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Goat Herding in the Negev

For over a month, we lived and worked in Ezuz, a very remote area of desert in Israel right next to Egypt’s border. It was idyllic: Ezuz had just 16 families living a bohemian lifestyle with lots of kids running everywhere barefoot. Our jobs started with the sunrise at 5am. After feeding the chickens, goose and those goats who were too old or too sick to graze, we herded the fit goats, all 60 of them, to their pasture.
We walked the goats in the desert to an oasis where they could graze upon the plants. It was truly kickass! It was nothing like the quiet meditative exercise we had expected. Instead, every day, we returned stressed from the fear of losing any and dripping with sweat. Yet, despite feeling tired and out of our depth, it was also a beautiful experience to live that way of life, and it’s such a shame that we had to leave just as we were starting to feel more confident herding the goats.
It was also a truly magical experience to see the sun rise slowly every day. And the sun revealed a wonderful desert and its creatures – antelopes, hares,, desert foxes, hundreds of sand partridges and beautiful bee eater birds.
The goats didn’t notice the sunrise, they were far too busy eating.
One of us would always lead herding from the front while the other encouraged the stragglers with lots of “hup hups”..
Once we arrived in a grazing area, we had to control the herd to make sure they didn’t wander off too far or split up.
But splitting up, wandering off and getting lost was their superpower. These two fell into and got trapped in an abandoned subterranean structure and we had to use all our strength to lift them out. We often had to scramble over barbed wire fences and through thickets, which left scratches everywhere, and one goat even impaled its horns into one of our thighs!
Our biggest challenge was gathering them up after three hours of grazing to walk them back to the farm – they loved eating so much that they never wanted to leave! We often screamed at them things like “what part of hup hup do you not understand exactly?” Until the last week, they would just look at us and keep eating.
Our jobs were not made easier when the occasional claps of thunder frightened the goats. Some were so loud they scared the living daylights out of us – we got a sense of how nomads in Biblical times must have felt with such a warning from the heavens.
After a while, we got to know their characters and we promised them that we would never eat goat stew again. This one never stopped smiling at us.
And this silly billy goat with his lolloping tongue would affectionately massage his head on our bodies every day.
Life was not all rosy. We hugged this sick old goat as it started frothing at the mouth but the morning after, it was dead. As part of the farm’s circle of life philosophy, it was taken to the desert and left for the hyenas.
We also felt so sorry for this blind goat that we picked treats from the trees for her ( e.g. carob pods) although that meant she never left us in peace and preferred to beg for food rather than make the effort to graze.
The goats ate most things in their path but they preferred acacia, mesquite and saltbush plants.
There were few flowers in the oasis (we need to return during Spring) but what was there was delightful
Thankfully, the goats left the pomegranates for us.
When we arrived back at the pen after grazing, we did a headcount to make sure we didn’t lose any (it was always really tough to count heads when they were grazing) and filled up their water troughs.
After a long break during the hottest part of the day, we helped at sunset with more feeding and odd jobs around the farm. There was no milking as all the goats became pregnant during our stay (just the time of year, nothing to do with us).
Ezuz is so remote and small, there are no activities or shops, so we took the chance after work to just explore, rest, read, practice our Duolingo foreign language lessons, watch films (we had WiFi)…
…and admire the sunsets
Our home in Ezuz. We ended up living in and roaming through the desert, like in the Bible, for 40 days and 40 nights. By the end, we asked for a new Commandment…
…When herding goats, thou shalt remain calm and refrain from swearing, and thou shalt run after them until exhausted to deliver them, whole, unblemished and unmixed with their mothers’ milk, unto their owners.
We worked 6 days a week. On our day off, we went into Be’er Sheva. On the way by bus, we saw the nearby local attraction – Ashalim solar power plant aka The Eye of Sauron with over 50,000 mirrors reflecting the sun’s energy to create electricity.
Nearby, in Nitsana National Park, we walked in the footsteps of the 6th Century Nabateans on their ancient hilltop, and saw just below the start of a 3km long sculpture by the Israeli artist Dani Karavan of 100 modern pillars running along the Egyptian border, each one carrying the word “Peace” in the 88 languages which were spoken in this land over time.
With the conversion of Nabateans to Christianity, there are also the remains of a Byzantine church, visited here by a few antelopes (bottom right).
There are also here the remains of a railway line built by the Ottomans during the First World War to transport troops to the Suez Canal to capture it from the British.
Some lovely clay hills with incredible loess formations, the Nitsana Hillocks, lay nearby too.
In Be’er Sheva, we went to tourist offerings like the Museum of Islamic Cultures
By traditional account, this well was dug by Abraham and rebuilt by the Romans. The Bible refers to a well in Be’er Sheva but this particular one has been referred to as Abraham’s well through millenia by bedouins. We found it interesting that Be’er Sheva means Oath Well (we had assumed Sheva meant seven) as Abraham struck a deal with Abimelek to share the well rather than fight for it: this may have been the very first international peace agreement!

Charities

We spent a week volunteering for an inspiring charity, Im Hateva in Gan Yavne, which supports at risk children from across the country
Around 5% of Israel’s youth spend a gap year volunteering for charities and we had the great opportunity to meet those who helped the children at Im Hateva for a year.
Our job was to prepare for a Children’s Festival. That meant transforming hundreds of milk cartons into lanterns…
…which lit up the charity’s food forest.
It was magical to see the look on the faces of the 500 children attending as they listened to stories and songs from witches and fairies.
We also helped out with all sorts of things like protecting the cafe from expected rainfall
…and working in the food forest: making a fence out of old pallets, cutting back papyrus to give the pond’s fish room to roam, tending to fruit trees (and in the process discovering the wonderful feijoa fruit)…
…also making incense burners out of sage and lavender, helped by an angel on earth.
…and making natural cosmetics from recipes of essential oils. So many gave so much of themselves to make the world a better place.
We also visited Boys Town to see the great work they do educate disadvantaged boys to exceptional standards…
and remembered our dear family whose legacy allowed the school to establish a unit for psychotherapy and music and art therapy.

Family and Friends

We had been promising very dear and wonderful family to visit them for 20 years! Having an exquisite breakfast in a beautiful park (Ramat Hanadiv)
And with other darling cousins in Haifa. Our whole family was so generous in hosting us and taking us about.
And with the one remaining matriarch who started this side of the family.
Together with the younger generation…
and younger still.
We even met some cousins for the very first time, yet felt like old friends in their company.
We also met up with old young friends…
…and made young at heart new friends.

On the Road

When not travelling with our family, we generally got about by train and bus, both invariably crammed with young conscripts.
The army’s presence was in fact felt constantly, particularly where we lived in the Negev which is heavily used for training. This drill manoeuvre took place right outside our front door in Ezuz.
Our visits with family to ancient sites, including this one overlooking Azeka where David slew Goliath, regularly reminded us of our Bible studies!
It’s always interesting to find Biblical references in archaeological finds: this 3,000 year old tablet we saw in Jerusalem incredibly refers to David’s dynasty.
Fast forward to Roman times, we also visited this 1st century aqueduct (Ein Tzur) with water still flowing down its channels.
Ancient cities like this one in Beit She’an which began 7000 years ago, are bewildering.
It was fascinating too to see this mosaic of zodiac signs in a 6th century synagogue at Bet Alfa.
Close to Beit Alfa, we chilled in the beautiful surrounds of Gan Hashlosha
This part of our trip felt like a proper holiday. We were spoilt too by the beauty of Kibbutz Nir David
The kibbutz had an artist who created works from scrap metal including these goats who looked all too familiar.
Tel Aviv remains similar to how we remembered it in our youths: a modern, vibrant metropolis, but now with far too many electric scooters which pedestrians regularly need to dodge.
We spent most of our time in Tel Aviv admiring Jaffa, the markets and museums: the Museum of Art has an incredible collection and showed a moving documentary on the photography of Micha Bar-Am.
In many towns, the ancient is often juxtaposed against the modern, this “Missile” building in Haifa being an example.
We had a great tour through Haifa’s beautiful Bahai gardens and inside the holy Bahai shrine to the Bab. We were quite taken by the religion’s stated principles of humanism, equal rights and compulsory education for all.
Religion was of course everywhere we looked in Jerusalem
We learned that Jerusalem has three different defensive walls, built over different periods, the last one being built by the Ottomans.
We stayed in Mahane Yehuda, just opposite a wonderfully vibrant market. Living there for one week felt like being on the filmset for the brilliant series Shtisel.
After two terrorist bombs exploded close to where we stayed, we decided to give blood but were refused on the basis that we lived in the UK during the period of Mad Cows Disease. Ironic given that the blood bank unit had been donated by the UK friends of Magen David Adom.
Jerusalem is also fascinating for its mix of history and modernity, well symbolized by the Israel Museum’s appearance as a spaceship housing the Dead Sea Scrolls and fronted by Ai Weiwei’s iron tree sculptures.
The Israel Museum is home to some of the best archaeological finds in the world and to some of the best artworks too. Lots of Van Gogh, Renoir, etc and a remarkable exhibition by Sagalit Landau who submerges objects into the Dead Sea until they become salt encrusted.
Chagall’s stained glass windows in the Hadassah hospital and the stories behing their installation are both beautiful and moving.
Our travels involved quite a bit of hiking
Some of it tested our stamina and courage
Other parts like caving were not for us, but we happily cheered on our cousins.
A great vista from Belvoir Castle looking over Jordan.
We were with our family, it was a warm day and something in the air turned Belvoir into sleeping beauty’s castle.
Down by the River Jordan, which forms a border crossing with Israel.
Our hikes revealed some spectacular scenery
…and even more spectacular clementines.
Beautiful walks on the beach somewhere under the rainbow
The hikes with our family were of course arranged around food

Food

We will miss Israel’s food so much: it is such a melting pot of the Mediterranean, Levantine and utterly modern. We especially enjoyed the hummus from Haifa’s Abu Yosef and from the Arab village of Abu Ghosh which is famed for its hummus.
Zaatar bread, this one made in a Druze village, was another favourite.
We tried so many falafel sandwiches before settling on Falafel Baribua’s offering as our favourite
We loved a kind of dessert drink called Sachlab: hot milk, coconut, chopped peanuts and cinammon.
Our sweet tooth was also satisfied with all the delicious baklava…
and with the healthier pomegranates.

Next

After a short trip back to the UK and France, we will spend January to March in Florida and Central America.

9 Comments. Leave new

  • Linda
    December 22, 2022 3:48 pm

    I loved meeting you both at my house for dinner, and at Daphna’s.
    You are lovely people with joy in your soul and a lust for adventure. I hope to meet you again on one of your wonderful trips around the world. All the best, with love, Linda

    Reply
  • Geoffrey
    December 22, 2022 5:13 pm

    As usual I admire your resourcefulness and zest for sampling various experiences.
    What a wonderful time you had.
    I look forward to meeting up with you in Florida. Irving is on stand by to join us.

    Reply
  • Nancy Diamond
    December 23, 2022 2:41 am

    I thoroughly enjoyed your trip to Israel and always admire your experiences. I found myself getting a bit jealous of your new cousin meet ups, but I will come to terms with it!!!! I loved your photos and comments, and the goat herding gave me the biggest smiles. Looking forward to seeing you. Where are you in February? Maybe meet you in Central America.

    Reply
    • admin
      December 23, 2022 5:44 pm

      Join us on our next trip and you’ll enjoy it even more. For February, we have had offers from charities in Uruguay, Colombia and Guatemala. We’ll let you know soon what we decide and we’ll see you there! Love xx

      Reply
  • Indira
    December 27, 2022 4:03 pm

    What a wonderful post with lovely pictures and vivid details. I admire your dedication and wishing you more strength and courage to continue with more hiking and adventures. Good to see you both with delicious falafels at hand.
    Wishing you a healthy start to 2023 and the years ahead.
    Looking forward to your next posts 😊

    Reply
  • RALPH HASSOUN
    December 30, 2022 11:13 am

    Je dĂ©couvre aujourd’hui votre magnifique sĂ©jour en IsraĂ«l. Quels spectacles et moments fabuleux vous avez dĂ» vivre. La famille du cotĂ© Sylvie ou Jeff ?
    Bises Ă  vous deux et que 2023 vous soit lumineux.
    Ralph et Kathy

    Reply
    • admin
      February 10, 2023 1:54 am

      Bonjour Ralph
      Nous ne dĂ©couvrons ton gentil commentaire qu’aujourd’hui. Ce fut un sĂ©jour inoubliable, magnifique en effet. Qu’un si petit pays puisse dĂ©livrer tant d’aventures si diffĂ©rentes les unes des autres, parait, encore aujourd’hui, difficile Ă  croire. Pour ce qui est de la famille c’est autant celle de Jeff que la mienne ( les filles de cousines de mon pĂšre).
      Grosses bises

      Reply

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