Yesh Matsav

We drove south from Tel Aviv for about two hours, and every few kilometers the land turned drier. The whole country is a desert, but certain areas look the part more than others, and it was clear when we had arrived in the Negev, as Israel’s southern strip is called. We pulled into the goat farm where we had reserved a room for two nights at around noon, too early. The room wouldn’t be ready for another few hours we were told. But in the small cheese store where they sell the farm’s products—an array of goat cheeses, yogurt and wine—Ram, a man in his late 40s who was traveling with his 10-year old son Omri and their dog Chickli, offered to show us where to hike. We followed them in their pickup truck first for a quick bite, and later down into the Mitzpe Ramon crater, one of the largest in the world. With them we hiked the Ein Saharonim trail. Ram amused us with tales from his life and travels around the world while his son was busy climbing every canyon edifice. We would look up after one of Ram’s stories, and there was Omri high above us on some cliff. On our way out we stopped at a Bedouin tent for tea, coffee and some traditional bread with Labane and more stories from Ram. After a life of business, engineering, a few patents and much travel, he has settled on a piece of land (60 dunams) in the Northern Negev where he runs a zimmer—the Israeli version of a bed and breakfast. (Ram’s story is much like that of the owners of Naot Farm, who in 2003 also decided to “fulfill their dream” and start a goat farm together with their six kids.) Ram is happy to be out of the rat race, and told us he hoped for our sake that in a few years we will have left New York. Truth be told after a few days in the desert, eating goat cheese, cooking meat on a grill and hiking in some of the most beautiful landscapes, we hoped for the same. In fact we even contemplated leaving Tel Aviv for a while and renting a house for a month or two in the “real” Israel, surrounded by land and nature. Who knows, maybe one of these days we too will end up with six kids and a goat farm.