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Day 55: Nahal Arbel to Safed
Day 55, April 23: Late start and going was slow in Nahal Amud. Beautiful cliffs but rain so VERY slippery and jungle-like - a real pain in the butt. Had to skip the upper part because it was closed - even more slippery. Will do it later when hiking across Upper Galilee. Safed is very nice. Amazing view of Mt. Meron. Camping in cow-poop-filled olive grove. Tons of day hikers - many with babies - stupid. Some smoking weed.
Nahal Amud had some very beautiful parts, and is known for its scenery, but in these conditions it was downright treacherous to hike in. The ground could never be trusted not to slide out from under you, and the path was criss-crossed with more of those horrible spiky plants, which the Israel Trail has plenty of. My mind was blown by the sight of people hiking through there with baby carriers on their backs. I'm pretty sure they had no clue what they were getting into - somebody told them "Hey, Nahal Amud is a really nice hike!" So they were like, "Well hey, let's take the whole family!" and next thing you know, Baby is being carried through a spiky jungle where sharp branches are swinging left and right and smacking anybody in the face who's not careful. The bad hiking conditions made me moody and thus even more judgmental of such bad parenting.
Note: It was some of the day hikers that were smoking weed, not some of the babies.
We had to hitch up to Safed after hearing that Upper Nahal Amud was closed due to the conditions. We wandered, a bit lost, and eventually made our way out of town. We found a nice little olive grove with a truly stunning view of Mt. Meron across the wadi to the west. Its only downside? All the cow patties. It's like walking in a minefield, anywhere cows are allowed.
Climbing out of Nahal Amud, we looked back toward it - the huge cliff visible on the left is the
wadi wall
Photo by Idan Brodet
The only existing photo of our gorgeous campsite near Safed. The mountain whose peak you see
here is Meron, and from another part of this olive grove, I watched the night fall on the towering
mountain across the gorge. A truly magical experience
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