Nahal Prat

We decided to try again and headed for Nahal Prat Nature Reserve. This week there was no fear of flooding and it was open.

This nature reserve is located 10 minutes over the Green Line in Area B of Judea and Samaria which I have, until now, hesitated to hike in simply because my personal feeling is that it seems like one of those cases where “it will be ok until it’s not”.

The truth is that every Jew everywhere in this country and abroad is a target and my illusion of safety in “Israel proper” is just that – an illusion.

Having said that, it is a very popular nature reserve (justly so!), I know many friends and neighbors who have gone and who said the drive to get there is “totally fine” so my friend and I decided to go for it.

We arrived a few minutes after it opened at 8 am. We paid the entrance fee and drove slowly down a very windy road to the kiosk where we parked.

The girl in the booth at the entrance who gave us the map wasn’t very clear with her explanations as to which color trail to take so in the beginning we were a bit mixed up and it took us a while to get ourselves sorted and on the right path. We made a mistake and took the blue path down the stairs, across the stream, through the picnic area and hooked up with the black trail.

What we should have done is to retrace our steps back up the paved road a short distance to the green trail which starts at the other parking lot which would be on your left if you did this.

The day was warm even at 8:30 am. After about 750 meters the trail splits – green to the left and blue to the right. We stayed to the right and continued on the blue.

There is water everywhere. It was odd and mesmerizing meeting such a roar and babble of water in that desert scenery.

The trail hugged the creek, while most of the time, the sides of the wadi provided natural “stairs”.

You couldn’t always see the water but you could always hear it. If in doubt, follow the green!

I don’t know what this pool is called but it was a large, clean pool teeming with small to medium size fish and, unlike pools we had passed earlier, we did not see any river crabs in it. This was just tooooo inviting and we kind of “got stuck” here for a bit longer than we should have.

I thought the monk was a special touch….

There were a few places on this trail that were somewhat technical with handholds that had to be navigated which is why I rated this hike “moderate”. I LOVE this sort of thing!

Off and on along the trail were long stretches of an ancient aqueduct. I would love to know where it originally began and ended, who built it and what water, exactly, “they” were expecting to shift. On the outside of one part of the aqueduct, I found one – only one – stone that was decoratively carved.

The trail criss-crossed the creek multiple times which was refreshing and fun.

1.6 km from the hike start point you reach HaNakik Pool – a small waterfall leading to a slit canyon filled with water that we were told was about 3 meters deep. There were some young guys leaping off the sides of the canyon into the water!

Seeing wildlife, even domesticated wildlife, is always thrilling for me.

At one point, 2 bedouin boys on donkeys brought a herd of probably about 300 goats over the horizon and down to the creek to drink and graze. We were surrounded.

Our goal for the day to was to reach Ein Maboa which we were told was 7 km from the start point although according to my app, it is only 5.6 km from hike start. Either way, we dawdled too much in and by the water and around noon I was getting concerned about the time.

I’m not sure how far we actually walked but let’s just say we didn’t make it to Ein Maboa which is kind of pathetic when we are used to doing 8 km and up each hike.

But sometimes there are hikes that just require a slower pace in order to absorb the magnificence of our surroundings.

I would like to do this hike again but make Ein Maboa our big food and rest stop.

Next time…..