Forests: Dvira to Arad

     About an hour from the Alon center, walking in lovely, peaceful fields, the trail approached the high tech fence between Israel and the Palestinian administered area. We were now hiking in the southern part of the Hebron Hills. There was a weirdness about the lonely, peaceful scene, in which the tweeting of birds was the loudest sound, with that fence in the background. And actually that very weirdness is the irony of life here in Israel.  

     We carefully made our way down and out of the Meitar Forest. We were now walking on a dirt road through scrub and grass land, climbing up and down several large and steep hills. At almost exactly 6am we reached the top of the tallest of these hills called Mount Hiran (חר חירן) . We had a 360 degree views of the country side, with the sun poring over the horizon. The perfect place for our breakfast of strong hot tea, hardboiled eggs and granola with long life milk. 
     From this vantage point it was clear why the 1948 armistice lines were called the green line. On the one side there were green forests while on the other there were yellow fields as far as the eye could see.
     We ate and rested for almost an hour, and then headed towards the Yatir Forest which was in sight about a kilometer away. We passed a Bedouin sheep herder, then we came to a metal tower which was making a strange, repetitive beeping noise, and then we were walking on the edge of the forest. There were pine trees to the north, scrubland to the south, while we walked into the eastern sunrise.

The Yatir Forest where we walked is a wonder. It was the brain child of Yosef Weitz who in spite of the derision of the established scientists, pushed through his dream of planting a forest in the desert, and reversing the global trend of desertification. There is a saying attributed to Ben Gurion that may be apocryphal: he explained his desire to make the desert bloom by planting forests and a group of scientists explained why it was impossible, which prompted Ben Gurion to say “get me different scientists!” and of course the rest is history.
     Yatir is the largest planted forest in Israel, it is the subject of many scholarly articles in prestigious journals, and has shown that many assumptions held by scientists studying global weather patterns were wrong. The two biggest surprises are: 1) this forest on the edge of the desert is as productive as other forests in temperate climates, thus taking up much more CO2 than expected, and 2) there is a dramatic decrees in the temperature around the forest due to reflection of the powerful solar radiation. Take a look at The Yatir Forest Research groups website for the scholarly articles, or at this Jerusalem Post article for an overview of what they have discovered. 
      After about 45 minutes we crossed a deserted road, and passed another Bedouin sheep herder who had two truly gorgeous dogs. Most of the Bedouin dogs are at least partly an ancient local breed called Canaan dogs (כלב כנעני ) , these two were perfect examples of the breed. 

     Not far from the road the trail passed the Yatir ruins ( חורבת יתיר), which is believed to have been at first an ancient synagogue from the third century, and then later became a Christian village. There were pillars, and carved stones all in this wild area.  Overlooking these ruins was a small Bedouin encampment.  Most Bedouin’s in Israel are no longer true nomads. However, during our last few hikes we've seen that there are some who still live the traditional nomadic life.  They build camps, like the one in the picture, in which they stay for a few months before they move on to a new place.

     We now entered the main part of Yatir forest. Mostly the trees were Aleppo Pines, but there were plots of other types of trees, some newly planted, some older, and all seemed to be thriving. We were heading for the Foresters House which has facilities for group outings as well as a room reserved only for hikers (no reservations, first come first served), where they can stay for free, sleep on a bed, cook their meal, and perhaps most important take a shower! There was a shower in the room which wasn’t working attached to the bed room, but that didn’t matter because across the courtyard there were shower rooms.
     We arrived before 10 am, our early start was paying off, though we were exhausted. We took the opportunity to shower, munch on our snacks, and completely rest for a full hour.
     Refreshed we left the Forester’s House and walked mostly on easy dirt roads through the forest. In the valleys of the forest, we passed vineyards, which I recently found out provide the grapes for the Yatir Winery. Take a look at these two links to find out the amazing story of a one of the best boutique wineries in Israel. Here wine was made more than two thousand years ago and now is being made again.
   The Yatir winery's website and a Blog by a Frenchman about the Yatir vineyards.
     We were now looking for a place to eat lunch. The map indicated a picnic area near the Yatir Reservoir, however, we didn’t find the picnic area or the reservoir. In the end we sat under a tall tree and ate our standard fare of salami on pita with mustard. I spent some time taking care of blisters forming on my heels, the price of hiking in new boots, and then after resting we set off again.  

     When we were planning this hike we’d set Kibbutz Amza ( עמשא ), which is at the eastern end of the forest, as the place we absolutely had to reach in order to get to Arad the next day. We got there before 2pm. It now seemed probable that not only would we reach Arad, but that we’d get there in time to catch the last Friday bus back to Haifa and let our son Beni off the hook from having to drive all that way to pick us up.
     So we walked out of Yatir Forest, walked acrossed the gravel road going up to Kibbutz Amza, and started on a path through scrub land, up hill and southwards. We soon noticed that the path had square stones laid crossways every few meters, and we realized that we were on the ancient Roman Road which made its way from Eilat to Jerusalem. Behind us we could now see the whole Yatir forest going off into the distance to the west, while the hill blocked our view of what was ahead.

     Four O’clock saw us at the bottom of the valley. We were now walking on a dirt road which was heading directly towards Arad. All around there were relatively permanent Bedouin settlements, and scattered around them were camel, sheep and goat herds. There was debris all over that seemed to radiate from each of the settlements.
     Where were we going to camp? We were both reaching the end of our endurance, yet in that flat area with Bedouins watching our every move, it didn’t seem possible we would find any privacy. We sat down on the side of the road, and even sitting we were the tallest thing around. While we rested our feet, and I dealt with blisters, we looked at the map for some idea of what to do. Don pointed out that Tel Arad, an archeological site, was about 3 kilometers further along. We looked up the road and sure enough there were some slight hills in the distance. That would be our destination.

     We trudged forward. A Bedouin boy came up to us and asked for a treat (I wish we had had some candy) and when Taffy came up to him, he practically climbed up on to Don’s shoulders in terror. Further along, as we passed a group of shacks, a whole troupe of little ones came running to us begging for treats that we didn’t have to give them.
     We reached the hills, but while there were now little valleys where we could hide, they were so rocky there was no possibility of setting up the tent. Finally we made one last push and in front of what was clearly an old cistern there was a perfect flat area facing the Tel Arad ruins that sat on top of the next hill. Here was our camp.
     We had walked more than 30 kilometers and Arad was about 10 kilometers away.  

Friday 15April 2011

We woke at 4am and again, as the day before, we started walking at 4:30am with only the slightest tinge of light showing in the East. We did not start exactly on the Israel Trail, instead we walked across the wadi and along the fence around (תל ערד ) the Tel Arad archeological site. This was a larger place than we had seen from our camping place. The main ruins were further up and out of sight. Here archeologists have found artifacts as far back as 4000BCE, and there are also remains of a temple from the time of King David and King Solomon. Here is yet another place that we need to come back to.
     While we carefully made our way in the dim light, we saw a wild cat. The creature screamed at us, and behaved strangely – running back at forth in front of us. It probably had a litter near by and was afraid of what Taffy would do. We kept our dog closely at heel.
     Soon we were at the front gate to the park which was conveniently open. We quietly went in and filled up on water and went out with out waking anyone. A few minutes later we crossed Route 80, and were now walking along agricultural lands. What ever I had expected from this part of the hike it wasn’t to once again be walking next to orchards of fruit trees, but that was indeed the case. The sun came up over the horizon in this area, and when we looked back it was shinning directly on Tel Arad which was silhouetted by the huge mine we'd walked past, in the background.

     There were also vineyards which I think are part of the Yatir winery, and finally we walked past the rather stinky water treatment plant for the city of Arad. Clearly the water from the city, was being treated, and used for the agriculture in that area. Pretty nifty.
     Then the trail veered away and went through a non-descript garbagey region heading towards Arad park where we hoped to have breakfast. We reached the park at 6am. It was a grove of irrigated trees with picnic tables, perfect for our breakfast of strong tea, and granola with long life milk.
     From the park the trail was a bit hard to follow as it winded its way on various dirt roads to a wadi which leads directly and steeply up to the city. It was interesting that at the spot where the trail intersects with the wadi a Bedouin and his sons came by in a truck and took the very last stuff from what was clearly their last camp.
     We now climbed up a narrow trail in the bottom of a ravine, and before 9am we walked into Arad. From there we caught the bus to Be’er Sheva in time to get the last train back to Haifa.