last weekend, my friend Ayalon and I took a camping trip in southern Israel. We drove down to the Negev and spent the first night in the Ramon crater -- the world's largest crater-- measuring 500 meters in depth. We spent the next day hiking a few trails around Ein Saharonim in the crater.

Resting on top of a mountain.

Hiking down.

The heat of midday was so overwhelming we took a 2-hour lunch break.
The time was passed scaling the crumbling walls of the dry riverbed and hunting flies w/ rocks.

After an intense climb we felt pretty victorious.

In front of the warbly hills.

Documentation that we actually took the trip together.

Panoramic view of the crater.

The next night we camped out here on the beach in Nitzanim-- a nature reserve on the coast just south of Tel Aviv. Unfortunately, there was an overabundance of rowdy partying crowds celebrating Lag Ba'Omer that invaved circa 2am and proceeded to set up their spotlights, club-decibel music, and bonfires within a 10ft radius of our tent.

Making PB&Js on the roof of the car.

(Note: this is my first photograph of my car! Woo.)

Super fun trip.

Labor Day?

Today, my morning paper only included the Israeli paper and not the daily International Herald Tribune. At the head of the Israeli paper it says: "To our readers: The International Herald Tribune does not appear today, due to the May 1 Labor Day holiday."

I assumed this meant that it was Labor Day in the US, as the IHT is produced by the The New York Times Company and no one said anything about today being Labor Day in Israel. However, May 1st is International Workers' Day, celebrating the social and economic achievements of the international workers' movement. Strange.