Its 6 o'clock on the morning of Shavuot and I'm awake already, getting ready to do another leg of Shvil Yisrael. Need I ask myself, yet again, why I do this to myself?
And so we meet again. This time we were determined to have a boring, uneventful walk. No road walking, no Barry, no lost keys.
In order to facilitate this aim we decided that the distance between 2 given points is the same no matter at which end you start. However, the amount of energy that you spend going up from point A at 600 metres above sea level to point B at 1200 metres above sea level is vastly different from what you would use going down from point B to point A. If you add to this equation another parameter, that at 49 years old energy is a finite, limited resource, then the solution to the eqution is both obvious and simple. We start at Mt. Meron, the highest point in Israel and therefore the highest point on the entire route and finish at the top of nachal Dishon, whilst not exactly lowlands, is considerably lower than the starting point. We have, of course, already learnt from experiance that mountain paths tend to go down and up, but you can't argue with the math that between 1206 metres and 612 metres there's a fairly steep drop. We'd already chopped the routes up a bit, finishing the 3rd leg in two go's before doing the 2nd leg, so doing this leg "backwards", against the general north to south direction that we are walking the country was perfectly logical.
So we hopped out of Yoni's car at the large empty carpark at the top of Mt. Meron, not before Garry had confiscated my keys after parking my van at the other end. After some 100 metres or so we came to the first lookout on this circuit path of the mountain. Israel is not blessed with high mountains, but even at this height the views are stunning, especially on this crisp morning before the haze sets in. In general we don't dawdle when we walk, but we were overtaken, or more correctly brushed aside, by a group of very serious looking Russian power walkers who seemed to be determined to get to where-ever it was they wanted to get to as quickly and efficiantly as they could. You don't argue with serious looking Russians.
After 3 or 4 lookout points the shvil yisrael path separated from the circular mountain top route and we started to descend. It quickly became apparent that the decision to walk in the direction that we had chosen was a correct one. Over previous legs we'd observed that mountain paths go up and down. Well all in, today's mountain path only had downs. And a good thing, too. The pleasant downhill allowed us to fully appreciate that we were walking through a beautiful natural mountain-oak forest. So far, with the exception of a limited time in the nachal Snir nature reserve on the first day, we hadn't encountered any deep forest, the type where you're barely aware of the sun above, or of the outside world for that matter. It was noticably dark and the ground under foot covered in a blanket of leaves. There was barely a sound except for the birds. This may all sound like a cliche, but it really wasn't. It was just the type of walking path that makes our walks so worthwhile. We walked today for about 5 hours and I would estimate that over half was in such forest. If we weren't in forest then we had lots of views. And it was all downhill. Sometimes taking the easy way is the right way and this was one of those times. If we'd done the 14 km in the other direction we would have arrived at the big carpark on top of the mountain totally and absolutely pooped and certainly not having appreciated all that this section had to offer.
If we spent the first few legs wondering if we'd ever see anyone else along the way, today we were on the autobahn. Russian Powerwalkers, family groups, clusters of shvillers and mountain bike riders. There are lots of different paths that criss-crossed the shvil yisrael path so there were lots of options for lots of people. Add on to that the fact that this was Shavuot, the last of the spring festivals, perfect late spring weather and an area that is one of the most well known for nature walks in the country (including of course the country's highest mountain), so it was no surprise that we saw so many people. When we got back to the large previously empty carpark on top of the mountain, 5 or so hours after we left it, it was now a large full carpark, with cars and buses jostling for position, reminding us once again that the Levant is closer to Egypt than it is Switzerland. And if we're mentioning annoying third world behavior then I can't help but point out that all along the path we were reminded how popular it is, not by obnoxious crowds, but by the tell tale signs left behind when nature called. At times it was like walking through a public lavatory.
If we saw more people then we saw less cows. Every walk we'd done we'd seen cows grazing, but now we that the grass has dried out and those luscious spring flowers are a memory then I guess the cows have started to be kept in pens and fed fodder. Its a bit like going from a Jacques Pepin 5 star restaraunt in Provence to Campbell's from a can. We did however see one handsome black bull (he's even go this own a photo here) who may be described as the Richard Gere of the bovine world. A couple of kilometres further down the track there was a fine heiffer who if not the corresponding Scarlet Johanson then would definately be a worthy candidate for the Carnivore Club here on Tuval.
So all in we got what we wanted. An easy 14 kilometres that took us through beautiful countryside, without dramas of any sort. The sort of walk that I think fits into some sort of stereotype that we imagined shvill yisrael to be. We've only had 5 outings so far but even so, we can start to look back and mark off things that were more memorable, a sort of edited highlights, and todays walk will be there.
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