Shvil Israel Day 8
Starting km: 184
Finishing km: 225
Distance walked: 41km
Wow! What a great day of walking. Clearly my favourite on the Shvil so far.
The morning was so-so. Walked in the dark through some cattle pasture valleys (whose enjoyment was probably enhanced by the lack of light). Then up some small hills and down into a small town.
Just as it was starting to get uncomfortably hot I came across a sign that, while in Hebrew oy, made it clear that the owners of the milking shed I was passing were trail angels and invited Shvil walkers into their (I think probably purpose made) shelter, complete with picnic tables, chilled water dispenser and even a bank of power outlets for charging phones, etc. (Incidentally, zoning as it relates to housing and agriculture in Israel is really weird, possibly due to the history of the Kibbutzes, so this milking shed was one of several jammed into an upscale residential neighbourhood).
I had a nice rest here, which prepared me for the hot walk across the valley to the base of Mt. Carmel.
Though I did it during the "death hours" between 13:30 and 15:00, the 450m climb up Carmel was just lovely. Through shady, breezy genuine forest (not the low scrub that is sometimes labelled as forest on my topo map of Israel). Lots and lots of switchbacks. I could have done this all afternoon!
Once the big climb was done there was a bit more gentler uphill past the actual summit and then on to the town of Osafia. I popped into a supermarket right near the trail and bought a big cold pop and a bag of salty snack mix, intending to just take them to the Mt. Carmel National Park campsite right nearby.
Unfortunately the short road to the camp was being used as an impromptu garbage dump. Since there were still probably three hours of daylight left I said "stuff that," and headed onwards and westwards to the next one.
The walk through Mt. Carmel was maybe even better than the climb up. Some really fun scrambling down into a deep, narrow chasm for a walk along the bottom. After which I found some tasty whole wheat pitas spread with a red pepper mixture sitting clearly left behind in a bag by the trail (I swear, I could practically walk the Shvil and survive on food found by the trailside). Then a sturdy but not overhard climb up a minor peak of the Carmel range and some great bumpy overland stuff along the broad tops and ridges.
As I started down the trail started to follow stepped limestone ledges carved and eroded into the side of a steep valley wall, descending from one ledge to the next one down. If the trail had finished this way I would have finished a perfect day with a big smile on my face.
By the fact that I said "if" you can probably guess that it didn't. It climbed most of the way back up onto the plateau top before descending a wickedly steep bit of trail that was mostly bare rock requiring hands and feet both to get down. The going was slow enough that dusk turned to night in my way down and for the second time on the Shvil I found me carefully checking hand and footholds by headlamp.
I finally arrived to see the final picknicking family loading up the cat for departure. Then it was just me and the piggies. Until, as I was out of my tent naked, peeing on the remains of the fire the picknickers hadn't doused, two cars pulled up. I ran back to the tent, far enough away and fast enough that I think they didn't see me. But I was left in the company of two cars-full of young men shouting in Arabic and blasting techno music. Thankfully they're 200m or so away and I'm really bloody wiped (first, and almost certainly only 40km day on the Shvil Israel! Woo!) so I'm pretty sure sleeping won't be a problem.
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