Man Plans

Checklist

•   Place to stay night before in Mitzpeh Ramon
•   Taxi ordered to take us the actual starting point at Saharonim campground
•   Jeep man booked
•   Shopping done, separated into days and given to jeep man to bring to us at end of day 1
•   Map is with us
•   Thermal underwear, warm clothing, wool hat, sleeping bag and tent for sleeping out in the desert. Torches. Toilet paper. Spare water
•   Yoni made soup. I made pasta. Portable stove and "gazia". Coffee, tea, munchies
•   Sharon and Bobby - out with jeep man to bus to TA

After the frustrations of wasted time and cross-country car driving of last time, we were determined to apply the lessons that we'd learnt, get the logistics right and enjoy 2 full days of walking.

The day started at 1p.m. at Sharon and Bobby's hotel in Tel Aviv. Some more old Melbourne friends joining the 3 little boys on their ongoing adventure. At a quick count, that makes 6 ex school friends from 35 years ago to have joined us so far. Having decided for the first time in 5 years to sleep out, mid winter in the middle of the desert, we really felt like little kids getting ready for an adventure. And what an adventure it turned out to be!

After meeting Garry at the agreed time and place we continued on to Ein Yahav in the Arava, where we completed the shopping for the next 2 days, then headed to Hatzeva to meet our Jeep man. The plan was to give him all our camping equipment and food so he could meet us at the conclusion of the following day's walk at the Gev Holit campground. We would sleep there and continue walking the next day as far as Sapir, where we will have parked a car.  Itsik, our Jeep man, seemed to fully understand what we wanted and where we wanted him to meet us. He instilled far more confidence than some of his predecessors.

All that remained of the day was to find our pre-booked apartment in Mitzpeh Ramon. With a little difficulty, we found Johnny and his AirnBnB apartment. Without giving away free plugs, AirBnB can be really good. It can also be a bit weird. Johnny, the owner and inhabitant of the apartment, simply goes to sleep at the neighbours' when he rents his place out for the night. A bit weird.

 I have always wanted to cook something on one of our shvil legs, and since we were in an apartment with a proper kitchen, I readily promised to cook up a curry. There's something very comforting about 5 friends, sitting around the table, with good food and wine. Even more so when it's cold outside, warm (sort of) inside, a holiday feel and  anticipation that we are about to embark on an adventure. By 9.30 we were ready to turn in. As always,we had early start tomorrow.

I was watching some TV on the couch I was about to sleep on when I heard Johnny come in from next door and start to check through the kitchen. A bit strange, I thought. I wasn't quite sure why he would come in and how he knew exactly when to come, but I put it down to co-incidence. We arose at 5.15 in order to be ready for the taxi arriving at 6.00. Johnny came in at 5.30 to check everything was ok. Again, how did he know that we were awake at this ungodly hour? I seriously suspect a spy-cam. Very creepy. Bate's AirBnB?

At any rate, Salvador, our funny little taxi driver, arrived exactly on time, crammed the five of us into the four places in his car and traversed the dirt track to the saharonim campsite. He was cheerily oblivious to the fact that his car wasn't made for this type of mistreatment.

So far, almost unbelievably, everything had gone exactly to plan. Even the weather, which had been a bit drizzly on the previous night, seemed to be smiling on us.

I rarely mention actual dates of our trips, but I would like to point out that we disembarked from Salvador's Skoda on the morning of 31st of December. I was planning to spend New Year's Eve with my 2 friends, sipping ouzo till, say, 7.30. It's dark already by 5 in the evening, and I can't really see any way that we were going to stay awake in the freezing desert any later than that. Happy New Year.