Hava Night Camp to Midreshet Ben Gurion on Israel National Trail: Day 13

Several sights today, an oasis, a pool with people in it and a dramatic descent, before being offered coffee while searching for my accommodation.

I was on the trail early at 6:30 am, but not as early as a German hiker who I met on leaving camp, he had already covered a few kilometres. After a period of easy walking on a pipeline track, the path, lined with flowers, turned off down into a wadi, attractive with its white rock walls. A profusion of date palms advertised an oasis ahead. While there was lots of vegetation and a trickle of water in the middle I saw no sign of a palm fringed pool that one imagined at an oasis, maybe I missed it as the route soon took me up the mountainside out of the valley. After much climbing the trail dropped into a second wadi. As I descended, the path kept to rock ledges at the sides, the centre being full of rushes and other vegetation. At the edge of the reeds I spotted my first flowing trickle of water of my two weeks of walking through the Negev. This led to a few pools, full of green algae and a little later to a "waterfall", very little water was flowing over it but below there were a few pools. Beside these pools, people were either enjoying the sun, the men showing their naked chests, or else taking a dip in the water. The water had a downside in that it made the path down slippery, and despite my efforts I ended up on my bottom, making my trousers mucky much to my disgust.

Pool in Lower Ein Akev

Purple flowers growing in the desert

Leaving the wadi behind I made the long ascent up Hod Akev passing areas rich in purple flowers. The climb was in two parts with a flat bit between, not so bad. The descent was quite different and quite unexpected. No reference was made in the guide as to its difficulty. The first rungs into mid air over the cliff edge were not so bad but then I took the wrong route down. Realising I had lost the waymarks I was in a quandary, either I could make my way down the scree, or I could make the difficult climb back up to the last waymark. I wisely did the later, wisely as another cliff was hidden below the scree that I would not have been able to climb down. I discovered the correct route hidden behind a rock. It was not an easy way down but iron rungs in places helped plus some "no hikers" signs where one might be tempted to take the wrong route. 

With the Akev night camp in sight I turned up to a pipeline route that took me up the long "Zin ascent". A few other parties were sweating up the same ramp to their cars parked at the top. No car for me so it was another 30 minutes walk to reach Midreshet Ben Gurion. 

Next challenge was to find the accommodation I had booked for the night. I walked to the correct coordinates (inevitably on the other side of town), but there was nothing in the way of signs to tell me which of the pleasant residential houses I might have booked. Ringing its phone number just resulted in a recorded message (in Hebrew). No-one seemed to be around to ask until a couple returned from a cycle trip. Quickly I walked over and asked where my accommodation might be. They did not recognize the name but kindly offered me coffee while they rang around their neighbours. Coffee was very good, my host taking the time to warm the glasses beforehand, and cookies too! My accommodation was nearby and soon I was showering. 

In the evening I went to the Zuma pub for a burger and beer plus some good music, less well known Pink Floyd, Amy Winehouse among others. 

29.5 kilometres walked today, including the extra to reach my accommodation and healthy 920 metre total ascent.