Our trip to the Negev 2020

Visit to Boker Valley farm not much in a year without travel

The Corona lockdown has meant that we have been home this time for 4 whole weeks and Astrid booked to spend 2 nights during the week at Boker Valley Farm on Tues. Wed. 27th 28th October 2020. We arrived there at 3pm taking the directions that they gave us but it would have been easier continuing on road 6 to get there as you have some very dangerous drivers in the south and it is not pleasant being overtaken on a barrier line.
Still on the main Nitsana road you see a small sun shining in the distance and when we got close we realized  that this is the Ashalin solar power station.  On the way home  we drove past this and I found out that it is a white elephant and an ecological danger.
Apparently when it was built in 2014 it got a 20 year contract to provide power to the Electricity Corporation cheaper than the coal power stations but by the time it came online in 2018, cheaper new gas was available from Israels gas fields in the Mediteranean. The  Chinese are now manufacturing cheap solar panels. Ashalim has mirrors pointing to the tower that gives a very bright light that one has to avoid looking at and will cause eye problems. Any bird that flies into the area of the mirrors will  get either singed or burned up. It does store hot salt solution so that the turbine continues up to 4 and a half hours after sunset. This was designed in Israel and all these projects develop engineering skill that go to invent the next idea.
Boker Valley Resort is ideal for times of Corona as there are about 6 cabins each on their own space. Once the sun set it was pretty chilly in the dessert so we could go for long walks.  The cabin does not have TV so we had a rest from the bad news. We played scrabble and watched  a movie on our portable DVD and I finished reading a book. On the hill the wind had completely blown all sand off the rocks so  nothing grows there but lower down the dried out river beds have luxurious growth  and despite the fact that it seldom rains but there is a heavy dew in the morning. There are olive trees and fig trees and a few goats and horses. In season they have a riding school.  Their season is the winter months but because nobody could leave the country this year to go abroaad they open edin August on request.  I would not like to be here in mid summer. Instead of breakfast in the dining room they brought  each cabin a box with breakfast. We brough with 2 main meals and bread cheese, tuns salad  for a light supper.
The only problem was a family downwind with a barbeque and the smoke from them. There was not much to do here but at least we got away from the humid coast and our flat for two nights and relaxed.
Thursday  we visited Tal Tehila and family before returning home late  that night.

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