Once Was A Travel Virgin

Kibbutz Gevim, Sderot, Israel                                                                   4th April 1989

I feel that no travel blog can really be complete without a full account of ones travel escapades. So, just recently, I've been trying to source my old 110 and 135mm negatives from my early travels in an attempt to start the tales of my travel exploits right from the very beginning.
 

Our Volunteer Shacks!

My friend Balal and I had been planning to go away for almost a year. I was close to finishing my City and Guilds training and he had been floating in and out of mind numbing, soul destroying jobs. Having also had our (somewhat deluded) hopes dashed of becoming hot shot, yuppie stockbrokers in the City of London, we came to the conclusion that our future prospects most definitely lie overseas.
 

Kibbutz Dining Hall

Our first bright idea was to apply for a job in Saudi Arabia, working on an oil field where we would easily make our fortunes and return home in resplendent glory. My friend, being of Pakistani descent, had many uncles, one of which knew a guy, who knew another guy, who could possibly secure us a job. Gradually though, it began to dawn on us that we had about as much chance of obtaining a Saudi Arabian work permit as the Israelis had of ending the illegal occupation of their lands by the self proclaimed 'Palestinians', so, new plans needed to be devised.

Poleg Factory

At the time I had been working for an automotive repair centre while doing my motor engineers training and had got into an interesting conversation with one of my fellow work colleagues, who had spent just over a year living and working on a kibbutz. At that time, the word 'kibbutz' struck me as sounding a bit like a Moroccan hashish factory, where we would no doubt be expected to work night and day for a pittance and then spend our evenings in a harem, working as rent boys for the pleasure of the local emir, sultan or mufti!

Cow Sheds

 Needless to say, the more I heard about kibbutz life, the more the idea of going to one myself began to grow on me. Kibbutzim are basically town sized communities that can be found all over Israel. Volunteers are expected to commit for at least three months and will be given a wide range of jobs to do from picking fruit to working in the kitchens, gardens or factories. In return, you will receive lodging, three meals a day and a small amount of pocket money. The work day usually starts early at 5-6am and you will be expected to work 6-8 hours a day depending on the demands of the kibbutz. The Sabbath falls on a Saturday and you will usually get this day off.

Gevim Utd football team - with me at the back, taking things a bit too seriously...

My friend Balal was a little apprehensive about going, worried that the Israelis might mistake him for a Palestinian and deal with him accordingly. Such is the propaganda that has been propagated by the anti Semitic, mushy brained, liberal, Western media over the last 20-30 years. Reassuring him that it was the Palestinians who are the aggressors and that the Israelis only react in defence of their homeland, he soon decided to sign up, albeit somewhat reluctantly.

Balal chilling.....

The registration process is strict, but quite straightforward. We were called to an interview in Golders Green after which we went home to await a decision. Two weeks passed, by which time we had both received our letters of acceptance. At this point we decided to procure some extra last minute travel funds by signing up with an agency in our town centre that offered temporary work.
We found ourselves having to work the night shift at a factory where we were detailed to trim the excess material from injection moulded car bumpers. After 2 hours of this dull and monotonous task we got talking to some of the old boys working at the factory a few of who had been working there for over 30 years. It was at that point that we both knew that we had made the right decision to leave the shores of our native UK. One night was more than enough for us and we refused to return after that.

Kibbutz Entrance

Finally, the day came where we found ourselves being crowbarred into a clapped out, old Boeing 727 that had seen better days. The now defunct Dan Air had been tasked with spiriting us off to our place in the sun. With literally 4-6 inches of space between the seats, I spent most of the flight with my knees under my chin. Getting past the Godzillaesque trolley dollies was nigh on impossible, which meant that you could forget making a trip to the loo. Another disconcerting fact was that the captain of the aircraft spent a good three hours of the flight, wandering up and down the cabin, flirting with the stewardesses and chatting away to certain, select passengers. Anyway, after 5 hours of flying time, we made a semi controlled plummet back to earth and before we knew it, we were walking out of the arrivals terminal to be met by our kibbutz volunteer leader Dror, who had come to pick us up.

Rather Basic Accommodation....

Kibbutz Gevim lies just south of Sderot (the town that the terrorist organisation Hamas takes a perverse pleasure in launching rockets at every now and then in the hope of provoking an Israeli response). We found the kibbutz to be very modern with great facilities and a huge selection of job vacancies to fill. The only things that weren't modern were the volunteer quarters which were more like cells without bars, being very basic and spartan to say the least. We had a bed each, a chair and a small bedside table and that was it. We were encouraged to decorate our rooms as long as we didn't use paint or any other permanent covering.

View from our room

There were only a dozen volunteers on the kibbutz when we arrived and we soon became reasonably good friends. When you go to a place like this, you tend to meet some curious people, from Gary, the chilled out American who had adorned his wall with over a hundred pictures of BBW and who kept me well supplied with Chopper One and Casca books to stave off moments of boredom, to the aloof, obnoxious and foul mouthed Greg who always wanted to pick a fight over anything and everything and who used to bore us to death with stories about his thesis that he had had to write for his degree, always making it sound as if it somehow made him more intelligent that the rest of us (yawn!!!). Yet, despite our differences, we all seemed to get along.

Game in progress!!!

I was given a job in the kitchen, maintaining the dishwasher which was a huge piece of apparatus that tended to throw a major wobbly every now and then. The belt often jammed, things got stuck inside the washer and I frequently found myself having to dismantle and repair this infernal machine. Balal got a job working in the gardens which pissed me off no end, however, sadly, after only having been in Israel for 3 weeks, he received a call informing him that his father had died and that he needed to return home as soon as possible.

Zikim Beach

Nevertheless, before he left, we managed to pinch, borrow and steal whatever we could for our room and cause plenty of havoc; unwittingly of course. My next door neighbour Dave had managed to pull himself the best looking girl on the kibbutz, a beautiful Israeli girl called Helite. Her father was a composer who used to spend many hours working in a small building located quite close to the volunteer area. Due to the fact that our rooms were so bare, we were always on the scrounge for anything that could improve our living conditions in some way. One day, while engaging in a bit of bin diving, we came across an old, single bar heater, discarded, no doubt, due to its rusty and forlorn appearance. We retreated to our room, booty in hand where the said heater instantly became an impromptu toaster. Three slices of toast later, we heard a huge bang as a fuse box positioned somewhere close by, decided that it no longer wished to be overloaded any more, to be subsequently followed, about 20 seconds later, by a rather angry and vociferous vocal volley from Helite's dad. Unknown to us, he had been working on a composition for several hours and now, thanks to us, all of his work had been lost. He stormed around the volunteer area demanding answers while we tried in desperation to waft away the smoke and the smell of burning, after which we proceeded to cower in our room, petrified that he might find out who the perpetrators were. Thankfully, he never did until I admitted my guilt to Helite back in 2005.

Zikim Beach

So, there I was, 19 years old and alone in a foreign land. Being suddenly left alone like that was, I believe, one of the most defining moments of my life. I feel that my sheer determination not to give up and stay the course made me into the person I am today. Some people might, on occasion, find me to be rather outspoken, opinionated and a tad abrasive, but I believe that as human beings, we are the sum of our experiences and knowledge. I will never express an opinion on anything or speak my mind unless I know that I am speaking with a vast vault of knowledge to back my opinions up. It is very easy to rant and rave about ones beliefs, however, if you voice an opinion out of ignorance, (BBC reporters and Guardian columnists are prime examples of individuals that tend to do this) then people will soon see you for the misguided, biased and ignorant fool that you are. Food for thought me thinks.

Ein Gedi Springs

I found myself to be quite shaken up by Balal's departure, however, things soon got back to normal. Once a month the kibbutz would organise a trip for the volunteers and we were fortunate enough to be whisked away to Ein Gedi springs the Dead Sea and Masada.


Ein Gedi is an oasis of biblical fame located within a barren landscape. Rumour had it that King David hid out here after drinking all the wine in King Saul's wine cellar and having a rather over friendly game of shove ha'penny with his favourite wife. The springs are on several levels and a bit of a climb is required to get to the best one which is at the top. 

Ein Gedi Waterfalls

On entering Ein Gedi you will find two waterfalls, more or less side by side. One runs cold while the other has been warmed by the sun. There is also a kibbutz here which is well renowned for its botanical gardens and its great hotel. After a few relaxing hours, cooling ourselves in the springs, we headed off for a soak in the Dead Sea. Being the lowest place on Earth, it is certainly hot and very humid, this being made visually apparent by the ever present mists of the evaporating sea. I can't swim to save my life, but I happily spent an hour or so floating merrily away on the excessively briny surface.

Dead Sea

The following day, we headed up to Masada. Once a huge citadel, it is a long and tiring climb getting to it at the top of the hill. It was here that Jewish settlers made their final stand against the Romans, holding out for several months until a siege ramp, being built to end the siege, was nearing its completion and the end was staring them in the face. Rather than capitulate, almost 1000 settlers preferred instead to take their own lives.

Masada

I spent almost 2 months at Gevim until I felt the sands of Egypt calling out to me. So, I packed my bags and headed for the Rafah border crossing and my next destination, without a care in the world.............