In January and February I spent two awesome weeks in beautiful Israel. In the very beginning my trip brought me to the North. To an idyllic small town called “Clil” (may also be pronounced as “Klil”) with about 500 people living there.
If you ever need some days for yourself… Days of rest or peace or to concentrate on yourself: Clil is exactly what you are searching for. There isn’t even a supermarket. So there is no distraction at all. Except from nature. Because every tree and every bush is screaming: ‘Come here and discover me.
So that’s what I did…
I prepared my backpack, switched off my computer and started my first hiking trip in Israel to the ancient Yehiam Fortress. At least that was the plan. After only some steps I heard the dogs of the owner of my guesthouse – the Clil Guesthouse -following me. They came with me. I just learned afterwards that they do it with every guest.
We went through the beautiful olive grove to the main street, which lead us after some 100 meters to a biological garden (the only location in town to buy food) where I had to turn right in order to get to the trail. You recognize it by the yellow and green signs on stones and on the trees along the way.
The sun came out. It couldn’t be any better.
I left the last houses of Clil behind when I entered the forest. Walking along the wadi – a dried stream – I should have arrived within two hours maximum to the fortress (check it out on TripAdvisor).
After about 20 minutes I arrived to a small turnoff with a stone showing the right way. Well, it was supposed to show the right way, but I wasn’t sure if I had to go on straight or to turn. No, the stone was exactly at this turnoff. It just made sense that I needed to turn. I went to the right into the small path. It was gorgeous in there!
After a while I started wondering why there were no more signs leading the way. But the path seemed quite used so I went on. I thought ‘In the worst case I come out at some other beautiful place’.
Well, that’s what I thought…
The forest got thicker and thicker and then from one moment to another I was standing in the middle of the thicket. I had already left some difficult parts behind me: with thorns, where I had to crawl or to climb.
That’s why I didn’t want to turn around. I was sure, that I would get out of this forest by going on. I still saw signs that assured me that I wasn’t the first human here (like thrown away papers and bottles). So there had to be a way out… Right?
Ok, did I already tell you that I am not the hiking type of person? I ended up being completely desperate not knowing in which direction to go and how to get back to the real trail.
At least the dogs were still with me showing me more than once paths that I couldn’t see. After a while we arrived to a small dried stream. I had no idea if it was the wadi that was supposed to bring me to the fortress (or back to Clil), but I was pretty sure that if it was another one, it would possibly bring me back to the one where I started.
Walking in the stream was much easier than in the forest where I ended up crawling all the time. But every now and then there were dried waterfalls – small one obviously, but still too big to jump. I slid down on my bum hoping that nothing would happen to my ankle that I had twisted some month before. I already had the picture of me with a newly twisted ankle in my mind. What then? Ok, wrong moment to drive myself crazy!
My legs and feet started hurting and I almost thought that would never ever get out of this again. When… I finally saw how the small stream I was walking in lead into the wadi. I almost cried when I saw the stone with yellow and green stripes!
I was back on the trail…
I thought about trying to get to the fortress for a moment. But I was afraid that I wouldn’t make it back to Clil before sunset and one adventure in one day is enough for me… I was sad that I didn’t reach my destination but I think it was the right decision. On my way back I saw the turnoff. It was very close to where the two streams became one. So I guess the fortress was still one hour away.
When I was back at the Guesthouse I realized how much my body hurt. Oded, the owner of the Guesthouse was satisfied though: “Everybody can go to the fortress, but nobody is getting into the forest for real. I am happy you had an adventure.”
Although there were some moments where I really thought I wouldn’t make it back… I think he was right.
That was my very own adventure.
