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.