Zakhron Ya'akov to Nahal Me'arot on Israel National Trail: Day 38

A walk through the woods today with no great highlights.

With plans to wild camp for a few nights I visited the supermarket in the centre of town to stock up on tuna, tortillas, peanut butter, oranges and cereal bars. Suitably prepared I returned to the trail which made a lengthy circumnavigation of Zikhron Ya'akov. This included wading through a river (Nahal Daliya) beside a highway. Too deep for my boots I removed them and my socks and crossed in my canvas "hotel" shoes, now rather wet.

Most of today was through woodland, sometimes taller pine trees but usually smaller trees and bushes of various types, densely packed. In the early part of the day the view of quarries and tips was not pretty, it improved later although the vistas down the coastal plain were dominated by trees, fruits and bananas being cultivated under fine, white netting (presumably to keep the birds and insects out) and poly tunnels. The trail repeatedly went up and down the edge of the Mount Carmel range. As there were many crossing tracks and paths, it was easy to miss a waymark indicating a turn. I retraced my steps on one occasion to follow the correct route (a frustrating experience), but next time I simply took a slightly different route. In places I was following forest tracks, with pools of water and deep mud at times, at others the route took pretty paths, although jagged rocks meant progress could be slow. The trail including hiking up a stream bed, fortunately with no water but the low vegetation kept grabbing my rucksack. 

Muddy track with some typical vegetation each side.

The one site mentioned in my guidebook concerned an area inhabited by Arabs before they were displaced by the 1948 war. One intact building remained which looked like a small mosque as there was a mihrab, a small alcove showing the direction of Mecca.

A section of path

A rocky section of path

As evening approached there was a fine display of miniature blue iris. Although the red anemones are now past their best I saw many other attractive flowers.

The geology was mainly limestone, resulting in a number of caves and holes in the ground. I am camped at the entrance to the Me'arot caves where evidence of many years of human occupation was found. Unfortunately, by the time I arrived, after a slow day, the visitor centre and caves were closed.