Israel National Trail, plans and preparations

Over the last 5 years I have crossed Europe on foot from west to east on the E4 European Long Distance Trail, walking 5 weeks or so at a time, and eventually reaching Cyprus. The next landfall beyond this island is the Middle East. I thought of walking the Lebanon National trail but the civil war in nearby Syria suggested otherwise, walking the length of Israel on the Israel National Trail seemed a safer bet. It also meant I could walk it in winter when many European trails would be affected by snow, or very muddy and unpleasant.

Unlike most of the E4, a great deal of material is available on the Israel National Trail, also called Shvil Israel. A day by day guide in English with detailed maps has been written by Jacob Saar and Yagil Henkin and a book about walking the trail written by Aryeh Green. There are also a number of websites, including blogs of people who have walked the route and a very helpful discussion forum which provides updates on the latest route changes, water sources and grocery shops. Orange, white and blue waymarks are apparently plentiful making navigation easier. You can even follow the entire route on Google Streetview, which must have been quite a task for whoever shot the footage. 

The southern part of the route is through the Negev desert which brings particular challenges with obtaining food and water in a remote area. To the north the countryside is greener and in the middle the trail passes through urban areas around Tel Aviv. En route the trail passes close to several major historic and cultural sites including Jerusalem and Nazareth. Perhaps it should be no surprise that many people seem to walk the route with religious feelings in mind, the area being central to Christians, Jews and Muslims. For myself the attraction was visiting a country I had never visited before but which I first heard about in Sunday School at an early age. In addition the trail, especially the southern desert section, has been rated very highly by fellow walkers.
In preparation, in addition to buying the guidebook, I downloaded a map and a gps file of the route onto my Garmin GPS. While it is said this is unnecessary, my experience in Egypt suggested that if I lost the trail markings, one wadi can look much like another. 

In the desert section there is no option other than to camp for many nights. Much of it is in a National Park, where camping is only permitted in designated night camps. These have no facilities and no water supplies. The guide advises carrying a lot of water particularly in the desert sections, which together with my normal supplies and food means I expect to be carrying 20 kg at times rather than my usual 15 kg. It is quite a lot of extra weight, as I discovered with my practice/training hikes. I had planned to use a lighter weight Exped rucksack as on recent trips, but found it was easier to carry the load with a heavier weight Osprey rucksack with more padding. To make a very, very minor reduction in weight my wife cut off some of the unnecessary length on the adjustment straps. In addition to carrying 5 or 6 litres of water, in areas without water supplies I arranged with a person called Yanir to cache water at various places (Tel: 0542461066, yaniryagel@gmail.com).
I am walking from south to north and starting in February, as this means walking across the desert in cooler weather, while hopefully seeing spring flowers in the northern section. One consideration is that parts of the desert, such as around Mitzpe Ramon, can get very cold at night at this time of year, so I will include a warm down jacket, but risk a light sleeping bag with a comfort level down to 5 degrees C. As usual I have the weights of everything I am taking in a spreadsheet and am obsessing about every item.
My 2019 trips on the E4 left me with Achilles Tendinopathy, which gives me a sore ankle, possibly due to overuse. I have been doing exercises as advised by a physiotherapist and have some insoles recommended by a podiatrist so hopefully I will be OK. We shall see...