Walkathon Updates - the Golan Hike

 

Melabev 2011 "Don't Forget Us" Walkathon

Hiking for Alzheimer's Care in the Southern Golan

 

 

Melabev 2011

Southern Golan

Wednesday - Thursday,  December 7 - 8

The Moonlight Walk is the evening before the Golan Hike.  Buses bring the Golan Hikers from the end point of the Moonlight Walk up to Midreshet Hispin.   The following day, Wed., Dec. 7, the hiking starts bright and early and each of the three teams, for each of the two days of the Golan hike follows a route that is approximately 6 to 8 hours long:

C Team (Advanced)

Day 1: Nahal Zavitan to Breichat Hameshushim

This hike follows the well-known rule to Golan Heights hiking: What goes down must come back up; in fact, it doubles it.  Whereas it does not cover too many kilometers, there are two steep descents and, of course, two steep ascents.  The hike starts with a walk along a plateau with many cows.  We then descend the ravine to pools of water.  We will walk along the water, at times using stakes in the cliff in order to avoid swing through said pools.  Much of this part of the hike is hopping from stone to stone across the stream.  After about three hours (including breaks), we start a steep ascent, across another plateau, and then back down to the next ravine.  The peak (though down in the ridge) is the beautiful Hexagonal Pools of basalt rock.  After spending some time there, we will ascend about half-an-hour until we reach the bus. 

Total time: approx. 6 hours.

 

Day 2: Nahal Jilabun to Gesher Hapkak

We start this hike descending the Jilabun Stream .  After about half an hour, we will take a detour to the remains of a Mishnaic Period Jewish village called Devorah.  From there, we return to the path and start a steep descent (again, including stakes – not to be confused with the steaks roaming the pasture above)to the first of two beautiful waterfalls – the Devorah Waterfall.  We continue along the ravine, hopping over stones through the stream until another steep descent to the second largest waterfall in Israel, the Jilabun Falls.  From there we continue down the Golan, past a “Breichat Ktzinim” for Syrian officers before 1967, as we finish up where the Golan Heights and the Hula Valley meet, at the mighty Jordan River.

 

B Team (Intermediate)

Day 1: Eli-Ad to Um el Kunetir, via the El Al Stream

We start at the village of Eli-Ad and immediately descend into a ravine, to the breathtaking  White Waterfall of Nahal El Al.  We continue along the ravine to the next (Black) waterfall.  We back-track a bit and – like the Golan hiking rule – ascend the ravine to the top of the plateau.  After a few minutes we arrive at the ruins of Kasr Baldawil – the crusader castle built by King Baldwin but completely demolished by the Mamaluks toward the end of the 13^th century.  The beauty from there is not the castle but rather the incredible view out toward the Kinneret.  We then continue along the flat path to Um el Kunetir, the synagogue destroyed by an earthquake in the year 749.  There we will learn about the unique project of the rebuilding of the synagogue, one of the most elaborate synagogues from the Talmudic period, as well as the “industrial area” of the village.

 

Day 2: Um el Kunetir to Nahal Daliyot, with the option of continuing to Gamla

We start off where we left off yesterday, hiking just below Um el Kunetir on the new Cross Golan Trail.  We will be walking along the channel dug by the Syrians in the 1960s to divert two main tributaries of the Jordan River from reaching the Kinneret, with the hopes that Israel would simply dehydrate.  We continue north, crossing over and walking along the Samech Stream.  We then reach a Roman road, walk along it for a short time and ascend to the Daliyot Stream.  Time permitting, we will continue on to Gamla for a view of one of the oldest synagogues in the world as well as a glimpse at some of the vultures being rehabilitated to be reintroduced into nature.

 

A Team (Easy)

Day 1: Hispin to Um el Kunetir

We leave the dining room of the Hispin Guest House and – rather than getting on the bus – walk out of the back gate of the village and onto the ramp surrounding the adjacent water reservoir.  We walk along the reservoir and descend to a path heading west.  We will cross over a stream and continue along the path, passing by many springs and “swamps”.  We then cross into the fields of the village of Natur and head to the end of a ridge, before turning north and walking along a trail with a beautiful view of the lower mountains of the Golan and the Kinneret.  We continue along until we reach Um el Kunetir, the synagogue mentioned in the description of the B Team’s Day 1 hike, where the hikers will learn the story of this incredible site.

 

Day 2: Neot Golan to Nahal Te’ena

We start the day at the back exit of Moshav Neot Golan.  We will hike the Cross Golan Trail to the north, toward the village of Givat Yoav.  We continue along the trail, where we will view Sussita, the site of one of the ten Roman cities of 3^rd century Palestine.  We will also see the ruins of Old Bene Yehuda, a village started by Haredi Tzfat residents with the intent of settling the Golan at the end of the 19^th century.  The residents were eventually killed in the uprising of 1920. As we progress to the north, we will walk along a path with an absolutely stunning view of the Kinneret and the eastern Lower Galilee.  We finish off on the road leading up to the top of the Golan plateau.

 

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