South Africans love hiking. How could they not with some of the best trails in the world. Ask any who have done The Otter Trail along the Garden Route, the Pipe Track around Table Mountain, the hike up Champagne or Giant’s Castle in Natal, the Wild Coast the …well, its endless!
Israel, unlike South Africa is a small country but it too has so much to see – even if it is tightly packed and smaller in land mass than South Africa’s Kruger National Park.
Possibly the best way to intimately explore modern Israel is the same way they did in ancient Israel – by foot. Fit and fueled and with a good pair of walking shoes, you are ready to take your first steps with destiny. You may want to pack in a Bible as a backup GPS!
Since the opening of Israel National Trail (INT) or in Hebrew ‘Shvil Yisrael’ – a 955 km (597 miles) path that winds from the picturesque hilltop village of Matula in the north, to Israel’s premier seaside resort of Eilat in the south – tens of thousands have hiked the trail each year.
Along the way hikers traipse through lush forests, sparkling beaches, majestic waterfalls and arid desert. They climb mountains where the Prophets argued with God, and walk on roads built by the Romans, journey through Bedouin camps, Druze and Arab villages and vibrant cities. The trail snakes around the Sea of Galilee, the hills of Nazareth, Haifa, through Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and the most wondrous spots in Israel’s Negev desert.
LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TRAIL
While Israel’s biblical landscape should not come as a surprise setting for a ‘revelation’, it was not the case for Israeli journalist Avraham Tamir, whose epiphany came not in the Holy Land but during his long hike in the USA in 1980.
It was there, in the forests, rivers, streams and mountains of the Appalachian Trail that he saw “the light”, and came up with the idea of a major nature trail for Israel and fifteen years later, Shvil Yisrael was officially inaugurated by President Ezer Weitzman during Passover in 1995. The timing enjoyed resonance.
If the Jewish festival of Pesach (Passover) commemorates the story of the Exodus, in which the ancient Israelites were freed from slavery, so people from all over the world are free today to physically walk the length and breadth of the country in the very footsteps where the Patriarchs – founding fathers of Judaism – roamed and set a nation on the right spiritual ‘path’.
Former Financial Director of the Foschini Group in South Africa, Herman Musikanth (z’l) leading his group on the Israel Trail
A group of seniors – mostly South Africans – take a break on the Israel Trail.
Trail Blazers
In 1994, Yariv Ya’ari was the first person to hike the entire Israel Trail which he completed in twenty-one days. In October 2006, Avraham Tamir’s son, Mickey, hiked Shvil Yisrael to mark the trail’s ‘founding father’s’ 100th birthday. While there are many like Ya’ari and the younger Tamir who will walk uninterrupted, many more will hike sections at a time – say once a month or so – until they complete the entire trail over months, sometimes years. Such was a group of Israelis, mainly South African immigrants, ranging in age from 60-80 who covered the 900-kilometer distance from Kibbutz Dan at the foot of Mount Hermon in the north, to the seaside resort of Eilat on the Red Sea in the south. They called themselves the ‘Hajajeyah Walkers’, and it took them over two years.
Hajajeyah means ‘undulating’ in Arabic. “We would walk a few days, return home and then continue later from where we left off,” explained Herman Musikanth a resident from Kibbutz Ma’agan Michael who fulfilled his dream before passing away in 2015. “One of the many highlights,” said Hajajeyah Walker Ruth Shakenovsky of Ramat Hasharon, “was sleeping in tents in the desert, which could only be accessed by crawling in on one’s knees – a far cry from the accommodation we, in our senior years, are accustomed to, even with the ‘luxury’ of a three-inch mattress.”
Along the way, they surprisingly met fellow former South Africans, Issy and Etty Bloch who run a B & B on Moshav Ein Yanuv in the Arava desert. “We had been waiting ages for South Africans to visit us in the desert, and so when they did arrive,” jokes Issy, “little did we expect that they would be on foot, staffs in hand, as though they had wandered in off the pages of the Bible.”
Shacharut
Neot Smadar art centre
“Angels of the Road”
Avishai, son of former South African Janine Gelley (nee Orlin) from Johannesburg was a 25-year-old law graduate when he walked the trail with his girlfriend Carmel, now his wife. They hiked from north to south in 2008 over two months. “Pace yourself. Take it slow in the beginning and keep your weight light. Whatever you take you have to carry. The most important thing is to enjoy.”
Although one is never more than a day’s hike from a road or two days from a water source, Avishai suggests that one should “carry six liters when in the south and five liters in the north.”
What were the highlights for Avishai? “Meeting wonderful and interesting people, especially in the Negev.” He relates how after four days of walking “we arrived at Shacharut, a desert community of twenty-five families who make a living off a date packing plant, horse stables and a tourist center. We washed dishes and served food for board and lodging. They were such friendly people.”
Their next stay-over “at civilization” as against “sleeping in our tent” was Kibbutz Neot Semadar with its “surprisingly lush greenery”, and “amazing art center.”
About 70 kilometers north of Eilat, “the residents live off what they grow – it’s a totally self-sustaining community. There was no air-conditioning but the buildings were designed in such a way that the inside was amazingly cool. In fact, everything about this place was amazing and cool,” says Avishai. “They love hosting trail walkers and refer to us as “Angels of the Road”. You have only to let them know the day before you arrive, and they will be ready to welcome you.”
Trailing from the north to the south, both Avishai and Carmel attest that over and above the stunning scenery, “the real highlight was not only the wonderful places we discovered, but the wonderful people we met. We were amazed how incredibly nice country-folk can be to those they have never met before, and will never meet again. The wilderness somehow brings out the best in human nature.”
For the South African ‘Hajajeyah Walkers’, thirty to forty years older than Avishai and Carmel, the Negev too was full of excitement. Ruth Shanovsky recalls the ladder “at Maale Palmach (Nakeb el Yahud). “The only way the Palmach fighters could negotiate the formidable desert cliff during the 1948 war, was to construct a ladder using their rifles to make the cross bars.” While today there is a more substantial ladder, “it was still daunting to negotiate, as indeed were other rickety ladders and ropes which enabled us to climb down into and up out of gorges. It was certainly for the fit, and not for the faint-hearted.”
Maale Palmach (Nakeb el Yahud)
End of the Trail
The last three days of hiking for the ‘Hajajeyah Walkers’ – covering the last forty kilometers to Eilat – was tough. “The terrain was mountainous but we were all so excited,” says Shakenovsky. “After two years and five months, and nine hundred kilometers of hiking, we were within reach of our destination which we finally reached at four o’clock on Wednesday, March 21, 2007.” As the group made the final descent into Taba singing “We’ll be coming down the mountain” they were welcomed by the rolling cameras of Channel Two, as well as South Africans living in Eilat who broke into the South African Afrikaans song, “Daar kom die Alibama..”
They were then presented by representatives from the Eilat Municipal Council with certificates which read, “To dream the impossible dream.” It had been the group’s inspirational ead Herman Musikanth to walk the entire trail. His dream had been fulfilled.
Eilat (marina)
“It was good for the soul,” remarked one weary traveler in the group, “and maybe not,” laughed another holding up the underneath of a worn-out shoe sole.
Former South Africans enjoying a picnic break in a forest on the Israel Trail.
