Shvil Israel Day 7
Starting km: 145
Finishing km: 184
Distance walked: 39km
This was a mixed day.
It started out grand, setting out in the dark, approaching Mount Tavor with town lights on it's lower flanks and the glowing Church of the Transfiguration on top.
Getting to the base and starting a 480m ascent (probably the longest single climb on the whole Shvil). Getting to the top and admiring first the glorious 360 degree views and then, having made most of a circuit of the summit, walking up the long driveway to the church itself.
I was there eight minutes before it officially opened, so had the place all to myself before three mini-tour-buses disgorged heaps of Filipino pilgrims. The church is built on the spot where after climbing to the summit with Peter, James and John, Jesus started glowing, then had a chat with Moses and Elijah (who had appeared) before being addressed as *My Son," by a voice that came from the sky.
The way down was very steep, but turned rapidly enough into a nice walk through some pine forests down to a valley then up to another peak, Mt. Deborah.
It was after this that things turned to pot. Starting with a seemingly pointless descent from the summit down to the bottom of another valley. Then, undoubtedly my least favorite part of the trail so far, a mostly unmarked climb up a valley that was two parts olive grove (pleasant enough), one part road with some pomegranate trees beside it (awesome) but twelve parts almost indescernable trail through dried out thistles and small thorn bushes. Past a literal garbage dump.
I just can't fathom how some trail designer decided "oh, yeah, this is a lovely part of the country to show off! Let's take them here!" when there was any alternative at all (which there was).
This was followed by a lengthy walk along a busy four-lane road, which at least had a great breeze and pretty views to one side
And then a stroll through a grungy looking Arab town, where a nice family offered me a lemon soft drink and a coffee, improving the area's net score to above zero before a(nother) long strung out garbage dump on the far side of town sent it crashing down into the negative again.
I finally left this behind in the company of three younf Israelis, who I'd passed on the way up Mt. Tavor that morning. They'd (wisely) taken a bus to Nazareth to check it out instead of doing the hellscape walk I described earlier.
We parted ways not too long later, and I was nearing my destination when a couple of hikers plunked down beside a weirdly pleasant motorway interchange beckoned me over to have a tea with them. Their names were Maria and Elijah (anglicisation mine) and I had a nice chat with Maria while she translated to Hebrew for Elijah.
While talking with my Israeli mates this afternoon, I further clarified that most Israelis see the Shvil first as a social undertaking, second as a way to get to know their country, and only very distantly third/fourth as an athletic undertaking or a wilderness sort of excursion (which, I'm coming to realize, makes sense, as outside of the deserts there really doesn't seem to be any such thing as wilderness in Israel. I guess that's what six thousand years or so of pretty intensive human habitation gets you.
I decided to try and do a bit of the wilderness thing anyway, and walked into the Kiryat Ata National Forest as night was falling.
I found some nice flat land and spent a fun little while scaring away the two or three foxes that were hanging around the (garbage strewn) land in hopes that they wouldn't come back or at least wouldn't interrupt my sleep, which they didn't.
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