Thursday morning we had to decide to take the 7:30am bus or the next one at 9:45am (we were in a small town, so the little bus that comes there only visits every once in a while). This day was a short one for hiking, so we figured it would be fine to start later in the day, and so the night before, we decided that we'd just turn off the alarm and see what happened. When we were awake at 6:30am anyway, we opted for the early bus and got to Kiriat Gat just before 8am with plenty of time for a nice leisurely breakfast at my fav: Aroma Cafe.
After breakfast we walked over to the central bus stop to catch the bus in about twenty minutes that would take us back down to the closest bus stop to the trail...twenty minutes came...no bus...twenty minutes went...no bus. Well, that is to say, there were lots of busses. Even busses that would drive south, past our stop. But no busses that were scheduled to drop off anyone where we needed. I have an app that tracks some busses by realtime. Checked that out, and the next one wasn't for almost a full hour. Ugh. But it meant we got some journaling and blogging done. Smile. And got to use the bathroom after breakfast and before hitting the trail for the day. Score.
We had heard another woman asking around for the bus to Ahuzam (our stop), so ten minutes or so before our bus was coming, we saw her get up at another bus' arrival and talk with the driver. We hopped up, too - looked like she had convinced him to make a special stop - great for us, too, so we double checked and sure enough, we climbed on board.
We made it to the trail not much before we would have if we'd taken the later bus, after all. But then again, we'd had a great breakfast, written and posted a full blog entry, and used an indoor bathroom multiple times in one morning. A pretty excellent benefit to taking the earlier ride.
We walked down the side of the freeway until we found a way through the reeds and thorns and such over to the access road, and then followed that toward the trail...to be greeted by a special morning guest. Just calmly slithering across the path, it moved pretty slow, but not slow enough for me to get my camera out. Eek. ;) So you can see just the tail end of the three-foot snake as it headed into the grass along the road. After that K was pretty reluctant to go into any grass. "There're snakes in there!"
Anyway, after a few deep breaths we continued on, found Tel Keshet, and got back on the trail.
The trail that day was mostly through miles and miles of wheat. We crossed over a little river (well, we walked through the tall reeds, kind of making a bridge at each step as we went).
Then more wheat fields. We were entertained by the birds, the bugs, and the invisible planes we could hear somewhere over the horizon...and we walked along more wheat fields. Later, as a break from walking along the wheat fields, we sat down next to them. None of our regular stopping places, under shade or sitting on nice rocks...just wheat and trail.
Eventually we spied a marker turning us left, through some grass that ran between two wheat fields. ("There're snakes in there!" K was a little less than thrilled, but she was very brave. ;))
Then the trail led us along a cool little canyon. By then we'd pulled out our headphones and happily walked along each singing along to different songs into the air in the middle of nowhere. (I put my Disney songs on shuffle and had a grand ole time.)
Near the end of the little canyon we came across one of the trail's libraries! K had told me about seeing one of these in the north. I was excited to get to see one -- they are boxes painted the colors of the trail markers and sealed, so they're protected against any weather, and hikers can pick and leave books for one another. So cool! (Of course they're all in Hebrew, and I don't have time for reading and don't want to carry any more, but still cool.)
Shortly after leaving the river we climbed up Tel Nagila and sat under the Tamarisk tree atop it. This tree used to be used by pilots as a locating device to orient them as they flew across...well back then it probably wasn't across just wheat fields, but ya know.
K had stepped in some mud earlier, so while we breaked, she took the opportunity to chip it off with a rock for a bit. (I'd told her that's how I'd gotten my boots so clean. ;)) But really, it's the only way with this stuff!
Down the other side we came upon a shepherdess and her herd. I had come down first and while I waited for K, the sheep started moving a little closer to me as they ate. It was really cool to watch the sheepdog get up from where she'd been lying and move over to stand facing me, just beyond the closest sheep. No growl or anything, just staying between me and the closest of the herd. When the sheep stopped drifting and I clearly was not approaching, the guard dog laid back down and turned her attention to K coming down the hill.
We tried to figure out a route the rest of the way down the Tel that would avoid the herd, but we really needed to get around them. By then the sheep were all on the right, and the shepherdess didn't seem in the least concerned about us. So we moved to the left to get around the sheep, and began. Well, apparently we were too close and the dog had had it. She came barking and barking at us. She backed up if we turned to face her, and her shepherdess called her off, but she was quite displeased with how close we'd gotten. What a good guard dog. :)
We got down and around them and across the next stream, and then followed that over to the old railroad crossing. This railroad had been built by the Turks during the Ottoman Empire, and then it was dismantled by the British later on, but some of the ruins still stand. (In this picture you can see Tel Nagila in the distance and the tamarisk tree standing on the left side of it.)
Near the end of the trail we walked a bit in a river bed, and many many of the rocks had these cool, weird circles on them. After looking over many of them, all different sizes and slightly different shapes, and just splattered all over, we concluded their cause. Must be the aliens.
We ended our day at the parking lot to the Pura Nature Reserve we'd just walked through, and our wonderful angel came and drove us the twenty or so minutes to his house. He and his wife (A, this is the one that shares a name with your dog! Love!) were so great. They are both retired, and they have traveled all over, doing hikes and walks and whatnot with their kids or with each other - climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, waking the Camino Real in Portugal, hiking around Mt. Blanc in France, the Appalachian trail in the USA, biking through Africa, canoeing down the Mississippi River...and on and on! And they treated us to a great dinner on the porch as the sun set and the frogs welcomed in the evening.
After breakfast we walked over to the central bus stop to catch the bus in about twenty minutes that would take us back down to the closest bus stop to the trail...twenty minutes came...no bus...twenty minutes went...no bus. Well, that is to say, there were lots of busses. Even busses that would drive south, past our stop. But no busses that were scheduled to drop off anyone where we needed. I have an app that tracks some busses by realtime. Checked that out, and the next one wasn't for almost a full hour. Ugh. But it meant we got some journaling and blogging done. Smile. And got to use the bathroom after breakfast and before hitting the trail for the day. Score.
We had heard another woman asking around for the bus to Ahuzam (our stop), so ten minutes or so before our bus was coming, we saw her get up at another bus' arrival and talk with the driver. We hopped up, too - looked like she had convinced him to make a special stop - great for us, too, so we double checked and sure enough, we climbed on board.
We made it to the trail not much before we would have if we'd taken the later bus, after all. But then again, we'd had a great breakfast, written and posted a full blog entry, and used an indoor bathroom multiple times in one morning. A pretty excellent benefit to taking the earlier ride.
We walked down the side of the freeway until we found a way through the reeds and thorns and such over to the access road, and then followed that toward the trail...to be greeted by a special morning guest. Just calmly slithering across the path, it moved pretty slow, but not slow enough for me to get my camera out. Eek. ;) So you can see just the tail end of the three-foot snake as it headed into the grass along the road. After that K was pretty reluctant to go into any grass. "There're snakes in there!"
Anyway, after a few deep breaths we continued on, found Tel Keshet, and got back on the trail.
The trail that day was mostly through miles and miles of wheat. We crossed over a little river (well, we walked through the tall reeds, kind of making a bridge at each step as we went).
Then more wheat fields. We were entertained by the birds, the bugs, and the invisible planes we could hear somewhere over the horizon...and we walked along more wheat fields. Later, as a break from walking along the wheat fields, we sat down next to them. None of our regular stopping places, under shade or sitting on nice rocks...just wheat and trail.
Eventually we spied a marker turning us left, through some grass that ran between two wheat fields. ("There're snakes in there!" K was a little less than thrilled, but she was very brave. ;))
Then the trail led us along a cool little canyon. By then we'd pulled out our headphones and happily walked along each singing along to different songs into the air in the middle of nowhere. (I put my Disney songs on shuffle and had a grand ole time.)
Near the end of the little canyon we came across one of the trail's libraries! K had told me about seeing one of these in the north. I was excited to get to see one -- they are boxes painted the colors of the trail markers and sealed, so they're protected against any weather, and hikers can pick and leave books for one another. So cool! (Of course they're all in Hebrew, and I don't have time for reading and don't want to carry any more, but still cool.)
Shortly after leaving the river we climbed up Tel Nagila and sat under the Tamarisk tree atop it. This tree used to be used by pilots as a locating device to orient them as they flew across...well back then it probably wasn't across just wheat fields, but ya know.
K had stepped in some mud earlier, so while we breaked, she took the opportunity to chip it off with a rock for a bit. (I'd told her that's how I'd gotten my boots so clean. ;)) But really, it's the only way with this stuff!
Down the other side we came upon a shepherdess and her herd. I had come down first and while I waited for K, the sheep started moving a little closer to me as they ate. It was really cool to watch the sheepdog get up from where she'd been lying and move over to stand facing me, just beyond the closest sheep. No growl or anything, just staying between me and the closest of the herd. When the sheep stopped drifting and I clearly was not approaching, the guard dog laid back down and turned her attention to K coming down the hill.
We tried to figure out a route the rest of the way down the Tel that would avoid the herd, but we really needed to get around them. By then the sheep were all on the right, and the shepherdess didn't seem in the least concerned about us. So we moved to the left to get around the sheep, and began. Well, apparently we were too close and the dog had had it. She came barking and barking at us. She backed up if we turned to face her, and her shepherdess called her off, but she was quite displeased with how close we'd gotten. What a good guard dog. :)
We got down and around them and across the next stream, and then followed that over to the old railroad crossing. This railroad had been built by the Turks during the Ottoman Empire, and then it was dismantled by the British later on, but some of the ruins still stand. (In this picture you can see Tel Nagila in the distance and the tamarisk tree standing on the left side of it.)
Near the end of the trail we walked a bit in a river bed, and many many of the rocks had these cool, weird circles on them. After looking over many of them, all different sizes and slightly different shapes, and just splattered all over, we concluded their cause. Must be the aliens.
We ended our day at the parking lot to the Pura Nature Reserve we'd just walked through, and our wonderful angel came and drove us the twenty or so minutes to his house. He and his wife (A, this is the one that shares a name with your dog! Love!) were so great. They are both retired, and they have traveled all over, doing hikes and walks and whatnot with their kids or with each other - climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, waking the Camino Real in Portugal, hiking around Mt. Blanc in France, the Appalachian trail in the USA, biking through Africa, canoeing down the Mississippi River...and on and on! And they treated us to a great dinner on the porch as the sun set and the frogs welcomed in the evening.
No comments:
Post a Comment