Route type: Circular
Difficulty level: Easy
Waze to start point: 31.493317, 34.779524
Notes:
- Start early to beat the heat. This hike has virtually no shade and is best done in the winter/spring. Not recommended for summer!
- Good for dogs.
- Part of this hike was not marked at all and at one point you must crawl under a barbed wire fence to stay on trail.
A Nahal Pura and Nahal Shikma combo was the hike of choice this week. Green. Rolling hills. Easy. Relatively close to home. That’s what we needed.
We began walking at 6:40 am with the sunrise. The early pinkish-golden light was just kissing the treetops while the mist hung in the hollows for a few more minutes.
At that hour, everything was covered in dew.
We had gotten some rain at the beginning of the week so I was expecting some mud. Fortunately, this area of the country has fairly flat terrain so we were able to circumvent any mud pits we encountered.
It was an unusually warm day for this time of year. Everything had been dusted off by recent rains. The colors were brilliant!
Critters were happily munching the new grass.
Israel has a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it kind of spring. The whole country waits for the explosion of flowers eagerly. The blooms are just starting.
The trail went up and over this tel which provided a fabulous 360 degree view of the surroundings from the top. What is a tel? You can read about it here in a previous post.
Playing with the B&W filter on my phone. I do like some photographic drama.
Microsoft, anyone?
About a quarter of the trail wasn’t marked at all and at one point we had to crawl under a barbed wire fence in order to stay on what my map app told me was the route.
For a little while the trail followed Nahal Shikma which, surprisingly, was dry.
Arriving back at the start point appropriately filthy, stinky and happy, we followed the hike up with our traditional stop for coffee and pastries at the nearest Aroma.