Spaced out in the Negev

Discover rustic comfort and a sense of expansiveness only the desert can offer, at a farm on the way to Yeroham.

By BARRY DAVIS
A friendly word of advice: If you’re looking for state-of-the-art Hilton style accommodation complete with a giant flat screen TV, Internet access and a sprawling balcony overlooking an Olympic-size pool, then Nahal Haro’a Farm is not for you. If, on the other hand, you’re looking for peace and quiet, blissful tranquility, delightful rustic comfort and the sense of expansiveness that only a desert can give you, then this is just the place you’re looking for.
Nahal Haro’a Farm is a five-minute drive from Halukim Junction, in the direction of Yeroham, near Sde Boker in the Negev.
It was established seven years ago by Avi Saragosti, who relocated from a moshav near Beit Shemesh, where he cut his teeth on tending goats and sheep and making cheeses.
The overall sense you have at the farm is of space and taste of the best variety. The former refers not just to the seemingly endless tracts of desert land stretching out to south but also to the style of the accommodation.
The farm has two buildings with guest suites designed specifically for couples. They are set back, away from the goat and sheep pen, dairy and the Saragosti family abode. In fact, visitors can use the suites without encountering Saragosti at all, other than to be welcomed and shown how to use the facilities in the guest accommodation and to settle up at the end.
The owner noted that since he started offering bed-and-breakfast services, we were only about the fifth couple to make the trek (about 100 meters) to the goat and sheep enclosure. “I often leave breakfast food containers outside the doors of the guest buildings in the morning and pick them up in the afternoon,” said Saragosti. “Most people just come here to relax and chill out and soak up the peace of the desert.”
Accommodation at the farm does not come cheap. You’re looking at laying out NIS 1,300 for a weekend night stay and NIS 1,000 midweek. But you get your money’s worth. The suites, suitably named Gefen (vine) and Te’ena (fig), combine quality comfort with airiness and non-intrusive low-level technology.
From the emperor-size bed you get an almost panoramic view of the desert through the window front. The bathroom is also of generous dimensions with a couple-size Jacuzzi and a shower with a gargantuan proportioned showerhead. There are some candles in glass holders dotted around the bathroom for added romantic ambiance.
The fixtures and fittings are all high standard throughout. The kitchenette is well stocked with cutlery and china, and there is a microwave oven and pulldown toaster. The fridge sported several bottles of alcoholic beverages, milk and chilled water, and there was a bottle of organic red wine, fruit, cookies and candies on the dining table and coffee table.
And, just in case you find the sound of Mother Nature’s silence too much to take at times, there’s a small stereo with some CDs, including Neil Young’s Harvest, the London Symphony Orchestra with Jethro Tull band leader Ian Anderson, and Shalom Hanoch and Moshe Levy’s live album. You get the idea that Saragosti is looking to cater to eclectic tastes.
There is also no need to schlep reading material to the Negev, as a book basket near the front door offers such literary and visual delights as Meir Shalev’s A Russian Novel, a couple of National Geographic magazines and Gabi Nitzan’s delightful Badolina.
The star on the Nahal Haro’a Farm entertainment bill is, of course, outside.
The shaded gravel-floored veranda, complete with table, chairs and a swing seat, offers ideal conditions for observing the shifting sands during the day and the myriad stars in the unblemished night sky.
Breakfast is lavish and tasty – homemade bread, eggs, salads, various spreads and pastes, and freshly squeezed fruit juice; and the espresso machine on the kitchen top produces coffee any Italian café would be proud of. You can also order additional meals delivered to your front door, as well as a variety of massages.
As a memento of your stay, you can pop along to the dairy to buy yellow or white cheeses, and there is an assortment of locally made wine for sale as well.
We came home feeling suitably relaxed and pampered.

The writer was a guest of the Nahal Haro’a Farm. For more information: 054-483-5545 and http://www.haroa.co.il/129970/ hospitality-asp