How Many Ibices Did We Find in the Negev Desert?

I figured the plural form of "ibex" would be "ibices" (vertex - vertices, index - indices).

An ibex is any of several species of wild mountain goat, distinguished by the male's large recurved horns, which are transversely ridged in front.

They're important for the rest of this blog post, so the definition above is important in case "ibex" wasn't in your vocabulary before (don't worry: it wasn't in mine either).

Fourth of July with the Tel Aviv Hostel squad

This past weekend, post fourth-of-July-endeavors (pictured above), fifteen of my MIT pals and I visited the Negev in the south of Israel (as recommended by so many of my coworkers) and:

• watched the sun set over the silent desert

• slept under the Milky Way in a tent-like structure. We saw stars. Lots of them because the new moon was only a few days ago.

• caught the sunrise at 5:45am the next morning

• hiked three hours down a huge crater and back up (harder than the Masada hike)

• devoured a traditional Jewish-Yemenite breakfast called jachnun, a rolled dough with butter served with bean stew and tomato paste (prepared over the course of many days)

• baked for hours in the desert sun as we waited for our bus back to TLV (public transportation opens around 5pm because of Shabbat) but grabbed a delicious lunch at the only restaurant/cafe open on Shabbat in this town: Daroma

Josh enjoying the sunset on a big rock.

After watching the sun rise and before hiking three hours into a crater. I was not ready for the heat that was coming.

Below are two photos of the group during and after the hike. What you see in the first picture was our view for miles and miles out.

From left to right: pancakes, shakshuka, jachnun, and toast with cheese and olive tapenade.

A long rest after our crater hike. From left to right: Zach napping, Izzy and Jenny sleeping, and half of the gang trying to cool off in the shade before breakfast.

• saw so many ibices. Answer to the blog title: probably more than thirty.

Like, these goat dudes are just chilling in people's front yards and in front of gas stations and in the middle of large roads (they're not that large - Mitzpe Ramon's population is around 5,000 people). I love them, and here are shots of four ibices we saw in the Negev:

Tag yourself.

1. Cute-but-can-probably-still-hurt-you Ibex

2. Adventurous Ibex

3. Hungry Ibex

4. Domesticated Ibex