A rare Sunday hike for us made things a little easier for most of us. It's much better because we're not rushed to get home for Shabbos. We don't have to get all our Shabbos preparations done by Thursday night. Shira and I went to Zvi's football on Motzei Shabbos so we didn't sleep much. We weren't in a huge rush to get started though. So we only left our house at 4:30. Our meeting point was the gas station in Kochav Tavor. We met there and could use a real bathroom and have a real parking spot. We got there shortly before sunrise so davened there before driving to the starting point. We had to decide if we were going to park where we did last time and walk the extra kilometer and a half to the shvil or drive on paths and leave the car in the middle. Our hike was only scheduled to be 19 kilometers and we had plenty of time so we all agreed to park at the school in Yavniel and walk the extra little bit.
The truth is that we didn't see the exact point where we left the shvil though I did take a picture of it last hike but we got to the shvil pretty easily and we started the actual hike before 8 from "חיים בטבע." I still have no clue what that is but that is how it is marked on google maps so it's something. We started by going straight uphill for about an hour. The picture was taken at the top (you can also see that Gershon wore the t-shirt for the first time and we all matched). Even though it was pretty steep, it wasn't exceedingly difficult because they were nice paths. We weren't walking through bushes and weeds or on lots of rocks. That was basically true the entire hike.
We did have to walk through water for about 3 steps. In the past, we have always been able to stay dry by walking on logs or rocks but this was the first time, I think that we had to get our shoes wet. Everyone else went through no problem because they had boots or didn't mind getting a little wet. I did not want to walk the rest of the hike with wet socks so I took off my shoes and socks. I was happy I did but nobody else regretted their decision to leave their shoes on either. So all was good.
The weather was perfect. It was a little cold at the beginning. Gershon and I both wore shorts and were cold for the first hour or two but it was the right decision. We saw a lot of cows at the beginning and saw two other animals from a distance. I called them gazelle but I'm no expert and am not sure at all that's what they were.
We finished the hike around noon and Ahuva suggested we go for lunch. When we were driving together back to the starting point, we spotted a kosher Chinese restaurant. That sounded good to all of us so we stopped there and got some good food. Still made it home around 4 PM. We were exhausted but it really was a nice and easy hike.
