Shvil Israel Day 2: Geological Camp to Dishon

Shvil Israel Day 2

Starting km: 20

Finishing km: 49

Distance walked: 29km

I woke up just in time to look out my tent and see the most spectacular sunrise over the Golan heights.

Then had a very pleasant morning's walk continuing along the side of the ridge I'd been following the evening before.

I took a wrong turn somewhere, but this wasn't a particularly big deal, as it allowed me to pop by the Yiftah Kibbutz where I met a very friendly old gentleman who had visited NZ a few years ago and two young women who were preparing breakfast for the farm workers.  They gave me beautiful cold water to refill my bottles with, which I would only realize later was an important gift.

It was just a short jaunt down the road to Wadi Qadesh, which was the first bit of real tramping I'd experienced on the Shvil, scrambling down some fun bare rock to its cool, shady bottom.  Somewhat unfortunately, I was stuck behind a group of 80 young female army cadets, at least one of whom was having NO fun at all negotiating the steep slopes.

Up and out of the Wadi I passed by an early 20th century fort and the memorial to the Israeli soldiers who captured it from the Syrians in 1948.

Things went downhill from here.  The sun was starting to shine strongly and I was realizing that 3.5L of water wasn't going to be nearly enough.  The walking was mostly through rubbish strewn cattle grazing land filled with dessicated thistles. I filtered some more water out of a cattle trough, but by just after noon I realized there was no way I could continue walking in the fierce sun and 37 degree heat.  An hour's rest and nap revived me some.

But soon enough, I was just as badly off again, and sorely tempted by the huge pomegranates growing by the side of the trail.  It was all I could do to haul myself up a small hill, and even worse to head steeply down into the gorge on the other side. By now I was so exhausted and dehydrated it took me over two hours to finish the final 5km into the village of Dishon.

This ended with climbing up a steep slope beside a microhydroelectric penstock and searching for a gate into the town (like many villages in northern Israel, Dishon was sturdily fenced, with all the gates shut after 22:00.

Adding insult to injury, the private campground that my guide had promised was simply not there.

Both my exhaustion and my accommodation problems were solved when I spotted a little kid playing Pokemon Go. I asked him if he'd caught anything good and told him that I played too.  Even though he spoke very little English we were quick friends.

We traded some Mons and he showed me both the village shop and the place where Shvil Israel walkers usually camp in the central park.  He invited a few friends along to be awed by my Level 37 and Dragonite (I don't even know how they really play… There are no Pokestops in their village!)

It was only after they left and I was alone in my tent that I recalled how shattered I was.  I was struck by two bad cramps in a different part of each leg, which made getting out of the little tent to stretch them difficult.

I don't think I've ever been in as bad a shape after a day of tramping as this. I'd underestimated how draining the heat and the sun and the necessity of carrying kilos and kilos of extra water would make me.

After shovelling my couscous and chocolate into my mouth I resolved to never again walk in the full heat of the day, and to up my water carrying to 5L.  And then, despite the sodium lights burning brightly above I fell dead asleep at 20:30.