This past week has been long, energetic, and filled with far too many white-bread sandwiches! It started with a walk from the Akko kvutsah's house, and traipsed 25km to the Karmiel kvutsah's house, and then went on to the famous Yam L'Yam hike, where we walked from the Meditteranean Sea to the Kinneret in 4 days. It was heaps of fun to have all those hours of walking to get to know our friends better, and to see Israel in its raw elements. The hike was also a refreshing change in our Kaveret life, which ends in just one month. As always, it was a fantastic week. I don't think I'll ever get sick of hiking in Israel!
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| Did I mention that our Akko-Karmiel hike had a theme? A few of the boys presented us with a Lord of the Rings character each, and the first element of our dressup. My character was Galadriel, so they made me a crown out of tinfoil - and then had to remind me who she was! Consequently, I was mortally embarrassed for the first hour of our hike. We were heading out of the town, and ta few boys walked up to strangers along the way to ask "slichah, aefo Mordor?" (excuse me, where is Mordor?). I could have died, despite my elfin powers... |
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| I was disgusted by how polluted the waterways were outside the villages surrounding Karmiel. Could that water be any faker or greener? |
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| A Bedouin shack that we passed along the way, complete with donkey and pony. |
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| We stopped for lunch at a conveniently placed couch on the roadside, to eat tortillas, baked beans and hummus. We may have hiked for about 6 hours by that point, but the capes and swords were still on. At least they couldn't ask the donkey where Mordor was... |
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| I love how twisted old olive trees are, and these were particularly so! |
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| Finally, after tramping from 6.30am till 2.30pm, we arrived in Karmiel. It was such a relief to get out of the sun - even if it wasn't as hot as it has been earlier this year, and start heading through the forest to our house. |
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| My favourite outfit of the day was definitely this one - taller-than-me Arzty and his dustpan-on-a-stick were just far too funny as Gimli the dwarf. |
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Yam L'Yam wasn't quite as outrageous in its dress code as our Akko-Karmiel hike. However, it did have impeccable timing, what with it being during the week of Sukkot. We started with a half-hearted and brief tekkes by the Meditteranean Sea, before driving to the start of our first day's walk. There was quite a bit of busing around during the 4 days (about 10 to 20km worth), but I figure that was better than having half of World Habo dropping dead midway through the trail!
The following photos are an attempt to show the beauty and variety of attractions that we saw while walking along such famous attractions as Mount Meyron (the second highest mountain in Israel) and Nachal Amud. |
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| Our fantastic Madrich for the hike, Tamir, always had something interesting to say to us about the landscape. |
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| The road ahead... |
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| Our brightly-clad group - great times! |
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| An old-style moshav, with the people at the centre and the land surrounding them. I couldn't help but love the symbolism! |
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| Stopping for a much needed break, after climbing solidly for about an hour. Pity the top was only about a hundred metres away! |
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| Sleeping in our portable tents during Sukkot, waking to the sunrise, and spending all day with friends - it was a great combination. |
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These cool little plants were a fantastic find. They flower in a spiral, so that only a small section is open at any one time. The flowers below them are dead, and the flowers above them have yet to bloom, but they are open and glorious. Its a fantastic metaphor for life in general, but especially for this point in Shnat. With only one month to go, it may be easy to remember what has been and was amazing, or to see what is still to come and will be just as memorable. However, the current little section is beautiful in its own way too, and we should appreciate that while we still have the chance.
With this thought in mind, we finished the hike with a well-deserved dip in the Kinneret, and prepared to go back to our Messimot around the north of the country. I'm excited to go to Manof again, but disappointed that our Messimah experience has been so inconsistent. At least the hike was so much fun! |
