Once again, I slept like a baby; and I had yet more sweet cinnamon tea when I woke up. After breakfast today, we played a really fun game with a soccerball, where you have to catch it if your name is called. I managed to stay in: if you get out, they call you by whatever name they choose!
Stuck at the bottom of a narrow ravineToday we completed the last leg of the hike: more steep mountains; more spectacular views; and more beautiful rests. Toto the dog is still with us - and is still as cute as ever.
We stopped for lunch on some limestone rocks, and I ate heaps of pickles, salami, biscuits, and nutella. We had a very relaxing siesta after lunch, where we just lay down and took it easy. Then after lunch we completed the very last few k's of our long 3-day hike from Mizpe Ramon, in the central Negev, to the Jordanian border.
Civilisation at last!Just before our campsite, there was a big cleft that looked out onto a small town on the Jordanian border. When we reached this cleft, we all held hands and sang "Koombaya" as we walked up, 
Some well-earned meditation and yoga and beheld civilisation for the first time in three days. As I said at the time: "That is the most beautiful shithole of a town I've ever seen".
We then descended on the other side, and reached our campsite. We've now set up for our final night outdoors, and the sun's setting fast, so I must stop now.
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[Tonight] would have to have been the best meal I've had so far in Israel. The whole night was a more than fitting finale to our memorable trip through the desert.
Mmmm.... chiiiicken...We ate dinner around a table constructed from upturned crates. It was an absolute feast. Ofer (our gourmet chef, vis a vis tourguide) roasted 10 whole chickens over a slow fire; he baked even more chicken as well as roasted vegies; and he made delicious saffron rice (and salad) to go with it all.
While Gadna and Kibbutz starved, we gorged ourselves like animals on this mammoth meal. Raffy claims to have eaten a whole chicken, just for starters. Probably not far from the truth.
After dinner, we had a cosy circle around the campfire, where everyone passed the Nagila round and smoked it, and people brought out bottles of wine so that we could make Lechayims.
We had a huge round of Lechayims, in the tradition started on my birthday in Tsfat: we drank to Michal, for her birthday which is tomorrow; to the desert; to Toto; to the meal; and to our Madrichim.
Everyone stayed around the fire for a long time; and one of Ofer's helpers got out a guitar and played a great many songs. As with every time in history that it's happened, the atmosphere around the musical campfire was nothing short of magical. But eventually we ran out of songs to sing, and so we went to bed.