The family and I were just off to a short vacation in the Negev, staying at Hotel Kedma in Sde Boker to be more precise. As was the case the last time we were there, it was of course a joy and a great experience to stay there. If you should ever wish to visit the Negev, and want to be relatively central, then I can strongly recommend Hotel Kedma (no, unfortunately not being paid).
I’m not sure why, but this stay was more active than the last time. Maybe because we had less time, only staying there for three nights, we felt that we needed to get more out of the time. Or maybe it was that we only took one room this time, which made us want to be out more. Whatever we went out more to see the surroundings. I had agreed with my wife that she would take care of the kids and allow me to do a photoshoot in Ovdat for some hours, so I took advantage of that. This allowed me to expand my portfolio of photos from Ovdat and helps me create more content for Ovdat and the Nabataeans. The day after we went to Mitzpe Ramon, an amazing natural phenomenon that no one should cheat themselves for, should they be in the area. Of course, I also took the opportunity to get a couple of shots there, but this was more about being with the family. Finally, on the last day, we decided to visit Sobada, or Shivta as it is known in modern Hebrew, an ancient Byzantine city in the middle of nowhere, literally. I’ve never been there before and I don’t know much about it, but we saw it by coincidence on the map, and though we had to stray off a little from the road home, we decided that this was an option we couldn’t sit by. And we definitely don’t regret it. And of course, I did take the opportunity to begin building a portfolio for the city.
Now I’m sitting here the morning after we came back. The kids are off to school and kindergarten, and I need to work. The trip left me with close to 700 photos, which I will need to sort through and edit, so I won’t be sharing much in this post. But I have added a couple of photos, just to leave an impression. I will of course write much more about the various places and share more photos, but I need to get a sense of what I’ve got and what to write about first.
All that said, it was an amazing trip, not only because of the places we visited but also because I got to enjoy it with the family, something which only makes it so much better.