Neot Hakikar

A few weeks ago we spent a weekend with old friends who were visiting from the UK. They had already booked to stay for a few days at  Moshav Neot Hakikar, south of the Dead Sea, so we decided to also make a booking in a zimmer there (the Israeli B&B is known as a zimmer - German for room) and spend some quality time with them.
It was a weekend for hanging out. We are already quite familiar with the tourist sites in that area - Masada, the Dead Sea and Ein Gedi - but, incredible as they are, this was a time for chatting, catching up on news, glass of wine in hand and burgers on the grill (or in my case, veggie sausages!).
Neot Hakikar is a moshav (a type of cooperative agricultural community in many ways similar to a kibbutz) on the border with Jordan. It has a population of 230 and was founded in 1961. Surrounded by rugged hills at the end of a desolate stretch of road, Neot Hakikar was one of the pioneers of innovative agricultural techniques in Israel, irrigating the desert with salty water to create harvests of tomatoes, melons, figs, herbs and, as we saw when we peeked into some of the many greenhouses, an abundant amount of red, green and yellow peppers.

Truthfully our accommodation wasn't up to much - at least it didn't quite look like the photographs we had seen on the internet when we made the booking - but it really didn't matter. We hung out at our friend's place, climbed the 'mountains' and visited the goats in the nearby farm. The kids dipped themselves into the muddy waters of a nearby spring and we walked and talked. Quite frankly, it was a pretty perfect way to spend a weekend. Come back soon S and D!