We have decided to skip a section of the Negev because it requires caching water in about 8 camp sites. It is hard to coordinate these drops because we never do the distance as outlined in the trail guide. How would anyone ever find us in the midst of these wadis, boulder fields and canyons?? Additionally, there is the expense: it seems the standard drop fee in these remote sections of the desert cost about 650 shekels each ((around 200$) Arlene could likely carry enough water to tide her over a few days but 5 litres is my max. This section of the desert also includes the dreaded Karbolet ( two craters where you ascend steeply and walk along a very narrow rim, up and down, ( Karbolet means ” like the comb of a rooster”) If this is the most challenging day of the trail, as the guidebook indicates, then it must be terrifying ( based on previous experience). Arlene was warned not to try it alone.

We took the bus up to highway 25 through the most scenic desert terrain I’ve seen -huge cliffs of rock, sheer canyons, reddish plateaus and breathtaking vistas. When we had climbed almost to the top (kilometres of winding road) a sign proudly announced that we had now reached sea level!! Such a strange sensation.

As usual the bus was packed . The driver couldn’t stop at the trailhead so we had to walk uphill in blistering heat several kilometres with all our water bottles and the camel pack filled to the brim . Somewhere in all the bus commotion I must have twisted/ strained my knee. The pain worsened after we reached the trail and headed north towards Arad.

We passed a quarry and large conveyer belt strung across the hills , looking very much like a Roman aqueduct . Then we noticed the camels. Two young Bedouin boys and their unfortunate donkey were pasturing their herd on the scrubby, rocky ground. How cool to see camels. We noticed some had their front legs roped together, presumably to prevent them from running off? Our first impression of the bedouins was negative.

We walked on for a few hours, almost til dark on a high plateau. The ground and trail was very rocky but we noticed countless sea shells littering the ground, evidence this place was likely under water. We found one of the few sandy spots around to set up camp, ate a can of tuna each and half a power bar . Camp fuel is getting low so we forgot about tea. Mountains in the distance, a waxing moon, high up in open country and the silence after that last eerie camp out in Ein Yahav. Everything is good. My toes have healed though two if them look a bit odd, my back is fine again…..but my knee is starting to be a problem. I go to sleep hoping that in the morning all will be well with  the knee.

 

 

• We packed up from camp at Barack wadi and started out on the trail, through wadis and over rolling high plateaus. Some of the hills were very chalky, a bit slick. So I would slide down, getting totally covered  in a fine white powder.Probably not so good for the lungs. We stopped early and camped in a beautiful spot at the junction of 2 wadis, a spot with two large acacia trees and a brilliant white wall of rock towering over us. People had camped there and we’ve noticed they often bring large wooden pallets for firewood. Good for us except for the heaps of rusty nails buried in the dirt. We had just made camp when a young Ukranian guy named Alex stopped to rest under one of the trees. He was quite proud of the fact he was carrying a pack that weighed 75 pounds!! Twelve litres of water (almost 30 pounds right there. )He was heading to Eilat for 10 days of hiking, and had all his meals in small packets. Looked like bird feed. Anyway off he went, this little guy with the enormous pack, prepping for a summer trip of extreme hiking on the Kamchatka peninsula in Russia. One does meet interesting people on the trail!
  

  

What an exhilarating day! Yoel made us some lunches and drove us to the trailhead. This was the day we were going to tackle Vardit and Barack canyons. The guidebook says the canyon walls are steep and 70 m high “you will climb vertically up a ladder with the help of metal rungs and handholds.” And so it was. it was scary but the smooth rocks were stunning. Some of the pits were flooded. At one point the water was deep . A rope had been strung across which we attached our packs to with carabiners. (I left my big pack with Yoel who was going to meet us at the campground afterwords and Arlene left most of her stuff in a green garbage bag but we still had our electronics and shoes…) We had to remove our clothes and walk through icy chest deep water – rather green from algae – to the other side ( an interesting photo op), slither up onto the rocks and re bandage my toes, then climb up the metal ladders through the canyons and maneuver up metal runs.

It was terrifying and exhilarating at the same time. We had just got our boots back on when a group of five guys came by. I imagine they had to do the same thing. Anyway we were long gone before they were done. Between canyons was a 5 km walk across the most fabulous plateau. The type of countryside I love – desert, bare high country with the Jordanian mountains off to the west. The second canyon had a narrow path on the edge of the DEEP canyon – not a walk in the park for someone who gets dizzy easily. We followed a group of four Israelis down into the depths of the canyon, down ladders and sliding down water water smoothed rocks and forded a knee high pool.

When we exited the canyon, the brilliant blue sky against the rock walls was incredible.

The Israelis were perched on a ledge eating fruit and chocolate. a couple of them, including one guy who made travel videos and look like a young Brad Pitt, were in the tourist business. We sat with them for half an hour, drank a bit of herbal tea made from a local dandelion like plant and shared their snacks. They were very curious about our trip and suggested getting a bag service so we could ditch the packs ( which I would love to do but have since discovered is outrageously expensive. Their main advice: it is about the journey, not the mileage enjoy, stop and smell the roses. They seem to be suitably impressed by 2- 50/60 women attempting The Shvil. They were also quite surprised to hear we thought the trail was dangerous. One of the young men said we need to redefine what we consider dangerous. He didn’t explain but I think for Israelis, their existence has been contested for centuries and THAT is danger. Facing challenging landscapes, especially in a land they love, is not in the same class at all. That is the best I can figure it because there isn’t a person I know who wouldn’t be shocked by some of the obstacles on the trail, and yet very few Israelis seem to understand our apprehension. Strange.

Arlene and I started walking out of the canyon down the wadi to the campground but it was about 10 km! Thankfully that merry little party picked us up about 3K into the hike and drove us to the campground. They picked another couple hitchhikers up who sat up on the roof racks. Respectful, lovers of nature, mellow… Maybe it was the tea??? But what great people. So again we were looked after, arriving at the campground before dark, when it could have been a long slog over rocks in the dark (our headlights were back in our packs. ) We made a fire and kept it going, joking that we didn’t want to be huddled in the dark looking pathetic when Yoel arrived with water and the bags. They came around eight, hugs all around, invited them to Canada, – anything we need they said, just call. Such a surreal Can’t help but feel thankful for this experience. Would love to be posting pictures but I need Wi-Fi to get the pictures from my camera to the iPad or phone. No Wi-Fi yet . I think may be Arlene will post one or two on her blog.

PS – lots of Israeli fighter jets heading out over the desert. military exercises seem fairly regular.

We completed day 2 from the trail guide. As you can see the guide is totally out of whack with reality. Arlene and I are no slouches but it would have been impossible to go faster. We woke up outside the wadi in a camping spot- well beside the official one. We moved over because about 30 high schoolers were on a field trip and sleeping out under the stars ( which, by the way are so amazing in the desert.) We got our gear together, ate some porridge and powdered eggs and set off, toes bandaged and hoping for the best. As usual it wasn’t long before we were climbing another mountain- another long steep slog up gravelly slopes -20% grade. It took hours and near the summit who should we meet but a cyclist, dragging his mountain bike across the rocks. I don’t know how he could possible manage the descent WITH A BYCYCLE!! He was a geologist who came to the desert once a month. People do all sorts of crazy stuff though he seemed a down to earth kind of guy. He warned us about the trail down – two dry waterfalls and a bunch of boulders to navigate “but you can slide down them”. Nothing about that in the trail guide. But he failed to tell us

you can slide down them if you don’t mind careening down 80 feet with your pack propelling you onto a pile of rock. Somehow, again with Arlene’s ingenuity we came out alive. I swear she is an angel sent to save me. The boulders – well there were dozens of seemingly impossibly high and treacherous rocks. Sometimes we slid the packs down first, hoping all our electronics would survive(in the event we survived, otherwise who cares, right??? I cannot believe the Israeli govt allows this trail to be certified. It’s well marked all along the way with fresh paint on boulders. I picture some evil person gleefully freshening the orange, blue and white markers at all these potentially lethal points on the trail. Our pictures will never do justice to the impossibilities of the trail. ( though to Arlene they are obstacles to be overcome). After defying the odds yet again (and I am thankful for prayers and guardian angels) we walked for a couple hours along a very wide wadi (dry streambed) and came to the camp. We set up just before dark, ate another of those delicious freeze dried meals – and I’m not being sarcastic- they are fantastic-. The area was lovely, as is all the open scenery we see, and appeared to be used by dirt bikers

In the morning I told Arlene I slept badly. I was cold, sunburned, blistered and dirty. She laughed and said she slept better because she was only cold and dirty. The previous night I had slept really well despite the teenagers, dud to the fact at that time I was only blistered. At the time this seemed hilarious and we laughed for 20 minutes.

We have created a few guessing games for example: what time do you think it is? How much charge do you think the solar charger put into the iPad? How long do you think we’ll live on this section of the trail? We should up the stakes. Loser has to give up a mountain meal or cut her water ration in half.

Decided not to check my toes, after all nothing I can do about them until we reach a town somewhere. They were no sorer than the previous night and looked a bit less red under the blister pads. I’d never seen a blister that went from the tip if the toe under the nail and down to nearly the first knuckle. Quite strange. Arlene said she lost several toenails on her Kilimanjaro trip. She also had Asolo boots that dye loved ( like mine) but discovered they were too snug above the toes. So that “fits like a glove” admiration I had for these boots turns out was not a good thing after all. Not sure what the solution is. Maybe my toes, after getting over the shock, will adapt.

Day 5 (for us)

Ok so here’s the scoop on today. Clear blue skies, warm- lovely, scenery absolutely awesome. We left at 7 and walked down the wadi for a good 2 hours before reaching Timna park. Fabulous place. Striking rock formations such as Solomons pillars (misnamed by a British archeologist – nothing to do with Solomon  anyway. There were also the ruins of an Egyptian temple and a replica of the biblical tabernacle. We missed the latter as a park employee offered to give us a lift to the pillars. The surrounding mountains and valleys are magnificent, the stone itself ancient. Would have been a lovely place to  cool our heels ( and toes) for a day. However it was only about 11, so we set out on the trail. We knew it would be hard since even that inept trail guide said so. But again the ascent was underplayed . It was straightforward ( meaning no ridiculous impasses but it was VERY steep, in fact the final push was basically vertical, all on rock. But what a view from the top!!! We rehydrated, ate some power bars and peanut butter/sand on dried out bread. The summit was a tabletop with sheer sides. NOTHING in the trail guide said anything about easing yourself backwards off the rim with nothing but 2000 feet of air below you and a couple of metal handholds on a narrow lower ledge. But that’s what we had to do. We had seen three guys’ heads appear mysteriously over the edge but dismissed their route as having anything to do with the INT. They invited us to smoke a joint so the trip down wouldn’t seem so bad. As if smoking pot would help! What I wanted was a helicopter evacuation off that tabletop. Somehow we did it and the rest of the descent was…sketchy.. Once again we lived to tell the tale. This was actually a geological trail with explanatory plaques but no one in Canada would dare take a bus load of school kids to see it! Just below the tabletop summit we passed a cheery group of people with about 15 young kids in tow. One guy had a four year old slung across his shoulders, another a baby on his back and one on his front. The kids were all scattered over the rocky, razor thin trail. They were headed to the top for a picnic!!!! We expressed our amazement and concern but they seemed unfazed. We were completely flummoxed by this reckless endeavour.

 

It was after 5 ( 10 hours of hiking) when we got into a more open wadi. The trail took a turn up again so we decided to camp in the wadi, which is a no-no because of flash floods. The wind had picked up, so we walked a bit further to see if there was a more sheltered place, decided to pitch the tents, when to our amazement a car whizzed by not 200 feet from where we were standing. A road? Sure enough it was a very narrow paved road and looking right, we noticed a building. We knew everything would be shut down because Shabbatt had begun (sabbath) but went to investigate. Turned out it was an almost completed visitors centre and someone had left the door unlocked!! Unfortunately there was no running water yet but there was power to charge up our iPads. We forgot about tents and just blew up our air mattresses, put them on some ceiling tiles for insulation and that was our camp for the night. Warm and out of the wind. Providential. If that car hadn’t gone by we would never have known. We only saw two other cars that entire night pass by. Of course we didn’t turn on lights but ate dinner under the green glow of the exit signs.

I forgot to mention that while Arlene was helping me down backwards from a rock she started laughing about the holes in the back of my pants. On the trail I found a pair of black stretchy capris and we both thought that was an amazing coincidence. Unfortunately they were about 2 sizes too small. Wouldn’t that have been something if they’d fit perfectly??

Day 6

Another cloudless warm day. The night was uneventful . No police arrived to throw us out which was surprising because this place should have been locked and have security cameras. There are lots of antiquities mounted on the wall. We’ve decided not to back to the trail as it does a loop. We can see the town we would have ended up at across the valley so will just head out as the crow flies. Not sure what will be available when we get there. Things only open up in the evening of the sabbath. The next section of the trail is supposedly (from this flawed guide book) a much easier walk, though still 22 km. We’ll see how it goes – and what the toes look like” Arlene pulled her Achilles’ tendon on the descent which is a bummer.

After such an extreme day yesterday I’ve decided that whenever I know a section of the trail is too hairy and unreasonable I’ll give it a miss. The problem is the guide, and there’s only one, does not really warn you. It might say “difficult “ or “steep” but it in no way prepares you for the actual conditions you find on the trail.

All sections of the trail are challenging but I didn’t come over here to look death in the face, plus it’s hardly fair to Arlene who I’m sure feels some responsibility for both our safety. She has quite literally saved me countless times over the past 5 days. But we are still enjoying ourselves, revel in the accomplishments ( surviving so far), are in awe of the scenery and history. Day by day, step by step, only perhaps being a bit more discriminating about the limits required for a safe yet challenging journey.

Crescent moon over the mountains of southern Israel. We are only 25 km from where we began, but those kilometers were insane. For extreme hikers only, though Arlene takes it all in stride. She is utterly fearless and I can’t count the number of times she’s said “of course you can do this” whether it be climbing 20 foot ladders on a sheet cliff or walking with 40 pound packs on a narrow ledge 1000 feet up or just the endless rock climbing.

She is always there to offer me the end of her hiking pole or her hand just to get me UP. Today I actually ended up sliding down a rock and sitting on her shoulders. She has ingenious ways around impossible situations. This hike should not be done alone. In fact it’s a good place to take someone you want to get rid of.

We are exhausted by about 3 pm (we start at 7am). Tonight I looked to see why my toes were hurting and my second toes were completely blistered right under the toenails. Red and disgusting. My shins and knees are various shades of purple and green. That said the scenery is breathtaking. We saw an ibex the other day but were too exhausted to even take any picture. Someone from the hostel cached water for us but we were a day late getting to the campsite (due to the extremity of the trail). We walked an extra 4 km after going to the wrong park.

A bus offered us a ride but whizzed past the entrance to the park and so there we were hiking again up another hill. On a positive note we had run out of water a few hours earlier so at least we weren’t suffering under a load of H2O. The guys from the Shelter Hostel also left us wood so we had a campfire and all was well until a wind blew up in the middle of the night. Arleen’s tent was blow into the thorny arms of an acacia tree where the fly sheet suffered some serious damage. Have some great photos of tent malfunctions!

At the moment we’re sheltered under a rock ledge (there are falling rock warnings). No  surprise. Israel is full of rocks wadis and black rock, gravelly trails, water pitted boulders – you name it’s here.

Read Arleen’s blog “the flip side of fifty” to get an account of our failed Jordan expedition.

Much more I could write but tomorrow will be a hard slog,  20% grade and who knows what the evil trail masters have put in our path – nothing that regular humans could conquer, I’m sure. They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. In time I might be able to hoist myself over 20 foot rocks with my fingertips or crush walnuts with my quads. Arlene is very strong. Her hard work starting that you-pick blueberry farm has paid off big time.

Apparently there’s a 30 km bike ride ahead and a swim across two deep ponds in some canyon, the trick being not to get our gear wet.  So stay tuned!

Morning now. Slept well. I’ll cover up my toes with moleskin and hoist that pack once more over another formidable mountain. Wish us well!!

There were pictures but no power to send them at the moment. Perhaps tonight after a day on the solar charger.

Well we made it! Long flights but uneventful, at least for me. Arlene was interrogated in Toronto by Israeli officials regarding the purpose of her visit, her bags were gone through. She was the last to board the plane. Interestingly enough, she met the original founders of the Shelter Hostel in Eilat (where we will start our trek) who were coming back to Israel for a holiday. We will be flying to Eilat this afternoon – on this cool stormy day in Tel Aviv. The beach is just across the road from the hostel. The surf is rough, the wind gusty but there are lots of joggers running along the street and sand. The hostel, which unfortunately smells a bit like an outhouse (bad plumbing??) is very comfy. There’s a kitchen on the roof. At the moment we’re perched on our beds looking out on the Mediterranean, writing and drinking tea. We’ve examined the contents of eachother’s packs and Arlene wins the award for most spare packer. I couldn’t find a single superfluous item which is impressive for even the most fastidious packer caves in for some sort of luxury item, even if it is only an extra Chapstick.

Because there is no public transportation after about 3pm on the eve of the Sabbath (Friday night) we had to take a cab from the airport to the hostel. the driver was a congenial fellow who complained about the price of everything in Israel. Basic apartments can be as high as a million dollars, food is expensive. I’m assuming people have average salaries but are taxed heavily, as he also complained about all the money being poured into he military. He had found himself a nice demure Polish wife because, in his opinion, Israeli women, after serving their obligatory 2 year stint in the army, were too aggressive for his liking. And Polish women get that way after being exposed to females in Israel! But would he like to move? Never. Israel is the best , the sun always shines….well not today.

After getting settled into our digs for the night we went out to check out the neighbourhood. We bought some kind of pastry thing filled with cheese, olives, potatoes, and were given a free sample of Turkish baklava by the shopkeeper, which we ate on the beach. Got myself an Israeli phone number – a good deal from the hostel – (it is recommended not to change money or buy cell phone plans or other paraphernalia from the airport kiosks). We kicked back and read and chatted, mainly about our good fortune to be here, to be able to pursue this adventure and all the positive things we hope to get out of this experience. It would be nice if my pack was 20 pounds lighter, if I could read Hebrew, and if Israeli power sockets used a quarter of the power they do (really, power mysteriously drains from newly charged devices – like some form of technological blood-letting. )We are hoping this is a quirk of this particular hostel and not a feature of Israel’s electrical system. We are also hoping that the solar charger, currently untested, lives up to its reputation. Other than that, all is well.Till next time….