42nd day (The Big Fin)

Walking the shvil, the usual aim for the day is to start at point A, arrive at the end at point B and thus get a bit closer to the final goal, Eilat. Occasionally, the aim of the day's walk is merely to tidy up some loose unfinished portions or to complete a specific task or landmark. This time we had 2 such days. Of course they were no less enjoyable than usual.
On this Thursday we had only 7 km to walk (that is, if we didn't get lost, which is always a possibility) and didn't expect any particular hardships. It was midday when we parked Mark's car opposite the gates of the Oron chemical plant and set off. The ancient and revered shvil rule of "no empty picnic table shall be left unused" came to play, especially since we hadn't eaten this morning. Gotta get your priorities right. Shoyn, we set off at 12.15.

Not for the first time we had some trouble finding the shvil markings, but for once, the book set us straight. Leaving the road, the path took us into the hills above to the east of the Machtesh Hagadol (the large machtesh). We climbed some rocks, walked up and down well marked paths and chatted happily, enjoying the warm winter sun. This continued uneventfully for about an hour. At one point, after easily negotiating a slightly steeper hill, the path rounded some high rocks and all conversation abruptly stopped. Unexpectedly we'd come to a cliff top overlooking the entire Machtesh Hagadol. Breathtaking views have been the norm these past few legs, but when you get to a point where your it comes on you suddenly, the affect is even more dramatic. And dramatic it was. This machtesh is as wide as the Machtesh Hakatan that we walked through last time but is almost twice as long.  Machtesh Ramon, the third crater in the area, is larger still than the large machtesh, but let's not get bogged down by semantics or bragging rights. At any rate, we lingered here for a few minutes, spellbound by the vista below. Now it was time for today's main event, the Snapir Hagadol. I prefer the English translation, the Big Fin. It has a weird ring to it. We scrambled up a rock-face to the small landing at the top of the fin. The view from here was no less striking than that we had just climbed up from, the cliff overlooking the Machtesh Hagadol. Here we had an almost 360 degree panorama of the desert surrounds. A perfect place for our sandwiches. And for Garry's Herbal Tea and chocolate croissants. We don't starve on the shvil!!

  
From here there was only one direction...down. I guess the flipper is somewhat imaginatively named because it's a thin ledge that drops downs at about a 45 degree angle. I would have called it "the razor", instead. The descent wasn't too difficult but you do have to be careful not to fall over either side of the ledge into the abyss below, or to fall down on the rocks which are razor sharp. It was slow going, taking about 40 minutes to descend from the top and it demanded some concentration. After that, a little bit more walking, a long tunnel under the railways tracks where we had to stoop for some 100 metres to get to the other side and there we were, back at Garry's car. Barely 3 hours had passed since we'd left Mark's car, 5 kilometres south along this same road.
The car was parked at the place where we had been picked up in the dark by Eli from Dimona on the first day of our previous two day walk. Having finished in the dark, we missed Ein (spring) Yorkam, a desert oasis. Today was one of the rare occasions when we'd finished early, so we decided to look for the spring.
If you have visions of an oasis with palm trees and camel traders, think again. This oasis is a crevice below the desert floor, entered by descending a number of large steps hewn out of the natural rock. There were 2 ponds separated by a small sand flat and reeds growing in and around the water. Different shaped and coloured birds flitted around enjoying the oasis even more than us. We just lounged on the soft sand, appreciating having finished our walking early and easily. Had it been a bit warmer and the water a bit cleaner, I may have even been tempted to take a dip.

I don't know how long we stayed at Ein Yorkam, but eventually the time came to make our way to Avi's Place, our accommodation in Yerucham. It was a nice, small, clean place that was unexceptional in every way...a bit like Yerucham itself, really. Yerucham is not famous for very much other than in the past it was so badly managed that the Internal Ministry sacked the elected mayor and local council and appointed in its place Amram Mitzna, a retired army general, ex-mayor of Haifa and a former leader of the Labor Party. He agreed to do the job out of a simple and pure desire to do good. Mitzna spent five years attempting to get one of the most out-of-the-way little villages imaginable into order. The result is a tidy little township with lots of clubhouses, community centres, a big yeshiva and even an artificial lake. For us it was another slice of shvil yisrael experience.
You can't expect a working class desert town to offer too much in the way of gourmet dining. Whoever we asked pointed us towards the towns only "restaurant", the Amsalem family's grillhouse. The only exception was a lad stoking a barbecue outside the Yerucham Youth Centre, opposite Avi's Place. He recommended a brand new place run by a Druze chef that had come all the way from the north of the country. "Be warned, though," he whispered, "the place doesn't have a kashrut certificate yet". We forgave him his sin of pointing us towards a non-kosher restaurant in this decidedly traditional town. The unnamed place turned out to be a welcome return to the Abu Humus style of places that we'd eaten in during our first couple of years on the shvil. Abu Yerucham served good home made hummus, a plethora of fresh salads, hand cut chips and simple, tasty meats. Perfect. For the first time in almost a year, today we'd added more calories than subtracted.

The lack of real physical exertion may not have caused shvil fatigue, but the vodka that I brought form home coupled with nothing on TV and a dearth of tourist activities ensured that by 9.30 we were all snoring happily. Or at least I was.