Shvilist

The day started in Isfia, with a steep slop down towards Kibbutz Yagur. Along the way you  pass a through Ma’apilim stream (ma’apilim were the illega immigrants which came to Palestine during the British Mandate period). This name was given recently, in the memory of those immigrants which were captured and arrested in Atlit, and which the Hagana freed and smuggled through the Carmel forest to Yagur. The trail was created by the British people, who also planted this part of the forest, and was originally named Nahash (=snake) stream, because of the many twists and turns it makes in order  to descend the steep slop more easily. I saw there a family of wild boars.

From Yagur the INT passes underneath the highway to Kfar Hasidim (and by that the brief visit to Zvulun valley ends) and then climbs the low hills of Alonim.

In between the hills flows Tzippori river, and the INT goes along this river from Nofit to Ka’abiyye.  There’s an old mill (which was bought by the Camelites sometimes in the 19th century). The trail continues till Hamovil Junction, where I stopped for the night.

The night camp in Ofer forest in the front yard of the ranger’s house. As I was getting ready for breakfast the rangers came (three of them), and we had breakfast together.
The INT goes through a JNF-planted forest , to Ofer observatory (the rangers use it to spot fires. unfortunately, it was locked when I was there).

stepping out of the forest, the trail takes you to a Mearot (literal translation : caves) stream national park (official site – in hebrew. see also in hebrew – wikipedia). They found evidence for neanderthals who lived in the caves in this park, and so here you have evidence for 1,000,000 years of mankind living in this area.

The trail continues to Ein Hod ,which is an artist’s colony, and  then goes up a part which is called Etzba Hacarmel – the Carmel’s finger.

Down on the other side, and then you have a very steep climb (though a short one) back into the forest – this part is called, unofficially “little switzerland” – and it is one of the few places in Israel which is evergreen.

Another interesting geological phenomena which is easily seen in the Carmel is the stone tube (in hebrew it is called צניר. I’m not familliar with the English term) – but this tube was created due to strong flow of the river which used to run in the wadi – and so each of the wadi’s walls have half a tube curved into it.

The trail climbs all the way up mount. Shokef, then goes down to Oren stream – but climbs up again (along Hik stream) all the way up to Rom Carmel – which lies in Isfia.

The Roman aqueduct which brought water to Caesarea took the water from Hanania fountain, and the INT followed it. I woke up at about 1.5 Km from the fountain, in a field near the village of Beit Hanania. This region is entirely cultivated, and the rivers which used to run here and now channeled to narrow tunnels along the fields – or, sometime flow in their original path, curving and twisting their way through the plowed land. Near the fountain is a vertex of the triangle-shaped mountain of the Carmel, and by climbing it you enter one of the most beautiful nature reserves in the north of Israel.

People lived here since the Neolithic era, and evidence for them you see in ancient graves for the gatherers who lived here (I don’t remember how old they are right now, but they could easily be 100  thousand years old).

From the top of the Carmel you have fantastic sights : the coastline on your west, then the fields -a mosaic of yellow, green and brown. This region is called Hotem Hacarmel – the Carmel’s nose (speaking of funny names – the Carmel also has a finger, and a horn )

The trail enters Ramat Hanadiv -  about 20,000 acres (~5000 Dunam) of forest, and in it – some of the most impressive reconstructions of archeological sites: The first and most impressive is the Akav ruins – which is a reconstruction of a mansion dating back to the 1st century A.D.

The highlight of Ramat Hanadiv is the memorial gardens – which surrounds the Baron and Baroness Rothschild’s crypt. (The Baron was named Hanadiv – the generous – for he donated a lot of money and helped build many places in Israel – places like the city of Rishon Lezion, which is the third or fourth in population today, and like Zichron Yaakov – which lies right by these gardens.

It is very uncommon for a Jew to have such a memorial site. You have to achieve true greatness for that – in modern times, only three people received a private  place from the state : the first was Theodor (Binyamin Ze’ev) Herzl, now buried in Mount Herzl, Jerusalem, and the second was David Ben-Gurion, which was buried in Sde Boker, as he requested.

The memorial gardens themselves are a beautiful place, giving a strong fight to the Bahai Gardens in Haifa as for which is the most beautiful garden in Israel. (To be honest – I’ve never been the their center in Akko. So maybe there is another place to claim that title). For some reason the planners of the INT decided that the trail should not visit such a marvelous place – but the trail does pass pretty close to the gardens, so I don’t see a reason not to visit them – well, unless you can’t due to religion or something like that.

Another archeological site, which was beautifully reconstructed as the mansion, is a Roman bathhouse which was built on top of a flowing fountain of Ein Tzur, and served generation as a Mikve and a bathing place.

Climbing down from the other side of the Carmel mountain, the trail goes on a 4×4 road (a JNF fire preventing road) through Hen forest to the village of Meir Shefia, then to village of Ofer, passing a beautiful bell shaped caved – an ancient mine (they dug up lime stone for construction, just like in Beit Govrin area). Then the trail enters Ofer forest – a truely charming place, where I first heard wolves howling (in Jerusalem vicinity I heard Jackals. I reached the night camp by the end of Ofer forest, and camped for the night.

I started early and climbed to the Samara ruins, Then headed back to the river bank – where the trail continues for about a Km, before turning north again – along the rail tracks. Here the road is soft sand, which makes it difficult to walk (might be fun if I didn’t carry a backpack and walked barefooted. As it were, it was quite a strenuous walk) to your right, across the tracks,  you see a better  road – but the INT takes its time, and doesn’t cross the tracks – until you reach a water passage which goes beneath the track. Since it’s not the first crossing along the INT, I knew that this would be the case – I just didn’t imagine that the water passage will be about half a meter tall. I truely don’t know what the INT planners were thinking to themselves, but obviously no one ever goes through that tunnel, despite the signs which specifically tells you not to go over the railway.

The map shows a lake nearby, in which waterbirds are supposed to be nested. As I approached all I saw was fields. A shepherd on the way told me that in the winter of 1992 a lake was created there – but since then it is long gone. More than that – this ground is privately owned,  so they cannot declare that it is a nature reserve…..

The trail goes into Hadera forest, reaches Hadera itself, then crosses highway #2 and continues in Givat Olga. Turning north again, you walk towards the power plant which sits on top of the polluted Hadera stream. You have to cross this stream, and since I had no desire to enter this particular stream, I climbed on the highway (which crosses the stream on a bridge) and walked along it’s edge.

Back on the INT, you walk a rather non interesting road,  encircle kibbuts Sdot Yam, and reach the ancient Caesarea – which is especially famous for the great harbor which Herod built (at around 10 B.C.) and the amphi theater which is still active to this very day (though today we only have artists, and not gladiators….). Since I already been in this site, I didn’t enter it this time, but rather carried on along the beach – towards the village of Jisr az-Zarqa. This is one of the most beautiful parts of the coastline, with the roman aquaduct from one side and the sea on the other. It was twilight as I arrived, and since I didn’t want to sleep on the beach, I crossed the village and camped in a field on the other side of the highway.

The trail goes northward along the coast line, but even on the beach you find ancient ruins.The first historical site is  the remains of the crusader’s fort in Herzelia (Apollonia).Apollonia (that’s the roman name. The ancient city was called Arsuf) was a city which was settled for 1600 years (6th century B.C till 1265, when it was razed by the sultan Baibars, In his fights with the knights hospitallers.

The trail climbs up the low hills near Ga’ash, bypassing the nude beach, then passes through Natania’s coastline, then to Neurim beach, Beit Yanai beach – and then you leave the coastline and go along Alexander river into Hadera forest.

Most of the coastline is low cliffs, with a few meters of beach from the cliffs to the sea.

Since I didn’t want to sleep by the sea , i started walking along the river after sunset, and camped near the ruins of samara’s house – a 100 years old building, which belong to a wealthy merchant who owned this lands – until he sold them to the JNF.

I returned to the exact spot from which i stopped, and continued along the Yarkon river – all the way to Tel Aviv. The river is a few meters wide at best of places, and it’s path is marked by the single line of trees which grows on its banks – well, for most of the way. Besides those trees you have fields or buildings. The trail passes near Ayalon mall, enters the Yarkon park in T.A., then goes northward for a few Km in the city itself, and reaches Tel Baruch beach. You go north, pass the Arena mall (two malls in a single day – the INT planners must have thought about shopaholics when they decided on that path…). Pass the arena, and you reach Herzelia beach. I carried on for a few Km, and then went to visit another friend of mine (getting used again to having showers on a daily basis…..)

As I was getting up and getting ready for the day, a Lt. Col. approached – telling me politely that the trail is 500 meters to the west. I actually was glad that someone did notice that i entered a military zone, and wondered how come no one came to tell me to get out before half past six – but obviously I said no such thing to him….

The trail crosses road #6, into Shoham’s grove (named Bareket forest in the map. Well, it’s way too small to be called a forest, and the sign in it called it shoham. The marking in this region are not so good, and I lost them a little after the trail enters Shoham industrial area. Since it is constantly parallel to road #6,  you can’t really get lost – just have to find the right place to cross the highway in order to get back to the trail. I found a suitable water passage for that purpose (among the things I learned from the INT planners – always go under the highways). The trail enters Elad’s grove (again – the naming of this place as forest is optimistic at best), to Alexandroni’s memorial . Alexandori brigade was one of the four Palmach brigades, and it  took part in our war for independence. It is still active, as a reserve force, manned by Golani’s warriors.

Then The trail goes to the archeological pearl-of-the-day – a 2000 years old building, which served as a burial place for many individuals throughout the years – basically each major religion buried there someone important (or at least – claimed that it’s the burial place of that someone). I know of the christian celebrity which supposedly buried here : John the Baptist. But I also know that it served as a tomb long before John, and many others were buried there (or at least claimed to be buried there).  And so it remained intact for all of these years, and it is the only structure in Israel which is still standing today, 2000 years after it was first built, without any reconstructions. The don’t build buildings like that anymore …

The trail goes almost directly northwards, to Aphek nature reserve (see the Hebrew brochure).
In ancient times there were several major routes in Israel. One of them was “The sea route”  – Via maris, which followed the coast line from egypt (heliopolis) to Israel, and then to Syria (Demascus). In Aphek exists a flowing fountain – which creates the Yarkon river. This river created swamps in the entire region from Aphek westward (today, on this swamp land are the cities of Petah Tikva, Ramat Gan, Hod Hasharon, Tel Aviv, and Herzelia). The flow was so strong, that it was practically impossible to cross it – especially not with a merchant’s caravan. And so this ancient route passed through this region (today it’s in Rosh Ha’ain), and since you have the Shomron hills on the east and the swamp to the west – it was a great location for building a post, which grew into a city which is mentioned in the bible. When Egypt ruled over  Palestine, the ruler’s palace was here – one of the oldest palaces in Israel. About 1000 years later, the Romans (I think it was Herod) built a roman city (called Antipatris) on top of that. The crusaders,1000 years later,  built a fort  on top of this palace, and the fort’s walls still stand proudly today.

From that ancient place, the trail follows the Yarkon river, nowadays a mere shadow of it’s past glory (most of the water are piped and delivered as drinking water), and I followed it till Petach Tikva, where a friend of mine picked me up.

The day started with a visit to the crusader’s fort in Latrun, and then to the Tegart fort – which used to be a British police station during the british mandate, especially remembered for two events prior to 48 : the first one is the escape of 20 Lehi fighters which crawled to their freedom through a 76 meters long tunnel in 1943. The second event took place in June, 1946 – operation Agatha, better known as “the black Saturday” – following the “nights of the bridges” – in which eleven bridges were sabotaged (well, only ten actually. The one over Kziv stream remained intact due to early exposure of the saboteurs) . During this operation, about 2700 people were captured by the British police, and were imprisoned – both in Rafiah, Atlit and in Latrun. This operation led to bombing in Kind david hotel in Jerusalem – and after that we decided to stop the rebel against the british, and focus on international pressure – which eventually two years later, yielded our independence.

Nowadays you have the armored corps memorial site and museum in Latrun, and among the many displays there I would like to mention the lookout over the battle of Emmaus -  which took place in 165 B.C. (maybe it was 166. Don’t remember – it was long time ago… ) which was the third battle that Judas Maccabeus (יהודה המכבי) fought against the Greek army, during the Hasmonean rebellion. a detailed site with many, many interesting details could be found here. unfortunately, I do not know of an English version of this site.

On the road again, I marched north through the fields – to JNF planted groves, to some ruins (nothing of real interest to see there – at least not that I know of.

The INT enters Ben Shemen forest, to Modi’in observatory (I didn’t climb it), then to Tel Hadid (see :  Hebrew site),which was an ancient settlement – and carries on northward, between Adam reservation – which is a military zone and the new highway (road #6 ). since i didn’t want to sleep too close to the highway, and the reservation’s fence is practically non existent in several places – And I know this place well from my military service – I entered  a waiting shed in one of the firing ranges, and camped there for the night.

I reached the settlement Even sapir (=a sapir rock), which lies right by Hadasa Ein Carem, Jerusalem – and carried on hiking. The route goes  from Handak fountain to the Sataf fountain, then to Limon fountain – and then connetcs to Kislon stream – an easy 4×4 track, on which many bicycle riders roam. Then you climb again – to Carmila mountain (I have no idea who was this Carmila person), Then you go to Hamasrek reservation, where the route connects to Hamishlatim path. Mishlat is a military post, placed on a high ground, and during our war for independence (1947-1948), many battles took place on this road.

The road to Jerusalem (now Israel’s number one highway) passes in the wadi belows. in November 29th, 1947, the british mandate in Palestine ends. On 30.11.1947, a bus going from Natania to jerusalem was hit by snipers, which used this location as their base – practically cutting off the supplies to Jerusalem, and thus starting the siege – no food or water, supplies or people were alloud in or out. In May 7th, 1948 Herel division (part of the Palmach, which will become the I.D.F.  ) Began operation “Maccabi” (named after maccabi mutzri, a Palmach officer which was killed a month earlier, trying to protect the trucks which carried supplies to Jetusalem) – an operation during which , after many heroic battles, these posts were captured, and Burma path was opened – thus ending the siege.

I remember studying this operation as a young boy,  in highschool. Here, once again, I found the difference between knowing and understanding : standing on these posts you have a clear view of each and every car going to or from the city. Most of my military service was behind a desk, and I was never trained to storm up military posts, But even I could understand the importance of these locations, could imagine how six warriers, armed with machine guns and rifles, could hold this place for days. I wish that the schools will start making field trips – I do believe that studying the Maccabi operation here, where it took place, would be much more effective, and will be a memorable experience for the pupils.

The Mishlatim path connects to Burma path – which is the path that was designed adn used to smuggle supplies to the besieged city. It reaches Latrun – a crusaders fort, than a monastry (which is active to this days). I camped for the night near the fort’s ruins.