Shvilist

The day started with a bird singing good morning (see above), then short hike to Yotveta, where i finally ate a good breakfast (they do have a great mocha…. ), then i headed back to the trail – climbing up Zugan ascent, which was a much easier climb then the climb down yesterday. On the way there are fossils – silent evidence to the great tethys ocean which once covered this land.

Back on the INT, I walked along the cliffs all the way to the small settelment called shaharut, which, lying on the edge of the cliffs has a fantastic view over the Arava. There i met Lirit (whom i met before the trail, and hiked with for couple of days by the end of it) and Matan. about 2 km north of the settelment there’s Shaharut inn (http://www.camel-riders.com/eindex.asp?d=E) , where we stayed the night.

Here, after a full week of hiking, i had a shower – and though it was a cold one (the inn is not connected to the power grid, and they activate the generator something like four hours a day) it was still great.

The day started with climbing Milchan ascent and hiking on top of Timna’s cliffs, having a spactacular view of the valley. From there the trail continues to Sharvit river (the literal translation is scepter – have no idea why this river was  named this way – but along the way go find a lot of funny names)

Then I decided to extend the INT, and went down Yotveta river. For those who didn’t see the map, this means pretty steep climb, since Yotveta is down in the Arava (the southern part of the great rift valley in Israel) and the trail is on top of the cliffs which lie on the rift’s side.

The highlight of Yotveta river is the stone mushroom you see above, and below you see the descent i had to climb. and I must admit that climbing down with a 25 kg backpack is, indeed, tougher than climbing down without any backpack

When i think about it, it was one of the hardest climbs on the trail. Must be the reason it wasn’t included in the INT in the first place…

Anyway – I reached the Yotveta camp site (about 3 Km from the Kibbutz) little after dusk, and stopped there for the night.

The routine was started to build. Wake up about 15 minutes before sunrise (stay inside the sleeping bag because it’s freezing out there!!! my clock has a thermometer, and the avarage temprature in the desert was about 6 degrees Celsius), get out, orginize everything, grab a snack or something – and start walking to warm up. at about 8 o’cklock i stop for breakfast…. and then carry on walking, pretty much till sunset (not counting for a ten minutes rest every now and then – usually at hilltops for enjoying the view).

At about 10 i finished Rachem river, where the trail carry on to Nemera river, and there’s a raised platform near a tree – placed there for bird watchers. There I met Vitali and the girls, along with another hiker – but since i don’t like to travel in such a large group – almost impossible to spot animals that way – i decided i would not join them.

from Nemera river the trail enters Timna park, and reaches the artifitial lake inside it – one of the most foolish things i have ever seen. the lake is tiny, and should be named pool. in a country which doesnot have much water, in the middle of the desert – i’m sure they could have thought of better utilization of the water….

from the lake the trail climbs the table mountain, giving a spactacular view of the entire valley, than it goes down the diagonal river (Nachal Alachson – who named these places!?!?!) to the entrance of the park.

Heading to Eilat, i buried water and food supplied in several places, and timna was one of them – i gave food to a worker, and he was kind enough to keep it for me. so i waited at the gate for two hours untill he arrived, and continued at about 14:30.

Originally i thought of camping at Be’er Milchan which is about 9 Km from the park entrance, but since i had to wait and part of the way is a hard ascent, i decided not to go there (so i won’t go in the dark again) and stay in the nearest camp site – the one in Mangan river (the name is a Hebrew translation of manganese. guess what type of mineral they found there). And so i had a couple of hours to rest… siesta’s a great thing

Woke up at about 5 a.m. , started walking at about 6…. we figured we’ll go and see Amram’s pillars, then carry on with the trail. on our way we spotted a rental (silver Hyundai Gets) and in it sat a guy with a meter (!!!) long lenses attached to what looked like a tiny camera. the things that really caught my eye was the fact that the lenses were disguised – both with colouration and with pieces of cloth attached to it, designed to break it’s silluette, i guessed. bird watcher, obviously. We walked a little further, and after 20 minutes or so – at the first thing that i wanted to use my camera, I discovered that it got jammed with sand, and is totally worthless.

Now, i planned to buy myself a new one for some time, and didn’t do so because i hadn’t got the time and the model which i wanted hadn’t arrived in Israel – for some reason the Japaneese release new cammeras in Japan something like four to five month before they do so at the rest of the world (the model was not available in the U.S. either) . But since i do enjoy taking pictures (and showing off the good ones )I decided that i’m heading back to Eilat and buying a new camera. At that point, Vitali decided that he’s carrying on, and at about 7 a.m. we parted – he went to try and catch 3 hikers which camped with us the previous night, and i started marching towards the highway which leads to Eilat (Route 90). At that point, my luck kicked in : about 100 meters from the highway, the birder arrived, and gave me a lift all the way to Eilat, even though it wasn’t his direction. Turned out he’s a german guy, and he’s currently writing a book about the birds in Israel – and so he totally understood why i had to cut my hike short and go and buy a new camera…. i caught the 12:30 bus from Eilat heading north – but the driver wouldn’t stop at the highway and took me all the way to Be’er Ora – about 20 Km north of were i had to be. i crossed the road, and the minute i took off my backpack another bus came in – this time a private bus, which gave me a lift to the palce were the unpaved road meets the highway – and as soon as i got off two buses stopped and gave me another lift to Yoheved camp site. Due to that fortunate coincidence, i spent no more than 7 hours on the entire thing – no reason to stay in Yoheved, as I thought I’d do in the morning.

So I went to see Amram’s pillars, then climed up Amram’s ascent, and into Rachem river. About 8 Km total, but the ascent took  me longer than i expected, and so i reached the camp site about an hour after dark – but i figured i’d rather walk at night (which you’re not supposed to do in a nature reserve) than sleep outside the camp site….

We started by going to Netafim border crossing, where we had breakfast with the soldiers – and discovered an achriological site (an ancient house, or a temple. don’t really know, and the signs didn’t say). Then we ent back to Netafim river which led to shroret kanyon (we past a highschool trip along the way… the fist one in this trip).

After the Kanyon we had our first deviation from the route : we had to Amir river – which i rank second most beautiful Kanyons I traveled through in Israel…. amazing colours of pink and reddish sand stone, along with pure, glitzering white veins… absolutely breathtaking.

We reached Yocheved camp site, only to discover another highschool trip which camped there for the night – which ment supper for us

The trail was supposed to start at Zfahot Mnt (הר צפחות) at the southernmost border  point between Israel and Egypt. But unfortunately, due to our volatile situation, The I.D.F. forbade the hikers to walk along the border…. so I had to Improvise.

With the kind help of Oded, we  (Vitali and I) went to Eilot, From there we went to the end of Netafim river – from there to Bat Shlomo river

I did this trail several times in the past, but always in the opposite direction – climbing down the waterfalls, and not going upwards.

The waterfalls turned out to be a bit more strenouos while climbing them with a full backpack…. but it was still a great trail). Then we climbed Shlomo mountain, to the view point and the amazing lookout over the entire region.

Only then did we climb down and reached Yehoram night site, were we camped for the night.