Desert Transportation; [Up Front Edition]
ETGAR LEFKOVITS. Jerusalem Post. Jerusalem: Mar 11, 2005. pg. 33
Abstract (Document Summary)

[Horwitz], who knows five languages including Arabic, says that

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(Copyright 2005 The Jerusalem Post)
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It may not seem like the most efficient or seemly method of
transportation. But in the sand-strewn desert area just south of
the Dead Sea, a young Israeli couple is now offering tourists and
visitors donkey rides for those seeking something slightly
different - and certainly more unusual - than the more
conservative camel rides the Middle East is famed for.
The two-hour rides on the donkey carts, offering an atypical
desert romance or a memorable family adventure, not far from the
area where the Bible says that Lot's wife was turned into a pillar
of salt, are the brainchild of 34- year-old Louani Horwitz, a
blonde "nature girl" who received her first camel at the age of

six.

The daughter of a French mother and Swedish father, Horwitz

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grew up in the Sinai next to the Sea, until the age of 12 when
Israel evacuated the peninsula and her family relocated to Eilat.
From age 11, the athletic Horwitz - who looks like she stepped
out of a Hollywood movie set in the Middle East and whose first
name is not French but Hawaiian - started giving her first nature
tours.
Only at age 12 did she start school, and, when not on the
terrain with her donkeys and camels, is completing her BA from the
Open University.
The idea of starting the donkey rides came to her several years
ago on a trip to New Zealand with her husband when she saw pony-
driven carriage rides.
Although she is an avid lover of horses, Horwitz knew that the
intense heat of the Dead Sea during the spring and summer months
ruled out such conventional rides, which are common in the North,
where the summers, though hot, are more temperate.
So turning to several Israeli veterinarians and the Animal Anti-
Cruelty Society, Horwitz bought nearly a dozen donkeys at about
NIS 600 each, which otherwise were likely to have been put to
sleep.
While the couple is slated to begin offering day-long rides
soon in the area of the Dead Sea hotels located at Ein Bokek,
their current venue for both the donkey and camel rides is a 20-
minute drive south of the hotel district in a stunningly serene
mountain ridge near Moshav Neot Hakikar.

Horwitz, who knows five languages including Arabic, says that

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the newly trained donkeys, which she has given Hebrew names, are
"fun to work with," learn quickly, and never bite, even when

cajoled by a leash.

But sometimes the animals' human nature kicks in.

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During a ride this month the stubbornness suddenly came into
play when one of the newly acquired donkeys, in a fit of
slothfulness, plumped down on the ground as if dead, and, despite
repeated coaxing, refused to get up, even as all his companions
carried onwards, until completing his half hour nap.


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Section:   Features
Text Word Count   480
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