Shvil Israel Day 6: Tiberias to Kfar Kish

Shvil Israel Day 6

Starting km: 110

Finishing km: 145

Distance walked: 30km*

*My walking mate for the late morning and afternoon had been planning to take a shortcut off the official trail, and I followed him alonf, which removed about 5km from the day's walk

Crept out of the hostel right around 05:00.  Started up the big climb that I'd not skipped, but merely delayed by deviating from the official trail and heading to Tiberias.

Arrived at the top right around sunrise, being very happy to have done it in the dark.  Nice views back over Tiberias and the sea of Galilee, but really not much happening for the early morning walk.  The cute little town of Kinneret with historical stone houses seemed to be just getting going when I walked through.  But the baptism spot in the Jordan river, not far from where it exits the Sea of Galilee was in full swing.  

Tour buses galore outside the complex, loads of happy, excited Christians inside.  Many were 

wearing white robes preparing to immerse themselves in the water where Jesus himself did.  Many others were watching, photographing and reading Mark 1:9-11 (describing Jesus baptism in the Jordan)  n their own languages from the dozens of tablets on the walls.

And the souvenir shop was ready for them, with bottles of Jordan water (with or without stones) and a bajillion other trinkets connected to the holy Land (or in some cases, not).

Downstream the Jordan was pretty, but packed with Israeli picnickers and campers, bbqing, swimming… there was even a live band with big speakers warming up under a gazebo.

A bit further along I found a perfectly good, but slightly cracked watermelon just sitting on the ground.  Street fruit supreme! I could only carry half of it, but pulled my spoon out of my pack and scooped cheerfully away as I wandered down the trail.

It was while I slowed to eat my melon that Shachar caught up with me.  He was a 25 year old Israeli who was taking a break from his just begun studies after completing his military service.

We walked the rest of the day together and talked a lot.  Around 11:00 we came across Sunny's place, a beautiful little garden stuck out in the middle of a plain already beginning to bake in the sun.  The place was pretty much built as a refuge/sleeping spot for Shvil Israel walkers. We popped in and met the single other visitor who, as it turned out had gone to school with Shachar.  Israel has a similar population to NZ, with a quarter the area, so apparently this kind of thing happens all the time.

The garden was idyllic, with pomegranate trees, grape vines, plenty of shade, a stocked food supply for those in need, even a shower for goodness sake!  I napped, listened to music and played backgammon with my campmates until shade from a cloud around 15:30 suggested it might be time to hit the trail again.

The rest of the day's walk was nice, but save for some really great views from high up above the Sea of Galilee (only 350m, but you can't forget that the Sea is about 210m below sea level, something I'd done and gotten in trouble with when reading contour lines twice already).

As such, I'll mention a few things I learned about the Shvil Israel from talking with Shachar and his mate.

It's a very popular trail, with many families using sections as family outings, and heaps of young Israelis through-hiking sizeable sections or the whole thing.  But most of them don't really treat it as a rugged, wilderness tramping experience like walkers of the AT, PCT or Te Araroa do.  

They often do it in large groups.  Most walk slowly, doing a single 15-25km stage or less in a day, not barging along trying to cram 1.5 or 2 into each day as I've been doing. 

The 3-4 hour break at lunchtime is near ubiquitous (understandable as it's almost a practical necessity), and many folks won't bother picking up and walking again in the afternoon if they've stopped at a really nice spot.

And self sufficiency isn't the big thing that it is on some other long distance trails.  There's a large network of Trail Angels (people who help walkers with food or resting points out of the goodness of their hearts, or in this case sometimes a sense of nationalism/national pride).  And most Israeli walkers take full advantage of these, often spending most nights at places where you can have a hot shower.

I learned all this, a bit of basic Hebrew and lots more while talking with Shachar as we walked.  It was a great pleasure to have his company for the afternoon.

And speaking of trail angels, I'm writing this while laying on my sleeping mat under a roofed (if not walled) shelter put up by a trail angel in the village of Kfar Kish.  I've had a fabulous shower, cooked a meal on an actual two burner stove, re-solidified chocolate for dessert, and have some water in the freezer for tomorrow morning.

All signals a nice rest and a grand day's walk to follow.

Shvil Israel Day 4: Intersection of Wadi Amud and Road 85 to Tiberias

Shvil Israel Day 4

Starting km: 87

Finishing km: 110

Distance walked: 23km

I'd started considering starting my daily walks an hour or two before sunrise, but with my late arrival the previous night, it was already light by the time I woke.

I crossed Road 85, labelled "Dangerous Crossing" on my GPS track.  Bloody right! It was a motorway! If it was in the middle of the day instead of 06:15 with very sparse traffic, I don't think I would have even considered it!

On the other side I found my way down a drainage spillway and a place where the trail was signed and the fence pushed down by other walkers and found my way back to the floor of Wadi Amud.  No more crazy cliff climbing, just a beautiful jaunt down an orange, brown and grey canyon with heaps of birds and yet more wild boar for company.

I was very disappointed when the canyon ended and I popped out into farmland (including heavily irrigated bananas!) and at 08:45 had a hot and sweaty walk into the town of Migdal.  So hot and sweaty that I was about ready to call it a day at 10:00 and check into the town's youth hostel. Problem being it wasn't there. I really needed to charge my phone at this point, and I really wanted to spend my first night in four indoors.  But the nearest hostel on the trail was still 17km away and was booked full for the night.

But a big cold drink from the store and some thinking and I realized I could make my destination the city of Tiberias instead of Poriya.  It was a little off-trail, but it was easy enough to get back on without backtracking, it was only 8km away. Tiberias was the seat of Raymond, one of the foremost figures in the Kingdom of Jerusalem during the third crusade.  And the walk looked like a possibly even pleasant one along the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Done.

As it turned out this seemingly great idea was merely so-so.  The shore was rarely visible, despite being only 20-100m away, and when it was it was often muddy and rubbish strewn.

But on the positive side, I found that the trails on my map were actually part of another marked walking path, so all I had to do was follow the blue, white and purple stripes into Tiberias.  And some of the shore was actually lovely, with nice shady areas occupied by Israeli families camping and picnicking, hanging in hammocks and enjoying the afternoon. Other sections at first bothered me, with their muddy patches formed by drainage from the wetlands behind fences and the swimming pools and water features (!) of big lakeside homes atop retaining walls, but this turned pleasant again when the mud became clear, stoney bottomed streams that cooled my feet which would, after all, dry in no time.

But once again to the negative, I got stung on the back and back of my neck when ducking under some sort of vine in an overgrown section of trail and, more seriously (as I would later realize) I was also stung on the ankle by an oriental hornet (in almost the exact same spot a wasp had got me the previous afternoon!)

I arrived in Tiberias hot and thirsty, but delighted to just sit in the air conditioned lobby of the hostel I'd booked for two hours until check-in.

Throughout the afternoon I came to realize that, though it hadn't hurt much more than the earlier wasp, I was having some sort of allergic reaction to the hornet sting.  I had hives on my hips and arms, my lips became fat, and my left ankle and foot swelled not painfully, but alarmingly.

By late afternoon I'd decided to take a rest day and give the swelling some time to go down.

The rest of my time in Tiberias consisted mostly of laying in bed with my foot elevated and doing what one is meant to do on Shabbat (I'd arrived on Friday afternoon): resting.