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TALES
FROM THE TRAILS
Wildest Portion of
Israel Trail Marked
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The newly published edition (2005) of the Central Arava and Eastern
Negev Highlands Trail Map includes a newly marked portion of the
Israel Trail - probably the wildest and most beautiful portion of
the 940-kilometer-long trail.
This latest segment of the trail starts at the Ammonite Wall, just
south of the Ramon Crater, climbs up "Reptiles Gulch" on the Ramon
Tooth, and then crosses Route 40 (Mitzpe Ramon-Eilat).
Once across the road, the path continues to Nahal Gevanim ("Colors
Riverbed"), Nahal Eshboren, and the canyons of Barak and Vardit.
After descending into the mighty riverbed of Nahal Paran, the path enters the beautiful wide canyon of Nahal Zihor and climbs up again
to Route 40 - this time near the Zihor Junction.
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Hiking
the Israel Trail |
The new portion of the trail has become very popular with the
growing number of hikers who are setting out to hike the Israel
Trail from north to south. At every given moment, there are upward of
100 groups of hikers (from individual hikers to groups of 10 people)
walking along the trail. It takes an average of 45 days to hike the
entire trail.
Tomer Milo, for example, celebrated her Bat Mitzvah by hiking the
trail together with her father Udi. They divided the hike into two
portions - they hiked from Modi'in to Eilat in the cooler months and from Dan to Modi'in in the warmer months. Tomer celebrated her Bar Mitzvah at Neot
Kedumin at the end of the second portion of her hike, after 53 days
of hiking.
Zvika, Ohad and Maayan, all aged 23, hiked the 940 km. trail
in 41 days. The started from Eilat in April, stopped during the
Sabbath in the villages along the way, and finished at Kibbutz Dan.
According to statistics, only 4 out of
every 10 hikers manage
to complete the entire trail. |
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Maps of the trail unfortunately are
available in Hebrew only. If you are interested in hiking the Israel
trail, contact ERETZ VATEVA - the Hebrew edition of ERETZ Magazine
- and we will be happy to supply information and help.
Contact: Yaakov Shkolnik,
editor of ERETZ VATEVA and an expert on the Israel Trail, at Shkolnik@eretz.co.il
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