2024-03-17 31 34
| Sun 17 Mar 2024 in 31,34: 31.6140593, 34.6268826 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox |
Location
In a field outside the town of Talmei Yafe. We're coming to the end of winter, which means most fields will be full of crops; I can only hope that either this field has already been harvested, or has a non-standard crop type, or the crops are planted in neat rows between which I can walk.
Participants
Plans
Train day! Train to Ashkelon, bus to Talmei Yafe, walk to the point, reverse to get home.
Expedition
Child #5 woke me up in the middle of the night, so I was tired and got a late start this morning. But I was on the 09:39 train from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, followed by a train to Ashkelon. From there I took the #20 bus not to Talmei Yafe as I expected but rather to the nearby town of Gvaram. Wait, why am I doing that? Ah, there are no good buses to Talmei Yafe at this hour, and Gvaram is fairly close - I can still walk to the point, but I'll need to cross some train tracks to do it.
Because these towns are relatively close to Gaza, there is heightened security. All alternative entrances to the town are permanently locked and there is only the main gate. So I had to take a bit of a detour to leave Gvaram, but it didn't delay me all that much. I headed north on the path and eventually crossed the railroad tracks where they met a road for farm vehicles at an official railroad crossing. (Which is good - I would've been nervous trying to cross in the middle somewhere.
On the way I saw a massive farm of solar cells, which I knew would be there from the satellite imagery. It was really cool, but the photos I took don't really do the place justice.
Eventually I reached the field, which was, unsurprisingly, overgrown with crops. Luckily, the crops were in rows... mostly... and there was a fairly wide row right in line with the point. Only about 70 meters. I start walking down it...
And then I have to stop. The row was getting narrower and narrower, and I noticed that I was no longer easily able to step in between the produce. No matter how careful I was - and I was being as careful as I could! - if my foot so much as brushed against a stalk it would get knocked down. I couldn't proceed any further.
I took a screenshot to commemorate, only 12 frickin meters from the point, and turned back.
I then had half an hour to get into the town of Talmei Yafe to take the bus back to Ashkelon. Unfortunately, the closest entrance to Talmei Yafe was locked due to the security situation. And by the time I got all the way around (going right next to the solar farm) I had missed it, and had to wait over an hour for the next one. Oh well.
Photos
Starting out leaving Gvaram
I hope the field I have to go into looks more like this...
...than like this.
Train crossing in the middle of nowhere
Photovoltaic cells
Bird sitting on a solar cell
View of the solar cell farm from farther away
Only twelve meters away
The path is too narrow to keep going
This was the beginning of the path - barely enough to fit through at the start, then it narrowed
Finally a decent view of the solar cells
Good advice!
