I don't have a long time because I'm using internet in a hostel for 20nis an hour and that adds up. So here is a quick trip through the last eight days. Enjoy.
Day one:
We meet in Tel Aviv, take a bus and then another bus and end up in an intersection somewhere in the north. We meet some Israelis, hike to Birket Ram (in the Golan Heights), where we eat a lot of fruit: there are apples, figs, pomegranates and grapes. We get to a lake and set up camp. I nap, the boys light a fire. I wake up, we chat, everyone eventually goes to sleep.
Day two:
We wake up with the dawn. Sam wakes up late which we discover is a trait of his, while Shem will become notorious for waking up early. He's already up filming the sunrise. We get ready but the Israelis are much quicker and leave an hour before us. We eventually leave and I find day two much harder than day one. We walk through a small Arabic village where I tire of the hills and try to roll my bag but instead Sam carries it on top of his pack for a while. We get to Nimrod fortress and after giggling about the name we get ice cream, I pass out with everyone's bags while they go explore the fortress. Then a lot of downhill, which is good because I'm exhausted. We reach a national park where we were apparently meant to pay a fee so we do. I get to the end with everyone else where a waterfall almost makes the walk worthwhile but we have to leave the park because it's closing soon - so it will be dark soon. We walk a while and decide to hitchhike the rest of the way to Dan where we'll sleep. Shem and I hitchhike and a young couple drop us at the gate. I put my pack down and immediately begin to feel queasy. Sam and Aladdine arrive half an hour later, since they couldn't catch a ride (Which we attribute to Sam's beard) and we get into the kibbutz and camp. Turns out this "trail angel" is no angel - he takes an extra 20nis from me to sleep on his lawn. Everyone eats but me, I'm too sick, so I fall asleep.
Day three:
I have already woken up several times int he night but this time everyone else also gets up. I've got some sort of stomach bug and I decide I can't do the day. I tell the group to continue the trail, I'll get better and meet with them tonight. I am on the lawn in the kibbutz until 11:00am. I finally get the strength to finish packing and get to the bus that will take me to Qiryat Shmoneh, near tonight's stopping point. I spend most of the day hanging around the bus station, I feel too weak to move around much. By three I feel better, try calling the group (Sam's phone is off so I leave a message) and explore the stores. I get a call from Sam around 5:30. They're at a campsite called Ein Roim, not too far away but they need water, bad. There's none nearby the site. I fill up my 9L capacity and try to taxi it over but the taxi doesn't know the place. With coaching from the group by phone he drives me to the entrance of the trail, where Shem will walk over to meet me. I step out of the taxi, reach for my pocket and moments too late realize my phone had fallen onto the seat. Shem finds me anyway, we walk to the campsite and I go to sleep feeling much healthier.
Day four:
We figure there's a water supply four km down but there isn't. We figure there's a road to meet the taxi for my phone but there isn't. We are hoping for a drum full of fresh water that's supposed to be by the side of the road around km 6 but it's not there. We start asking people about the water source since we're all getting low. No one seems to know but they are kind enough to offer us water so no one runs out completely. Finally we find a military base just off the trail that not only has fresh, cold water but a stand selling souvlaki. We take the spoils of our triumph and sit under a tree for lunch. Many people catch up to us, we point them to the water and food (the base may not have appreciated that but the hikers were grateful) and some sit with us. By the time lunch is over the spot is quite crowded. We keep walking and eventually get to a road. There's an extra path. It's very steep and rocky. I'm tired and I don't want to do it but everyone else does so I do too. We hike with a group of Ukrainians who help along the way. I fall but don't get hurt - and we've past the point of no return. The rock is difficult terrain and I'm worried about my camera getting knocked around so I get out when we near a street - Sam follows and we meet Shem and Aladdine by the intersection. We walk the rest of the way on the road. We arrive at Ramot Naftali, a moshav where we'll spend the night. I call the taxi, he comes to give my phone but charges me 90nis. I'm happy to have it back so I pay. We wander the moshav in search of food which is running low. It's closed but we can come back tomorrow. Time for bed. Before we sleep, Aladdine and I consult the guide. The next two days will be a 38 km hike to the top of Mount Meron and back down. We decide to take a rest day first.
Day five:
We pack up and go to the supermarket in the moshav. Sam gets stung by a bee on his foot. We leave the moshav at 8:30am. We stop an hour later to rest from a sun-drenched field and I get stung by another bee under my arm. The sunny fields go on forever and we meet our first of many tribes of cows. This day is a beautiful but physically draining walk through fields and valleys. The landscape constantly changes and is great for photographs. We are slow however. Too many breaks and a late start mean we're behind the crowd. I call the 'trail angel' Shlomi at Kibbutz Yiron to ask if there's somewhere to sleep. He says just the lawn, disappointing because we wanted to spend an extra day there. We don't make a decision about where to stay but just continue on into the valley. Although the scenery is beautiful it gets pretty late by the time I have tripped and scraped my knees and I am extremely happy when a young couple we'd spoken to earlier offers us a ride. Aladdine and I take all four bags and the sweet couple drives us to Yiron. I'm even happier when I call Shlomi again and he tells us there is indeed a place to sleep. Turns out he's trying to kick people out to rotate the rooms as fast as possible, which means we may not get the extra night after all. Turns out we're also kicking a girl out of the room - she's been living in there for a month. The boys arrive as she's moving out. Sam insists on the second night so we work out a deal: he gets to tell Shlomi that. We all shower and go to sleep, in beds for the first time in five days.
Day six:
Sam calls Shlomi, we will stay. The day is mostly spent being lazy. Shem disappears for a few hours in the afternoon while we nap. We're a bit worried, since he wanted to see the Lebanese border. He returns in one piece however, with tales of a free wine tour and tasting he got with an American group. Shem and I take a walk through the kibbutz as it gets dark, chatting about life and taking photos. I lie down for one photo and get attacked by ants, Shem commends me for 'suffering for my art'. We get back to the room and have dinner. Everyone cleans up and packs up because the next day we start to climb.
Day seven:
We walk down to the trail, 3km from the kibbutz and start the day. I use my burst of energy to forge ahead and for the first time since we started, feel good in my pack, walking with sweat everywhere and a quick pant. We stop for lunch and I'm actually the first to get there. We check the map as we eat. Turns out we're less than two km from where we stop for the night and it's only 12:30pm. We take our time after that but get to the location to find there' s a motorcycle convention in town and therefore no room for us on the lawn. We find a meadow nearby to camp instead and come by later just to fill water from a sweet guard who speaks no English. We light a fire, cook dinner and go to sleep.
Day eight:
Today is the real climb. Mount Meron is the second highest mountain in Israel but it's really more of a hill. It's an incline that is only difficult because of the weight of our packs. It's actually a disappointment. Then we climb down and head into a valley. The valley is beautiful and becomes a canyon around us. The trail stays near the riverbed. The previous day has gotten us cocky and we were surprised around 3:30pm when two forest workers informed us that we would not get to our campsite before dark unless we hurried and also that there was no water waiting for us there. One offered to bring some but assured us that we shouldn't stop except to drink. For a while it was easy. We walked on mostly flat pathways that wound around the riverbed. There was a section of forest in the ravine that had been burned away. There we walked on a higher ridge that gave a great view. Finally we got to a sign: Ein Koves, 1/2km. We'd only been walking for 45 minutes so this was a surprise. Were we faster than we thought? Nope, the 1/2 km was almost completely vertical and we climbed to the top on stones and ridges. Sweaty and tired, we reached the camp just at dusk. We found a spot without too much cow dung and set up a neat camp. Before I went to sleep we were visited by another group who offered us tea an baklava (we declined since we were already in sleeping bags), acquired a neighbor on motorcycle and had a startling disturbance by a group of teens who stopped their car nearby and blasted music. Eventually though I got to sleep.
Day nine:
The hardest day yet. It began by climbing back down the cliff and pretty much consisted of climbing up and down precarious ledges all day. Shem worried the rest of the trail would not be difficult enough after it. Happily the ravine ended in a flat dry section of riverbed that crossed over onto a field and then in the evening into a group of orchards. I nabbed a hardly-ripe but tasty grapefruit from one tree and ate it on the way. When we got to the street there was a small convenience store with a restaurant attached and we all ate hot food for the first time in nine days. Aladdine spoke to another group who mentioned a spot to sleep next to an orchard. We stocked up on food and headed over. They had a fire going and were friendly, and we settled in next to a large tree to get some well-earned sleep.
Day ten:
The ground we'd slept on was very dusty and now so are all our things. Tonight we end in Tiberias by the sea of Galilee, a shorter end than our intended location but tomorrow is a day off. We leave later than usual, which is a problem because the sun is hot and we have to climb another mountain. This one starts off simple like Mount Meron but in full sun instead of shade. Halfway up there is a fortress and during a break we explore it. The second half is a harder challenge. The rock is steeper than in the ravine. The mountain is an overhang of cliffs and the path leads us straight up to where there are only steel hand bars to hold. We all make it to the top in one piece but my camera will no longer take photographs. I don't know what happens but a phone call to a Nikon centre in Tel Aviv tells me it's a fatal error and I need to bring my camera in. So much for my day off. This is disheartening and I don't enjoy the rest of the day, which meanders through farmer's fields. We get to Tiberias around 3:00pm and despite my insistence that GPS is evil we follow Sam's phone which does in fact lead us to the hostel. We all had well-deserved showers and went for a walk around the tourist section of downtown.
We got back to the hostel and I got on the computer to check if there was a solution for my camera. 30 seconds later everything was fine. My vacation is back on. And now I'll go take it.
I'll be back tomorrow with photographs, an introduction to our heroes and perhaps a couple of anecdotes. Goodnight!
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