25th day (Long Drive, Short Walk)

On the 26th day of the Hebrew month of Kislev we start the celebration of the Festival of Lights, Hanukkah, where we remember the Jewish uprising in the year 3597 (164 B.C.E.) against the Greeks who controlled the land of Israel. The uprising was based in the stronghold of the Hasmonean dynasty, the town of Modi'in.
On the 27th day of the Hebrew month of Kislev, in the year 5771, 2nd day Hanukkah, Paul, Yoni, Garry , Tracey and Kim (Garry's wife, for those that don't know her) got out of Yoni's car which was parked a few hundred metres from a brand new shopping mall in the modern city of Modi'in, and started walking.
As is so often the case, it took us a little while to actually find the orange, blue and white trail markers, especially since we were driving the first few kilomtres that otherwise would have us walk next to road No.1, the Tel Aviv - Jerusalem highway. No way. Better to look for the marking in the comfort of a car rather than walk stupidly around in circles in the hot winter sun.

Once we found the the trail markings we set off, hopeful that we'd get back to something that resembles the "real" shvil...walking through nature. Of course it's ridiculous to cut out all evidence of modernity on a trail that is meant to show the walker a slice of Israel. But as I've pointed out numerous times over the last few chapters, "been there, done that" already. Unfortunately, the start didn't auger well. Parking a couple of hundred metres from a new mall on the outskirts of Israel's newest city, we started walking through a barren open cut that was ready for future development. The trail led us away from the mall and the unnaturally opened clearance and followed the route of road 431, a highway that links the city of Modi'in to the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway, road No 1. If 4 lane highways aren't particularly interesting on the tarmac-top side, then from below they're down-right ugly. With views of concrete pilons and tangled interchanges in front  and cars and road signs overhead the first half hour left us with the impression of underbelly wasteland. Just like kvish shesh from the previous walk, just with a different route number. Exactly what we didn't want. But once we passed under the said route 431, the highways and cars stayed in the background and the shvil transformed into a pretty little country path. True, the cranes and shells of yet to be completed high rise apartments loomed on the horizon, but it was far from immediate. It may not be the green expanses of the Mt. Meron area, but the civilisation that we were trying so hard to escape was pushed well and truly into the background. Actually there's probably no-where in Israel that's particularly green. We're facing the worst drought in memory. It hasn't rained at all in Israel since about the end of February.

The path went through open brush and past olive fields which in turn led to a small un-named eucalyptus forest. The weather was perfect. Unfortunately. We need rain, not 22 degree mild walking days. Still, it was all very pleasant. However, if we'd been in this area this time last year, after heavy seasonal rains, this area would have been quite stunning. The walking was easy. Not boringly flat and not Himalayan mountain ascent. These are gentle foothills that soon enough will climb steeply into the Jerusalem corridor. We had one slightly stiffer climb that ascended to Tel Regem. From this hilltop perch we could see to the west all the way down the coastal plain to the sea. To the east, over the new Modi'in high-rises, the Jerusalem Highlands and Yehuda Mountains. Some trees atop an ancient tel were exactly the right place for tea and croissants.

This hilltop is a good example of a tel. A tel is a hill that is formed through the buildup of civilisation upon civilisation, one on top of the other. From underneath the tree where we were sipping our tea, all you could see was a series of broken cobbled walls. However if we were to cut a cross-section through the hill we would see evidence of numerous different civilisations through different eras, perhaps all the way back to the Maccabis and the Hasmoneans. Who knows?. There are hundreds of such tels throughout the country, too numerous for the antiquities authority to explore. This tiny country has so much unknown and unexplored history.

Beneath us, in what appeared to be the middle distance, was Moshav Gimzo, which we knew we had to pass in order to enter the Ben-Shemen forest and ultimately Garry's car. It looked at least an hour away but looks were deceiving. Barely 20 minutes had passed after we'd left the hilltop Tel Regem and we were already passing the moshav and entering the last phase of the walk. This last phase was only about two hours after we'd started, including the nice relaxed tea break.

It's been a long time, over a year in my opinion, since we've passed an empty, inviting picnic table en route. When the picnic table is in the shade, in the entrance to Israel's largest forest and our sandwiches were still weighing down our back-packs, how could we resist the temptation? We didn't even try. It's not like we were  hungry. We'd only  finished our tea and croissants less than an hour ago. It's just that we'd been pining for exactly this a scene for so long.
It's funny how some shvil traumas never leave you. The memory of the park ranger that made us pay to sit at an empty table in an empty national park back at the very beginning still haunts us. We expected Suleiman El-Haib to jump out of the bushes at any moment and demand payment. It didn't happen and after 20 minutes of chatting over home-made gourmet sandwiches we dragged ourselves up in order to finish the last 30 minutes of walking.

If the start was ominous, with a mall, open cut clearings and the underbelly of interconnecting highways, then the finish was sublime; 24 degree temperatures under the forest canopy  with friends. Ah, this is the life. We may not have progressed very far down the shvil but it was a very enjoyable way to spend a Friday morning.

As Israel has supposedly dragged itself into modernity, a lot of the old, hilariously incorrect translations of Hebrew into English have disappeared. You don't see "lamp chops" on menus very much any more. The Hebrew word "melacha"  can be translated either as light industry or crafts. A sign on highway 431that pointed to an industrial area translated melacha not as light industry but as "craft area". Both quaint and embarrassing that no-one thought to cross check the translation with an English speaker for the signs along a major road. All 5 of us immediately noted the inappropriate translation. Oh well.

Naturally (or not) we weren't very hungry when we finished today's stroll and in any case didn't feel that we'd "earned" our post shvil humus in the barely 2 hours of actual walking that we'd just completed. But it was only 11 a.m., too early to make our way north. The weather, as stated, was pleasantly warm so we figured  an ice cold beer was exactly what we needed (an interesting definition of the word "needed", I dare say). In fact, the new mall opposite the car had an Irish pub that was open at this hour. Unfortunately it was open because they were having a bar-mitzvah party there and we weren't invited. The bottle shop down the road was giving away tastings from a boutique brewery about 20 minutes from my place on Tuval. Strange how we travelled 2 hours, walked 2 hours and came to a mall in the centre of the country in order to sample beer from a brewery 20 minutes from home. The beer was quite good but they didn't  have any cold ones that we could buy, so we settled for Ben and Jerry's. Not beer, but not a bad alternative.

I feel I need to add a serious word here. On the Friday we walked, the Carmel Mountain national park was ablaze. The entire country was in shock over the terrible tragedy, including us. It is both sobering and strange to think that the track that we'd walked down 6 months ago no longer exists and that whole beautiful area is now just a charred remain.