Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Armon HaNatziv - August 27th 2009

We met at the Haas Promenade overlooking The Old City.
After a short walk towards the Armon HaNatziv neighbourhood, we arrived at the entrance to the tunnels.

The tunnels are part of a water system the brought water from Hebron to Jerusalem. The original system was built by the Hasmoneans, and then rebuilt by the Romans, Crusaders, Turks and British (and possible others).

Along the tunnels there are sections where you can see the original plaster, clay pipes from the Turkish period.

After an explanation about the water systems, we walked through the tunnels. The end is below the Haas Promenade.

The next section of our walk was along the UN compound's fence.

After the walk we all gathered at Fiona's apartment for a lovely supper.

Thanks to Maxine, Judy and Fiona for organizing everything, and to Shelly, our guide.

Nachal Dolev - August 6th 2009

On Thursday, August 6th, 2009, we met for a moonlight hike in Nachal Dolev (or at least, that was the plan).

We met near the turn off to the Shimshon (Stalactite) Cave. From there we drove to the beginning of our route.

After the drivers returned from leaving the cars at the end of the route, we started walking. It was a beautiful cool night. Someone from Tel-Aviv remarked the it was nice to be able to breath.

At one point we came to the conclusion that we had made a wrong turn some where, and instead of walking in Nachal Dolev, we were walking above it. Since it would have been very difficult to get lost we decided to just follow the trail and see where it took us.

The trail took us to the end of the trail we had wanted to take. We backtracked a bit into Nachal Dolev, so we could say we were there, and then continued towards the end of the route where the cars were waiting.

The drive back to the beginning of the route was a bit crowded, but we made it OK, and everyone got home OK.

Thanks to Steve for organizing the walk.