22nd day (Mistakes)

Israel in the beginning of September is still hot.
In the past we'd planned our shvil walks to start early in order to beat the midday heat. In the past we hadn't been out in Tel Aviv till 1 a.m. before a shvil leg. First mistake.
I awoke after 8, went out and had a quiet cup of coffee and brought back double machiattos for my shvil partners. Despite the caffeine shots we were all tired after walking 18 km the previous day and going to bed late. Second mistake.
There was actually some doubt whether we would start at all since Yoni's thigh was black and sore, but the brave trooper decided to tough it out. Third mistake
Not long after 9.30 we were in the car driving towards the starting point. At 9.30 on the Saturday of Rosh Hashana, nothing is open in the city that never sleeps. We got to the Alonit convenience store at the petrol station at Neveh Yerek, close to our starting point, to discover that the 16 year old girl behind the counter didn't know how to take frozen chocolate croissants out of the freezer and turn them into baked ones. The 19 year old whose job it was to do that would only be arriving in half an hour. A bad omen. We only had chocolate Oreos to go with Garry's tea. We thought of buying some pre-packed sandwiches for the route ahead but they looked like they'd been sitting in the refrigerator section one day too many. So of we set, without having eaten any breakfast and without food for the coming day's walk. Fourth mistake.
The starting time was a bit after 10. Fifth mistake.
We at least got something right by parking the car close to the road so we wouldn't have to walk extra metres (kilometres) just to pick a car up at the end, but that was about the extent of our victories for the day.
The day's proceedings started pleasantly. The path followed the course of the Yarkon river. At the point where we joined it, at this stage of the summer, the word "river" is a misnomer. Even "creek" is probably a bit generous. A thin, green strip of barely moving water does not a river make. Still, lined by papyrus reeds it was a very idyllic country path, 15 minutes from the heart of Tel Aviv. Here and there locals sat by the banks, fishing rod in hand. I don't know if they ever catch anything and given the unpleasant green hue of the water I'm not sure that they would actually want to eat anything that they might catch. From experience, there is something calming , almost therapeutic, about fishing. There might be mockers amongst us that will call it pointless, but this is my blog and I'm sticking to it.
The other human activity we saw on the shvil was bike riding. This route, along the entire banks of the Yarkon, from its source in the Sharon to the mouth in the Tel Aviv port area is a well known bike path. Initially we too had planned to cycle the path but lack of confidence in our biking skills put paid to the idea. Sixth mistake? Perhaps not.

Walking by the river banks continued on for quite a while. Rivers, by nature, don't usually go straight. They snake along a route of nature's choosing that is eked out over thousands or millions of years. And here, on this day, for us, lies the problem. It  felt like that we were walking in circles. We'd often cross the river and walk along the bank in the opposite direction that we'd been walking in. It took us what seemed forever to get to landmarks that we thought we'd get to sooner. The landscape, whilst pleasant enough, was monotonous. Almost every leg of shvil yisrael looks better in the winter, but I'm quite convinced that this leg, done in the winter, would be one of the most beautiful of the entire Israel National Trail. Yet today, in the open, baking heat, with no breakfast and no food, not enough water, not enough sleep, tired from the previous day's 18 km and one of us with a very nasty bruise, we really struggled. So what do we do when the going gets tough? We hitch a ride. Over the course of the 3 hours that we'd been walking a small number of 4*4s had passed us. When Avi and Yael approached in their Nissan Tarrano, and even stopped to ask us directions, that was it. No mistake. We asked (begged?) for a lift and they readily agreed. Air conditioning never felt so good. They were in no hurry to get anywhere and we were in no hurry to leave the air conditioning. The conversation was pleasant and as the view outside marginally changed from reeds  to citrus groves we congratulated ourselves on our wisdom and good luck.. Eventually we passed from the rural agricultural area to the commercial Ramat Hachayal district that borders between Tel Aviv and Petach Tikvah. There are many restaurants in this area and If we'd still been walking we probably would have had some lunch, hopped into a taxi and called it a day. But we were in Avi and Yael's Nissan Tarrano and when they offered to drop us off at my van parked at the end we unhesitatingly agreed. As we were driving down towards the port area and my parked van we spotted a section of Park Hayarkon, Tel Aviv's sort of version of New York's Central Park. It's a large green park that runs for a few kilometres along the northern bank of the Yarkon. It's part of the shvil and looked very inviting. When one of us, perhaps out of a sense of misplaced guilt, suggested we leave the comfort of the limo service and venture back onto the shvil, the other two readily concurred. Sixth mistake. Avi and Yael looked a little puzzled, which I can certainly understand. Why would any sane person leave an air-conditioned car and chose to walk 5 kilometres in the midday heat? Especially since we'd already walked 8 or so kilometres and looked totally withered when we got picked up? Beats me, even though the decision was certainly unanimous.

To compound our mistake, we actually disembarked from the car not exactly next to the park but had to walk around in circles until we found the right way there. Add one totally unnecessary unshvil kilometre to the day's tally. There was probably another kilometre between the edge of the park itself to the white, orange and blue marked shvil path on the river bank. Park Hayarkon is very nice though. As previously said, we hadn't eaten yet today and unfortunately our hunger was amplified by the smell of all the barbecued meats that wafted over the park. Hundreds of families had decided to set up bivouac here and send a cloud of barbecue smoke into the atmosphere. Maybe Hendrix had Park Hayarkon in mind when he sang about purple haze.
By the time we made it back to the Yarkon itself we were even more tired, hot and thirsty and failed to appreciate the fact that, like many world cities that have rivers running through the middle, this strip of green in the urban landscape is something to be enjoyed. We just wanted to forget the mistakes, get back to the car and get home.

In summary it was quite ambitious to try and walk close to 40 kilomtres in a 28 hour period. Add to that all the other factors that made this leg such a struggle and I would say that all in we didn't give enough thought to that second day. Are we discouraged from doing 2 legs on a weekend? Certainly not. Next time we just have to plan it a little better.