Israel National Trail: General remarks

The pages of this blogs cover the 1000 kilometres of the Israel National Trail (Shivil Israel) that I walked before the Coronavirus pandemic forced me to return home, without finishing the last 100 kilometres of the trail. I began on the 3rd of February walking from Eilat in the south and finished 45 days later, including side trips to Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nazareth.

The Israel National Trail falls into two quite different parts. The desert section of the trail to the south is full of dramatic landscapes and some exciting, if scary, bits for a hiker. Hiking north of the desert in springtime, the countryside was full of flowers, forests, and there were plenty of historic and cultural sites.

I used the Red Guide as my primary reference for the trip, plus a GPS track (which I split into sections small enough for my GPS, i.e. less than 10,000 points) and the Garmin map of Israel downloaded onto my GPS. For the route I actually walked see wikiloc.com or Viewranger. Details of updates to the trail and other information can be found on tapatalk, shvil.fandom.com and israeltrail.net. Some people have criticised the Red Guide but I found the detailed maps and the explanation of the sites I was passing particularly useful, it's just a pile of stones unless you know it was once a crusader fortress. One should be careful about over-reliance on a GPS track as in some cases I lost satellite signal despite a good view of the sky, and in other cases I was in a desert canyon, where lack of a clear view of the sky meant GPS positions were not reliable. Having said this I felt the distances given in the guidebook were often a kilometre or so less than they should have been, even if my GPS was wrong in this (and my feet suggested not), you need to add on extra kilometres to visit grocery stores, water supplies and accommodation. On occasions, short distances on the map, were actually long distances due to the path meandering back and fore. In general the guidebook's recommendation for the daily stages were good, especially if you are planning for many days of hiking. Although I managed to reduce the number of days walking slightly, by covering three days in two, I made up for this by "rest" days in Ein Bokek, Jerusalem and Nazareth, with the latter two well worth staying a day or so.

A few general comments; in February and March when I travelled, good weather could not be relied upon, if you plan to walk the trail you should be suitably prepared. In these months I found my down jacket essential in the desert to keep warm in the evenings and mornings, and later on in my trip, I wished I had brought more gear appropriate to wet and muddy conditions. I am sure the experience would be different in later months. Israel is more expensive than most European countries, although the amount of camping necessary in the desert and the possible use of trail angels later on can keep costs down. For British hikers, consider changing to the "3 network" for your phone, in Israel it charges texts and data at European rates, considerably cheaper than other networks. Watch out however by the Dead Sea when you can pick up Jordanian mobile signals and much higher costs.

For more details see the links to different parts of my blog below:

Start of my blog;
Comments on the desert section;
Comments on Central and Northern parts of the trail.

The Israel National Trail has been described as one of the world's 20 best hikes and most epic trails by National Geographic, and it deserves this accolade due to its mixture of dramatic desert landscape, wild flowers, historical and religious sites. Even better the people were really welcoming and friendly to this stranger in their land.

Israel National Trail waymark

Israel National Trail Central and Northern Sections: Some Comments

North of the town of Arad the Israel National Trail passes through a number of landscapes. The forests were perhaps most surprising, mainly of pine in the mountains, deciduous trees lower down, they extended across hills and valleys, including a green corridor that extended as far as the outskirts of Jerusalem. Most were planted since 1948 with many signs recognising the donations from individuals and families that made them possible. Despite their beauty, with carpets of flowers spread beneath them at times, it was sad to think they sometimes replaced old Arab villages and pastureland, occupied before 1948. Outside the forests there were areas of rough grazing and low trees and bushes, often with grazing cattle and maybe some Bedouin shepherd or shepherdess with their flock of sheep. On occasions the trail followed a stream bed or river for several kilometres as it meandered across the countryside, lined with trees. At other times I walked among fields of young, lush green crops, by vineyards and orchards, almond trees with blossoms dropping petals like confetti at a wedding.
As I walked the trail in March the red anemones (called kalanit) in open grassland, the cyclamens in woodland and among rocks, the iris of colours I had not previously seen and many other flowers brightened my trip. Later in the year I would expect everything to be as dry as straw, but in spring it looked lovely. It was not all easy walking, there were hills to climb, rocks to cross, in places aided by a few metal rungs and a cliff to climb down in the rain. The weather was wetter than I had prepared for, with a considerable amount of mud (to save weight in the desert I had no gaiters to protect my trousers, no waterproof trousers and no trekking pole to help my balance on slippery surfaces). Rain could be extremely heavy, with thunder and lightening forcing me to find shelter. Owing to the rainfall, streams had turned into rivers and there were river crossings I had not expected.
Along the coast the landscape was quite different, For three days I walked on or close to the Mediterranean sea, on the beach, on promenades and pavements, and in dunes. This was the most urban part of the walk passing by Tel Aviv, Netanya and Hedera, although some sections of coast were surprisingly free of urban sprawl. In general the trail is routed to avoid towns and villages, so it felt like the middle of the countryside, even if a major settlement was nearby. The settlements I encountered were variable, there were villages and kibbutz, surrounded by high fences with barriers to prevent entry of unauthorised vehicles, all the buildings were located inside the fence so that the boundary between the urban area and the countryside devoid of buildings was very sharp. At the other extreme there were Arab villages and towns, generally poorer, with more hazy edges, no fences and maybe some loose dogs. Previous bloggers had implied that outside the desert section it was all walking on farm or forest tracks. While there are some, there are also lengthy distances on footpaths. On occasions I wished for less paths and more easy walking on vehicle tracks!

With big archaeological sites like Caesarea and Apollonia, and many small ones on the route, and with side trips to Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nazareth there was a lot of history and culture on this part of the hike. Most days had one or more ancient sites on route. These ranged from bronze age or earlier, through Romans times, to the Crusader fortresses, to monuments to more recent Israeli history, such as the "Burma road" to Jerusalem. Many places had biblical links such as the Sea of Galilee and River Jordan. There were also plenty of opportunities to speak to people, even for a reserved person like myself. In general I found Israelis very generous, hospitable and friendly. If I had wanted I could have stayed with "Trail Angels" almost every night on this part of the trip, which would increase the opportunity to meet more people, I chose not to as I do not like to impose on people's kindness, and am well able to afford a few hotels or camp if none is available. I quite like my solitude.

Waymarking was variable, sometimes good, and sometimes apparently absent (or else I was on the wrong trail), so it was very helpful to have a track on my GPS that I could refer to. On finishing my walk I recorded the route I actually walked on wikiloc.com, here and here, and also on Viewranger shortcodes johnpon0050 and johnonp0051. The Red Guide was also essential as I was loosing satellite reception on occasions, even when I had a clear view of the sky. Not something I have come across in other countries. Nevertheless, in some of the heavy rain, a waterproof GPS was preferable to a soggy guidebook or map. It was also helpful when, lost in thought, I strayed somewhat off the trail and wondered where it had gone. Nevertheless the Red Guide was great for its maps and the background in gave on various heaps of stone and monuments with Hebrew writing.

Agricultural landscape

Coastal landscape

Hill scrub landscape

Forest landscape

Migdal to home: Day 45

A sad day as due to advice and measures being taken to limit the spread (and death count) of the Coronavirus I am heading home without having finished the Israel National Trail. A happy day too though, as I will soon be seeing my wife after a separation of over 6 weeks.

First task was getting to Tel Aviv Ben Gurion airport. Thanks to Google I was waiting at the correct place at the right time for an empty bus which took me from the village of Migdal to the larger town of Tiberias. Fortunately I had a bus card that I acquired in Jerusalem as cash is no longer accepted on buses to minimise Coronavirus transmission, the first few seats were also taped off to protect the driver.

At Tiberias I added money to my bus card so I had enough to pay for the next leg to Tel Aviv. As I wandered back to where the bus was due to leave in 20 minutes the driver of a group taxi (a minibus picking up several passengers) told me buses to Tel Aviv were cancelled. Although a nearby official seemed to confirm this I had some doubts. He was leaving immediately. As the price he quoted was not excessive, and as he might have been telling the truth, I went with him. He tried hard to pick up other passengers at bus stops en route but without success. As I was the only one in the taxi as he approached Tel Aviv, between long phone calls he offered to take me to the airport for a larger but still reasonable amount. So I ended up at Terminal 1 Ben Gurion airport at 9:30 am, however, all international flights had now been consolidated in Terminal 3. A shuttle bus took me there a short time later.

Last night I had booked an Easyjet flight on my smart phone for this evening to make sure I had a plane, I now changed it to an afternoon flight. Still left me plenty of time to finish reading my book (Jeffrey Archer's prison diaries,  an excellent read recommended by my cousin)! Despite pictures on the news of empty planes, mine was three quarters full. Only peculiarity was the person opposite me in a paper coverall complete with hood, face mask, large plastic safety glasses and transparent, plastic gloves. He was either trying to avoid catching the Coronavirus or already had it and did not want to spread it. One reason the flight had a good number of people was that many other flights had been cancelled. A distressed lady grabbed my arm as we left the plane and showed me a Wizz air boarding pass to Budapest. Wizz air had stopped flying from Israel a few days ago and so she had been redirected via Luton where Wizz air was still flying. Luton I discovered is not designed for international transfers or passengers whose English is mainly their relative on the phone. Having established from a helpful man on the baggage desk that no bags would have been checked through direct to Budapest she had to fret a while waiting for her baggage to come through. I then took her through to the Wizz air check in desk to drop off her hold luggage and onto security. My good Samaritan bit must have been noticed in heaven as I somehow managed to catch an earlier train to Cardiff that "The Trainline", thought I would miss. Home just after midnight.

Kinneret to Migdal on Israel National Trail: Day 44

Very much a day of two halves; a dry, easy morning and a wet, windy, cold and "challenging" afternoon.

My room rate included a boxed breakfast. One of the problems with booking.com is that sometimes when you book a room that can sleep two people you end up with two breakfasts, as I did today, and they were two large breakfasts. I ate four croissants, two pots of yogurt and most of a large carton of orange juice and packed the rest of the food for my dinner tonight.

Kinneret is a village established in 1908 by pioneering Zionists. The buildings of black basalt were made to last, a statement of permanence. Leaving the village I climbed up the side of the ridge that encloses the Sea of Galilee. The path then followed the upper part of the hillside for several kilometres looking down on Galilee.

Sea of Galilee

I walked among yellow wild flowers passing cherry (?) orchards and crossing the Swiss Forest Nature Reserve, only part of which seemed to have any trees. Tiberias with its white buildings spreading up from the shoreline appeared around a corner of the hill and grew steadily larger. The trail crossed the upper part of the town.

Tiberias beside the Sea of Galilee

After dropping down into a valley the path climbs again initially through vegetation, made green and lush by recent rainfall. Caterpillars in large numbers were eating it. The path joined a vehicle track and steadily climbed up Mount Arbel. 

The day began with blue skies but as the morning progressed black clouds gathered above the steel grey surface of the Sea of Galilee. Now heavy rain began, driven into me by a strong wind (my thoughts here turned to the bible story of Jesus on the lake with his disciples when a storm blew up). My GPS was having problems with satellite reception, despite the clear view of the sky, it has been an issue here in Israel. Not wanting to soak my guidebook by consulting its maps, I was relying on spotting the waymarks to find where to go. Fortunately the waymarks were good unlike my vision, which was hindered by a flapping anorak hood and fogged up glasses. I followed a small path around the top of the mountain to a place where it dropped off the side of the cliff. Thankfully the rain eased very slightly, but not very much, as I made my way down the cliff path. On the plus side metal rungs were set into the rock to help you on steep bits, on the negative side the rocks were worn smooth by countless hikers and were now wet and slippery. My boots had a layer of mud on their soles, so their grip was minimal. Each step had to be carefully planned, if possible placing my boot in a ledge or gap where it would be jammed in rather than on a smooth, slippery surface which would have been fine on a dry day. Use of hand holds were essential to maintain balance and manage any slips. A cool head was needed, unfortunately that was not the only thing that was cool. The wind, rain, wet shorts and bare legs were pulling the heat out of me, and the friction between my wet shorts and thighs were pulling my shorts down. While exposed to the rain I dared not put my fleece on, as it would rapidly become soaked. Finally I reached some shelter where I could add some clothing. 

Climbing down the cliff took a while but I eventually gained a path and then the road. I think the route actually went down a valley next to the road but it was guarded by two unfriendly dogs and the stream was swollen by rain so I stayed with the road, its pavement and a border of red and pink geraniums.

As the rain finally eased I crossed some orchards then walked through Migdal to my accommodation for the night. The owner was surprised to see me, claiming there were no tourists. Having pointed out that I had booked online, and I had arrived six weeks ago, well before tourists were prevented from flying to Israel, I was given a chalet, where I enjoyed a well deserved (I thought) hot shower.

Latest News: UK Foreign office has now advised against all world wide travel. It does not actually say come home as soon as possible but that seems to be the drift. Already airlines (Virgin Air, Wizz Air) have stopped flying out of Tel Aviv. BA's website could not offer me any flights. Easyjet is still flying, but maybe not for long. Israeli guidelines are become more stringent, with an Internet report that everyone will be effectively confined to their homes. In the light of this I have felt obliged to head for home tomorrow, despite being so close to the end (6 days and 100 kilometres according to the guidebook).

Kfar Kisch to Kinneret on Israel National Trail: Day 43

A walk across open countryside to the Jordan river and the Sea of Galilee.

I resumed yesterday evening's walk by the tree lined river, between yellow wild flowers and green fields. As warned by my trusty guidebook, I needed to take off my boots to cross a river, however I had not expected another river crossing soon after. My feet are very sensitive so I do not normally attempt a river crossing in bare feet, but for these two crossings, as they were used by vehicles, there was a concrete ramp each side and hopefully under the water. My assumption was incorrect for the first crossing, there were pebbles and rocks under the water which made my balance precarious. The second crossing was easier.

I followed a diversion published on tapatalk up a grassy valley, it worked out well, apart from being stabbed in the head by a thorn as I pushed by a tree trying to avoid mud. I could not stem the blood with my hanky as I had used it to dry my feet, it would not have been hygienic, I had to dig out my toilet paper instead. Fortunately today was warm and sunny and the mud was drying out ever so slightly. I hope I was on the intended diversion, there were no waymarks...

Climb out of Kfar Kisch

Rejoining the original trail, I slowly climbed to the top of the hill, passing a some stones marking where before 1948 there was an Arab village, and (unrelated) a party of hikers with red jackets. I keep two metres away from them to comply with Coronavirus precautions, and avoided saying anything beyond "shalom" so they did not think I was bringing in the infection from some foreign land. One the other side of the hill the trail led to the Elot nature reserve where there should have been a good view, including the Sea of Galilee. I peered through the haze but cannot say that I saw it. 

View of Sea of Galilee from Elot nature reserve

The path then led me down a stream bed, with a layer of volcanic rocks and on through some dense vegetation, fortunately beaten down by earlier hikers. I eventually reached the River Jordan, subject of bible stories and several songs. After some major pumping works I lost the trail in mud, a half completed construction project and a high water level. Working my way around through farm tracks I reached the Yardenit baptismal site, where you can be baptised in the River Jordan, but not today as the site was closed (presumably due to Coronavirus) although I managed to buy an ice cream and coke. On the walls at Yardenit there was a quotation from the bible in every language you could think of, and some like "Fang" you would not think of. Could not find the English version through. The river was lined with eucalyptus trees, which looked pretty, although not something that Jesus would have seen as they were introduced from Australia in the 20th century. 

Yardenit baptismal site

The final section was by some lakes (fish farm?) and up the road to my lodgings for tonight at "Kinneret village". There I spent a while going through 200 odd channels to find Sky news and the latest on the pandemic. Restaurants have been ordered to close in Israel so it is tea from the local supermarket. 

Nazareth to Kfar Kisch on Israel National Trail: Day 42

A day of two mountains and some slippery mud.

Breakfast was at 8:00 am today rather than 7:00 am as I was told. Maybe because there were so few people staying at the hostel now that tourists are no longer allowed into Israel from other countries due to the Coronavirus outbreak. Abraham hostels have just sent an email saying they have now closed all their hostels due to the pandemic. I am wondering how long I can continue my trip for.

Due to the later breakfast I took a taxi to Mashad to continue on the trail rather than wait for the bus. After a climb up to the Mt Jona settlement I walked beside the road until I reached another iris reserve. The miniature blue ones had died back but there were some impressive white and brown iris.

Unusual wild iris

I walked through a forest for much of the day, mainly pines. Two mountains stood on my route. First there was Mount Devora, on its summit was a concrete memorial to the silver wedding anniversary of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip. The "Royal" Forest it stood in was planted by Jewish communities of the United Kingdom. After a fast walk on a single lane tarmac road and through the community of Shibli, there was a considerably slower walk up the second mountain, the shapely Mount Tabor, a mountain standing on its own. Slow, not only because it was a steep ascent, but also as it was muddy and slippery. My boots were already made slick by a layer of mud. For each step I had to look and evaluate where to place my feet to make sure I did not slide backwards and fall. There were plenty of slide marks where others had slipped. Finally I reached somewhere near the top. I then hunted around for the entrance to the monastery and the Church of the Transfiguration, eventually finding it actually on the Israel National Trail. It was closed, although the sign said it would be open, maybe another response to the Coronavirus? As well as the monastery and church, which date from 1924, there were older ruins, no signs on them so I will have to look up what they were.

Mount Tabor

Climbing down was slightly less difficult than climbing up but still had the risk of a slip and a muddy bottom. As the sun cast a more golden light, I followed the riverside path through fields towards Kfar Kisch. The yellow flowers, reeds and eucalyptus trees beside the river made for an enjoyable walk. People in twos and threes passed by me, some of the ladies in hijabs, others not, all out for an evening stroll.

Riverside path to Kfar Kisch

I am now at the Tabor Land Guesthouse learning about the latest Coronavirus developments on the TV. Worrying.

Nazareth Rest Day: Day 41

The sound of a cock crowing woke me this morning, not what you expect in a big city. It was followed by the Muslim call to pray. Later I heard church bells, not something you hear much of in Israel, but then this is where Jesus grew up.

Lane in old Nazareth

The old city is full of narrow streets arranged higgledy-piggledy. I visited the Roman Catholic Church of the Annunciation then its Greek Orthodox namesake. Both claim to be on the site where the Angel Gabriel told Mary she was soon to give birth to Jesus. The Roman Catholic church is quite new dating from 1969, but built over the foundations of earlier churches and possibly the remains of Mary's home. Its architecture is in what has been called Italian Brutalist style. It has bare and minimally adorned concrete pillars and supports. Large paintings of the Virgin Mary are hung around the walls by different artists representing countries from around the world. They are strikingly different visions of Mary. The Greek Orthodox church, although not large, is much more what you would expect of such a place.

Roman Catholic Church of the Annunciation

Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation.

I tried a "freekah" salad for lunch. Freekah is wheat picked when it is greener and soft. Tasted fine although I was mainly tasting the lemon and spring onions they added. In the evening, after another salad (feta cheese, walnuts, apples and other fruits), for dessert I tried Knafeh. Creamy stuff topped with shredded wheat and pistachios, tasted good!