The Red South

In February each year the green landscape of Israel's northwestern Negev desert turns bright red when the wild anemones bloom. The winter rains can be few and far between, and particularly so this year, but nonetheless a fabulous display of anemones, or kalanit in Hebrew, always magically appear, and Israelis go out in droves to see them! A special festival called "Darom Adom" or "The Red South" celebrates this amazing natural wonder and visitors are invited to participate in tours of the flowering areas, as well as many other family-orientated activities.

I was keen to see the flowers - in previous years we haven't made it quite so far down south - but the friends we travelled with were equally keen to stay away from the crowds. We made our own way to the Beeri Badlands, a nature reserve in a valley that looks a little like a crater, and enjoyed seeing the kalanit (the name is taken from the Hebrew word for a bride, a kalla, referring to a bride’s beauty) in a somewhat quieter way.

Kibbutz Beeri is named after Berl Katznelson, a leader of the Zionist labour movement before the establishment of the state of Israel. His Hebrew name was Be'eri. Signs direct you to the Beeri Badlands from the kibbutz. Apparently gazelles, porcupines, monitor lizards (the biggest lizard in Israel) and common tortoises inhabit the area but for us the flowers, in particular the beautiful red anemones, were far more evident. 

From the top of the "crater" we could see abandoned mines and what I later learnt were the remains of a British army installation (below). The sulphur mines were established by a British geologist who discovered sulphur deposits in the area during the First World War. About 10,000 tons of sulphur were dug between 1933 and 1946, when the plant was closed. A road was paved north to transport the sulphur to Gaza port which, my husband kindly pointed out to me only later, is located only about 1 km to the west. We could still see the piles of sulphur residue. South of the mines are the remains of the buildings and a network of roads where the British army had large ammunition storehouses during the First World War.

There are many other points of interest in the area which we will return to see another day. The area is a great place for cycling and I am sure that's something my boys would love to do. It was the kalanit, the anemones, that we had gone to see that day and they were there in plenty. Whilst not quite the red carpet I had expected (apparently that can be found in the nearby Shokeda Forest), it was still a sight to behold.

I took many photographs on the day we visited but one in particular stood out to me. I sent it to the ISRAEL21c news magazine and was delighted when they featured it as their Photo of the Week, below. I was quoted and credited as a blogger who writes about nature reserves and areas of beauty in Israel.
Ah, fame at last!