Eilat to Timna
Sections 41- 44, January 2016

MOTZAEI SHABBAT, 3 A.M. JANUARY 24, 2016
Two cars left Raanana and drove to Eilat, happy to leave the upcoming winter storm behind us. Karen, Chaim, Naomi and Eric were gearing up for four days of hiking the Shvil, starting at the start/end point at Chof Ha’almogim, and hike northbound.
The new and improved highways made the drive quick and pleasant; we arrived in Eilat in less than four hours. We left one car at our end point as the sun rose, on road 12, about 12 km west of Eilat. Then we drove to the Beit Sefer Sadeh, next to the start of the trail, and met up with Eta, who joined us after a biking weekend in Eilat.

DAY 1 – EILAT TO HAR YEHORAM – 13 KM
How long did it take us?
In no time were we climbing up the mountain. We knew the day was going to be challenging as the guide book indicated it was going to be a “very strenuous” day, even though this section of the trail is only 13 km.
The desert mountains gave us what we had expected. We climbed Mt. Zefahot – a 300m challenging climb. Up and down Maaleh Gishron, we were literally a stone’s throw away from the fence of the Egyptian border, and saw a number of 

Egyptian outposts along the way.  The mountains were tall and ragged and sharp, and it was difficult to imagine Bnei Yisrael having crossed something like that. Down to Nachal Gishron, we were surrounded by magnificent red rock mountains with thin layers of white swirls and lines sandwiched in, looking totally unreal. 

We had a steep and challenging climb up out of the wadi – 300 m - , using metal rails and ladders, and were disappointed that we still had quite a long ways to the exit, where the car was waiting. The hike seemed much longer than 13 k, but we were tired from not sleeping the night before, and that could be what caused our illusion.


DAY 2 HAR YEHORAM TO BE’ER ORA – 28 KM
Energized by a good night’s rest in Eilat Hotel Tzabar, the shvil started with a fun wiggle through a narrow opening in a rocky pillar, and then a bumpy slide down to the bottom of Har Yehoram, 

5-6 meters below. We encountered Ein Netafim, a treasured natural water pond seeping out of the mountainside, a watering spot for the fauna. With that great start, we got lost in conversations and some of us immediately got lost on the path! No phone service and no way to find each other, it took a precious and nerve-wracking hour for us all to meet up again and hike together through the Shechoret Canyon. ​

Once reunited, we climbed mountains – Har Amram - and navigated treacherous climbs down – Gabei Rechem - , again amidst surrealistic scenery. We highly recommend that the shvil personnel add a few iron steps to assist this descent. The last kilometers of the day were a hike in wide and sandy Canyon Rechem, which was poorly marked, and seemed endless, as the daylight ended.  The hike was longer than expected, because the exit to Be’er Ora where we had left our car was 2 km beyond the night camp, as well as another 2 km from the shvil to the yishuv. 

Too long and too frustrating of a day didn’t seem like a fair way to end a day that had started out so beautifully.

DAY 3 – TIMNA TO SHACHARUT – 27 KM
Naomi had the idea of doing what was scheduled to be the fourth hike, on day three.  It was a long hike (27km) and even though we just finished a long hike (28km to 30km – for those of us that go lost, we added 2km) the day before, it was a good idea. That way, we would do the scheduled 15km third hike on the fourth day, finish the fourth day relatively early so that we would have a good drive home (and we did!).

So day three started off at the entrance of Park Timna.  It was a relatively easy walk for about 5 km when we started the climb up Ma’aleh Milhan – about 400 m of steep climbing.   Parts of the climb were nerve wracking as we were hiking on a trail less than a meter wide, with a steep drop on either side.  And the trail was full of rocks – both large and small – and lots of loose rock/gravel on the path.

The good news, it was sunny and not cold or hot.  Perfect weather for climbing.
We got to the top and felt relieved.  The rest of the day was mostly flat with a few moderate climbs here and there.

We got to a point where we had to make a 90 degree turn to the right.  Naomi and Chaim lost the trail but continued forward hoping to find a sign of a blaze.  Karen and Eric retraced their steps to where we had to make the turn, and found the right way to the trail.
In the meantime, the two groups got separated.  When Chaim and Naomi finally reconnected with the trail, they were well ahead of Eric and Karen.   Naomi and Chaim decided to stop for lunch and wait for the Eric and Karen.  But E&C did not show up because they too had decided to stop for lunch.

We met two older hikers – not the friendliest – who spoke to Naomi & Chaim for a few minutes.  They thought we were about 12km from Shaharut (not to be confused with Shechoret from the day before!)
By this time, the weather had changed.  It was getting cloudy, cold and windy.  Not good for hikers who were wearing sweaty shirts from the earlier climb/hike in the sunshine and relative warmth.

​The unpleasant weather didn’t prevent us from seeing the mountainside scattered with bulbusim – large potato shaped rocklike formations, which are really organic material encased by carbonate over many centuries, evidence of prehistoric times when these mountains were under water.

The two groups hiked separately as neither want to wait any longer in the cold/windy/cloudy condition.  We need to hike and hike hard to keep warm.  And that’s what we did. At some points, there was even light rain, as we crisscrossed the mountain range from east to west.

The four of us had “frozen” hands and some of us felt the cold more than others. 
We were grateful when we finally reached Shacharut – after eight and a half hours of hiking.   Naomi and Chaim went to the main office of the Yeshuv where the generous office secretary and a local cat were kind enough to give them shelter and hot water for tea.  
When Eric and Karen showed up, (about 20-30 minutes later), they arrived cold and wet.   But we immediately got into our taxi to drive us back to Timna.

(taxi = trail angel named Amir who drove us for a fair price to our car- an hour’s long drive. Amir maintains a tent with hot showers and the basic elements that hikers need, 1.5 km outside of Shaharut. Periodic hikers pay a small fee and trekking hikers stay there for free) Everyone was dreaming of the hot shower awaiting them at the hotel!

DAY 4 – BE’ER ORA TO TIMNA – 15 KM
We paid our bill at Motel Tsabar after eating a yummy omlette, courtesy of Naomi and her camping stove.  We made one more stop before saying our farewells to Eilat and that was at the well-known, quality bakery, Broitman, located across from the hotel where we picked up some delicious bread for our families and Broitman styled croissants (read: healthier) for breakfast.
We packed up our car at 07:30 and we were on our way to Park Timna to position our car and then back to Be'er Ora to begin the last of our four days.  We had two rugged kilometers to hike to reach the trail.

We hiked about three kilometers on the wide INT, one or two bikers passing us by, when we came to a paved road.  Large trucks filled with trash were barreling down the road, heading toward a road barrier, beyond which, was a garbage dump. This is the מטמונת נמרה, matmonet nemra; this is the place where the garbage for Eilat is taken. Further down the road and not on the shvil is a large area where the Eilat waste is buried under the ground.
The road barrier also marked the entrance to Timna National Park.

On our right is Mt Chaklil הר חכליל   (which means reddish). We continued in a northerly direction.  Two and a half kilometers past the gate, we came to one of Timna National Park's visitor's centers which is built around an artificial pond.  Complete with a souvenir shop, a restaurant and restrooms, we sat and had our 'aruchat eser ' and warmed ourselves with tea, courtesy of the Center.  Tourist groups arrived and departed and soon we were also on our way.  Thankfully we met a tour guide Margalit Frydman who gave us a top level description of the fascination geologic structures, and how they were created.  Igneous, sandstone, and limestone… We’ll try to do more geology homework. 

​This was a good place for Singing Perek 121 Tehilim.

א  שִׁיר לַמַּעֲלוֹת: אֶשָּׂא עֵינַי אֶל-הֶהָרִים - מֵאַיִן יָבֹא עֶזְרִי.
ב  עֶזְרִי, מֵעִם יְהוָה - עֹשֵׂה שָׁמַיִם וָאָרֶץ.
ג  אַל-יִתֵּן לַמּוֹט רַגְלֶךָ; אַל-יָנוּם שֹׁמְרֶךָ.
ד  הִנֵּה לֹא-יָנוּם וְלֹא יִישָׁן - שׁוֹמֵר יִשְׂרָאֵל.
ה  יְהוָה שֹׁמְרֶךָ יְהוָה צִלְּךָ, עַל-יַד יְמִינֶךָ.
ו  יוֹמָם הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ לֹא-יַכֶּכָּה; וְיָרֵחַ בַּלָּיְלָה.
ז  יְהוָה יִשְׁמָרְךָ מִכָּל-רָע:    יִשְׁמֹר, אֶת-נַפְשֶׁךָ.
ח  יְהוָה, יִשְׁמָר-צֵאתְךָ וּבוֹאֶךָ - מֵעַתָּה, וְעַד-עוֹלָם.

A few kilometers after, we began our ascent up to Mt Timna (450m), which was gradual at first but became increasingly steeper. The ascent was a highlight of the trip.  We climbed up and over boulders, crevasses, some at steep angles.  HaShem and the Shvil designers were looking after us, as there were lots of foot and handholds on the way up. Each time we reached an ascent, the shvil blazes appeared again and again. Great! More to go. 

​Upon reaching the summit, we reveled in the spectacular views, took our time to relax and explored the flat surface at the top of Mt. Timna.  Cairns dotted the summit and after seeing so many over the past four days, we decided to build our own under Chaim's guidance before starting our descent.  It took a few minutes to find the blaze which was to lead us down and we're talking straight down! 

Thankfully the INT provided rungs to make the initial descent doable and then we were on our way.  The terrain was scattered with large rocks and boulders and we encountered a few challenging descents which made for a lot of fun!  As the slope down flattened out over the course of about 2 kilometers, we knew we were almost finished with Day Four.  We arrived at the entrance to Timna National Park, took our designated photo at the entrance to the park and after stretching and changing our hiking boots for something more comfortable, we were on our way back to Be'er Ora  to pick up our second car.  

​But before we headed back to Raanana, we rewarded ourselves with a pit stop at Kibbutz Yotvata restaurant and visitor's center which was located a little ways up Route 90.  We heard their homemade ice cream was divine which we found it to be.  Filled up physically from the yummy ice cream and spiritually from having had the 'zechut' to spend these past four days hiking our magnificent land, we headed back home.