28.4. Serious hiking in the Karmel

I was using the opportunity of my free day to do some hiking in the Karmel. I left out this section on the Shvil. Hiking with such a light backpack which weights only 4-5 kg is a pleasure. I went to Kibbuz Yagur and had to climb up the Karmel mountain. It was quite tough, but I enjoyed it. It was a warm day, unfortunately a bit dizzy, but it was clearing up during the day. Today I experienced everything that makes the Shvil so special: great nature, time for myself and wonderful, open minded people. At the Eizan outlook point I wanted to have my lunch break. There I met Tal, a forester, who also took a break. We had a very nice conversation about Gods blessing on Israel and that I as a friend of Israel stand with them. He gave me some fresh bread which was my first after Pessach. Later I came to the area were the fire in 2010 destroyed big parts of the forest. Tal told me that it was burning for 4 days.  The vegetation looked very special, in a way you could see that life overcomes death in Gods creation. Later I met a group of school kids. People were very friendly, Guy, the security man, talked German to me which he had learnt from his ex girl friend. I continued west up to Mount Shokeh enjoying the nice view at the sea and Haifa with the big university building. Then I went back on my round trip through the Alon valley and later back down to Kibbuz Yagur. I hiked 23 km in total which was quite something on this warm day. Afterwards I directly went to the Fuchs family who were already waiting for me. The children had painted some lovely Shvil pictures for me, uncle Manni. We had a very nice evening and sent a greeting video to my family at home.

27.4. Relaxed day in Tel Aviv with Arik

I enjoyed this relaxed Shabat day in Tel Aviv, the last day of the Pessach holidays. Originally I had planned to do a hike in the Karmel with Ami. But Amis friend who is a police man said we shouldn't do it, because of the traditionally long traffic jams at the end of the holidays. So I decided to stay in Tel Aviv with Arik and do the hike on Sunday. After we got up we went running at the beach. It was a bit cloudy - good for us. After we'd come back we had a late breakfast.
Later we went together with Arik's french friend Aurelie who is here on vacation to a restaurant called Grinberg. We sat outside and enjoyed the fellowship and the nice weather. Seven years ago Orili lived in Israel for 6 month, but she became homesick and went back to France. She is a French teacher and now regularly visits Israel.
Later I went to the beach, read my bible and enjoyed life. In the evening Arik and I played chess and finally he won the championship - congrats Arik!

Nice lunch in the Grinberg restaurant

Tel Baruch beach, my home beach in Tel Aviv

25.4. Goodbye, Migdal Afek and Hike in Sha'ar Gay

My family Ute, Samuel and Jakob had to go home today. I took them to the Airport, everything went very well and they safely arrived in Nuremberg in the evening. They were welcomed with a nice dinner cooked by Emily. After I dropped off my family, I also felt a bit homesick. But I have another wonderful experience prepared for me before I go back to Germany.
It was 9:30 and I was supposed to be in Messilat Zion around noon. Spontaneously Ezra offered to show me a nice and interesting place - Migdal Afek. This place was ruled by Sheik Afek 150 years ago, who was very brutal and even the Ottomans wanted to get rid of him. The story goes that once a dutch surveyor was working in the Afek area and because of horrible rain he and his partner looked for a place to stay overnight. They came to Migdal Afek and knocked on the door. They were led in, Sheik Afek was already sleeping, they had to sleep with the animals. In the middle of the night when Sheik Afek woke up, they were brought to him, the surveyors thought they would be killed. Fortunately this didn't happen. But this experience was so shocking for them, that they made a note about it in their official survey report.
After a heartily goodbye from Ezra I went to the arranged meeting point with Boas. I met Boas when I stayed in Kibbuz Yir'on at the beginning of my Shvil. When we met we updated each other on our experiences of the last six weeks. Boas was reading my blog, so he was well informed about what I had done. Boas had done a hiking tour in the Golan in the meantime which he also enjoyed a lot. We wanted to hike the Sha'ar Gay trek together which is the southern crest of a gorge in which the modern highway number 1 and in the past the only way to Jerusalem was leading. During the war of independence the control of this crest was essential. There are still military posts from this time. It was a great hike on a warm day, we enjoyed each other's company. We also took some breaks and were talking about our faith in God. When it was already getting dark we finished our round trip and promised to see each other again in the future.

Migdal Afek towards the West

Migdal Afek

My great guide who knows every story.

The inner part, right hand where the surveyors had to sleep

Meeting Boas at the camp site in Messilat Zion

View to the North

View to the West

Boas used to be a guide of the Jewish National Fund

Highway Nr 1 - easily to control from above

A relaxed break

View to the Burma road

Highway Nr 1 further east towards Jerusalem

A cave were also fights took place, bullets wholes can still be seen

Our big lunch break

Military bunkers

Valley down to Beit Shemesh

24.4. Beach, Netanya

Around noon we went to the beach in Herzliya for two hours. The beach was crowded as we expected in the Pessach holidays. We all had the ambition to go into the sea even though we hardly saw anybody going in. We had sunshine and 25 degrees, the water was around 18 to 20 degrees. It was a bit tough at the beginning, but okay and we were glad we did it.
In the afternoon Daniel from the Messianic Congregation we went to last Shabbat wanted to meet us and so we drove to Netanya. His son Samuel was also 15 and so Samy had somebody to talk to. We went to a park and his other two sons Daniel (17) and Isaac (7) got together with our boy to play football and hide and seek. Many more kids from the congregation came to the park for some activities. Jakob always loves being with other children and they had a good time while we were sharing and getting to know Daniel from the US, who has lived in Russia, has a Russia wife. We also saw Jean from the US again who spontaneously invited us for a quick dinner and afterwards we went for a prayer meeting of this wonderful American-Russian congregation. Afterwards Daniel and his boys invited Samy and Jakob to a Pancake house so that they could get to know each other. Thank you for this wonderful afternoon, Daniel and Jean - we will surely meet again!