If these shvil blogs are ever to get turned into a book, then there are some names for the book that spring to mind. Something like " Shvil Yisrael for the 50 Year Old - Are we over the hill, (yet)?" Or since we change the walking direction depending on the uphill or downhill grade of the day's walk, perhaps "The Downhill Walkers Guide to Shvil Yisrael" is appropriate? There would have to be an appendix, or an altogether second volume that would be named "Cheating the Shvil" "Shvil Yisrael Through a Car Window" or "The Drivers Guide to Shvill Yisrael" . The possibilities are endless. No series would be complete without the obligatory restaurant guide "The Shvil on a Full Stomach", "The Eating Guide to Shvil Yisrael" or simply "Abu Shvil". If anybody out there in cyberworld has any additional book ideas or name suggestions, then just send them in, via the comment part of the site, e-mail or facebook. Any way you want to look at it, today's leg would get pretty good coverage in all the books and for good reason.
We'd agreed to start early in order to exploit the day as much as possible and not be pressured about getting back to the real world of family and shabbat dinners too late. I picked Garry up in Carmiel at 6.15 so we could get to Allonim junction by 7.00. We were the first ones there and headed straight for the Arcaffe. Tracey rolled in a few minutes later and Yoni a minute after that. There's something very civilised, very right, about starting our day's walk with a really good double machiatto. We miss our Kedarim Segafreddo.
From there it was on to the end point to drop a car off outside of Tivon, then on to the centre point at kibbutz Yagur where we would drop off a second car and up Mount Carmel to the Druze village of Ussfiya to start the days proceedings. Centre point? Drop off in the middle? Have I made a mistake describing today's route? No,no, no. No mistake. As previously mentioned ad nausium, we don't like walking on road. Even if the road is part of a kibbutz or the same road leads through a slightly run down agricultural hassidic settlement. So by un-unanimous democratic decision we arranged to come down Mt. Carmel and pick up a left car in the carpark of kibbutz Yagur . We would then drive through to the edge of Kfar Hassidim, where we would continue to walk to the end. This is no skimming off a few clicks of pointless road walking at the beginning or end. This is full-on wanton cheating. No other way to call it. But hey, I'm a democrat and once again, 3-1 is a clear decision. So today's route would be divided into 3 distinct sections. The first walking down Mt. Carmel via Nachal HaMa'apilim. The second driving from Yagur to Kfar Hassidim. The third walking through very different topography from the mountain descent, between Kfar Hassidim to Tivon.
If you check your atlas, or know the places that I've named, you'll notice that we've changed the direction for this walk. Absolute, unquestionable unanimous decision here. Down Mt. Carmel is much more enjoyable than up Mt. Carmel.
So there we were, looking for the starting point for today's jaunt in the middle of Ussfiya. Eventually we spotted the tell-tale white orange and blue markings along the main road of the village and found a place to park in some restaurant's carpark. We crossed the road and started off through the suburbs of the village. No sooner had we started walking when the complaining started with it.
One of the first subjects of conversation was the continuation from the previous walk concerning the pisstool, our female outdoor urinary aid. Cousin Linda, who worked for many years in the outdoor equipment business , politely pointed out to me that it already exists. Bummer. Doesn't have as great a product name as pisstool, though. But not to worry. Tracey and Yoni both got whacked in the face by a branch that flicked back, prompting us to try to invent a branch sensor that might be part of a hat that would warn the wearer that he/she was going to get imminently flicked by the branch in front. We don't have a name yet or a clear product design but we'll work on it next time. Or the time after that. We've still got a good few legs ahead of us before we hit Eilat. In the mean time if anyone has any ideas, bring 'em on.
The forest quite quickly changed from planted pine to natural oak and grew progressively darker. The old natural forest was overgrown and allowed in only mottled light. To think that this gem is only 10 minutes from Haifa, Israel's 3rd largest city. After an hour or so of quiet solitary walking the peace was broken by the unmistakeable sounds of school children. Not too raucous, as many Israeli school groups can be, but still, relative to the birds, an unwanted intrusion. Yoni and Garry laugh at how I occasionally bump into people on the trail that I know. And it happened again. Amongst this group from an Anthroposophic boarding school that takes in kids from troubled backgrounds were 2 young kids, Nikko and Sergei, who come on weekends to my neighbours since their own families can't take them. I don't know who was more surprised, them or me, but it was one of those numerous shvil moments when the unexpected happens. Not far after we passed them we stopped for our regular cup of herbal tea and chocolate croissant, but couldn't fully relax for fear of being overtaken by the rabble of school kids. They really seemed to be well behaved when we passed them but that doesn't mean that we wanted to share this narrow, shaded mountain path with them. And so passed the first part of our morning, walking down a gradual to moderate slope through thick old-growth forest until we came out quite suddenly into the car park at Yagur. I had been led to believe that the descent down Nachal HaMa'apilim was a steep one, even treacherous at times. No such thing. It was a lovely little stroll that barely caused us to break a sweat. Maybe it's all just relative. The previous walk, down Nachal Amud, was long and had about an hour and a half of hard up and down rock climbing. The three of us each suffered for the few days afterwards from stiff muscles, especially thighs, not wanting to tell each other for fear of being wimps. It wasn't till we met once again for this shvil section that we realised that all three of us suffered the same stiffness. No such risk after descending this mountain though.
I'm not going to describe the drive to the next drop off point, other than Kfar Hassidim didn't look particularly charming but still might have been interesting to walk through. I wouldn't know.
Upon getting out of Tracey's car we were reminded immediately that this was an agricultural settlement, hassidic or not. The smell of hassidic dairies is no holier than any kibbutz dairy. That mix of stale cow urine with boggy cow shit is a smell that wafts through many kibbutzim, moshavim and here in Kfar Hassidim. We were happy when we finally got out of olfactory range.
We saw a number of strange things along the route today. Truth is, we often encounter something strange or unexpected and that's one of the beauties of the trail. So today we had a telephone handset hanging from an electric high tension wire in Ussfiya. Gives new meaning to the phrase "I was left hanging on the telephone". Then we had an intact toilet bowl in the middle of no-where. Poor Tracey copped a few jokes from her male companions about for once not having to squat or use the pisstool in nature. And then we had 2 shvillers and a dog. Yes, they were walking the entire shvil all in one go, the large horse-dog being laden with a girdle, full of overstuffed pockets . I'm not convinced that the dog-sherpa union would have approved but it didn't seem to be complaining.
The hardest part of today's walk was the steep hill we had to climb not long after we left Kfar Hassidim. Even though it was quite steep, it was still only a hill. 20 minutes of huffing and puffing and we were at the top. And the views from the top made all the puffing and panting worthwhile. We were basically looking back from above, over the distance that we'd covered, either by foot or motor. The Carmel mountains, Zvulun Valley, Haifa, the smoke stacks of the bay oil refineries, and the sea. Now if I'm a canyon and cave man then Garry is a beach and sea man, so imagine Garry's joy of seeing the sea in the distance for the first time in a year of shvil walking. The Mediterranean has never really done it for me, what, after Bondi, the Great Barrier Reef or Wilson's Prom. Still, Garry is going to be one happy camper for the next year or so.
In the year and a month that we've been on the trail I've avoided self congratulation because, well, there's really been no reason. But now I will allow just a hint of it. When Garry set Haifa as our aim after the first year I thought he was being his usual over optimistic self, perhaps only half believing that we could really walk from Dan to Haifa. But after 13 months and 15 walks which involved quite a lot of manoeuvring and effort in regards to personal schedules, we saw Haifa and the sea from the top of this unnamed hill and we realised that we really, truly have done it. And yes, it felt good. Then the reality check kicked in after a brief discussion of our aims for the second year, then the third and the fourth and fifth through the desert to Eilat. We've still got a long way to go.
At the top of the hill we crossed a small field and spotted THE tree. One of the most memorable, impressive trees we've seen so far on the trail. .An enormous, lone oak tree that you just can't walk past without resting under it. So, drawn by it magic, we did just that. It's a hard life, but someone's gotta live it. Eventually we pried ourselves away from the enchanted tree, carried on and soon passed a Bedouin encampment. A run down hut, an empty animal enclosure, bits of unused corrugated metal sheeting strewn over. Its a sight they we see reasonably often. These little outposts are not marked on any maps and are not inhabited all year round, but we've seen them dotted all over the north of Israel. It's a reassuring sign that the modern 21st century Israel still hasn't invaded every square inch of the country.
The descent was a bit gentler than the ascent which as I've said already, wasn't too hard. I would say,in fact, that gentle is the word that comes to mind when I think of today's route. The descent down Mt.Carmel was not overly troublesome. The countryside that we walked though from Kfar Hassidim comprised of easy, gentle hills. Now we were into the last section, a very slight uphill meadow, full of the obligatory spring wildflowers, different from the previous two walks due to the different geographical areas and changing seasons. Yoni commented that this walk was no less beautiful than Nachal Amud. It certainly isn't as breathtaking as Nachal Amud but I certainly understand his enthusiasm for today's deep forest, the views over Haifa Bay and now these final few kilometres which were pretty much a perfect end to a perfect days walk.
As we were driving back to Kfar Hassidim to pick up Tracey's car, she got a phone call from her daughter that there was water leaking through the roof of her house. It happens that life interrupts our best efforts to escape reality. So while Tracey had to quickly return home and try to find a plumber on a friday afternoon, we filled our faces in the decidedly un Abu Abu country restaurant called Karmei Zait (the Olive Groves) in Kfar Hassidim.
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