sprinklers, pipes, exhaustion and hunger

On Sunday I moved from working the kitchen to the fields. After working there for 4 months I had got pretty used to having a delicious breakfast every morning and finishing work by 2pm every day. In the fields you get a coffee in the morning, home around 4 and the work is physically demanding.

I have spent my week moving pipes, throwing sprinklers off a trailer, connecting pipes and sprinklers up,   and helping with sprinkler checks. It's been tough but I quite enjoyed the physical challenge means I don't have to work out anymore! I have been going to bed at 9:30 most nights from how tired I've been but I imagine in a few  weeks my body will get used to it. I am little concerned about it getting hotter though. There is no shade in the fields and when it's 23 degrees the sun already feels relentless to a Brit.

 Being outside the kibbutz is nice too driving around the fields seeing everything growing. I do miss the social side of working in the kitchen and dining hall a little. Literally had the opportunity to talk to everyone on the kibbutz there but its good to try new things, learn new skills, challenge myself.

I now know connecting pipes at a certain angle makes it much more likely that you will successfully connect them. I learned this after several hours of utter frustration in a massive field me and Garam were left to connect.  I had moments when I was ready to smash some sprinklers! Turns out I really hate not being able to do something that in my head shouldn't be that difficult. Since I seem have got the nack to connecting pipes and stay calm when things don't fit together straight away. Things usually work out in the end.

I am currently in Jerusalem for the weekend,  so I will be updating you on my trip in a new post sometime soon.

Me & Garam in front of one of the trailers of pipes and sprinklers

Windswept wanderings in the desert

Looking out over Mitzpe Ramon with Garam

On Friday Garam, two of the German guys Marian and Christian, Dennis who's Polish and lives in Germany ( but hates being put under the German title),Joram the new Canadian guy and myself headed for Mitzpe Ramon a big crator in the middle of the Negev desert.

We stayed the night as the sunrise, sunset and star gazing are meant to be amazing out there. Unfortunately the weather was not on our side it was cloudy! So we didn't see much. A storm was on its way after about a month of glorious sunshine. Typical.

At the start of our Green trail trek

We spent the night sleeping on couches (as we hadn't booked) in a tent with no electricity and still had to pay 80 shekels each. A little steep but we did have a fun night. Met lots of people: more Germans, Canadian, American, a lot of Israelis. It was super busy.

Me and Garam made spicy pasta by candle light and Garam made one of her delicious cocktails for us to drink and share. The night passed pretty quick until about midnight. We wanted to sleep but a bunch of other people didn't. Sleeping in the common area can be a pain in the ass.  I gave up about 1am waiting for people to shift off the couch where I wanted to sleep and went and grabbed a mattress that was free in another tent took my sleeping bag and headphones and got cosy. Have to say it wasn't the best nights sleep I've had but it was sufficient to get me through the next day. Although I did get a little grumpy later on.

We woke around 8am and were out of the hostel with a plan to go on the shortest and most accessible by foot trail around the crator. A couple of days with a 4x4 would have been handy but we are kibbutz volunteers so we made do with our feet!

The views were pretty spectacular and the walk was full of rocky terrain. Joram, the Canadian guy decided that it wasn't exciting enough and he went off trail where successfully managed to injure his foot. A rock came lose and fell on his ankle so he limped and bled his way to the end of the walk.

On the way down into the crator

We had to carry all our stuff with us while we walked as we weren't staying another night at the hostel. Jordan had the biggest and heaviest backpack. He packed for every possible situation yet the one thing that would have been useful, a medical kit, he didn't have in there. This combined with the limp definitely made it a tough trip for him but he did well keeping up with everyone and didn't complain. Was an enjoyable trip. Really windy though! The wind was as strong as we got off the North Sea back in

Whitley Bay. Luckily without the biting cold element!

It took us about 3 hours to complete the walk and as it was Shabbat there were no buses running until the evening. We decided to hitch hike back. This was an adventure in its self. Mitzpe Ramon was super hard to get a ride. Most people had their cars filled with family or just didn't care for hitch hikers. Me and Garam took the longest to get back cos we kept sheltering from the rain unlike the guys who just stuck their thumb out all the way through it. It was a very long day but interesting and unlike any other trip I have been on so far.

The last few kilometres as we head for the road home.

Its all so quiet..shh

Not really. I have just been being lazy with my blogging activity.

The weather is beautiful unlike England right now with your extreme weather warnings.

 Hope no one is flooded. There is a pretty red flower kinda like a poppy all over the fields around the kibbutz with clear blue skies, every day. Love Israel!

We have a few new volunteers. Canada and Portugal along with a bunch of Latinos and half the people here now are going to be leaving in the next two or 3 weeks. Lots of change in the house so it was time for another group photo. We weren't all drunk this time so it actually came out pretty good!

Anyway I am off to Mitzpe Ramon tomorrow with Garam and a few of the German guys so should be another update on that coming soon.

Oh I almost forgot! On the 4th of February at 6:40am we had the first 'zeva adom' alarm, which means colour red. If sounds whenever a rocket lands in close vicinity to the kibbutz. I heard it and ran straight to the bunker my adrenalin was pumping. I was scared. A bunch people practically slept through it! One of the volunteers had to run out and wake people up. Luckily it wasn't actually anything serious there was no rockets from Gaza was just a computer malfunction. Was a bloody good alarm clock though. There was no way I was hitting the snooze button after that.