Living in city can be overwhelming; with all the fun temptations just a stone throw away. You don’t even have to leave your street in order to get drink, chill on the beach or meet cool people for Sushi…all is there, just roll of your bed and enjoy. I love those cities, after living many years in New York, moving back to Tel Aviv felt like an easy switch. But in here, in this cool Mediterranean urban heaven, time flies, weekends go by and as the seasons change without a real weather change, you noticed that the summer fun is here, another year went by and we didn’t even left the city…
Fortunately, Israel is a perfect set up: it's compact, diverse, interesting and relatively easy to travel. This combination makes my work as a tour guide uncomfortably comfortable, even enjoyable. The problem is…that I don’t have the business vspleasure boundaries set up. Which make my friends perfect Guinea pigs for adventures and new ideas.
As we wake up on a lazy Saturday morning, my friend phrases his absolutely unreal request on an Israeli hot summer day: " Take me to fresh water, clean spring…but" (and here we start with all the terms and conditions). "I don’t want to drive more than 1 hour, I don’t want to go north, and even more so to the south" ok I say: "How about Gordon Pool and we will call it a day?" After a dirty look, I understood that I am professionally challenged now, so there is nothing better to do then to take him for a short ride, somewhere in the center that he doesn't need to hike or crawl or climb. As it's well known, the springs near Jerusalem are drizzling under a stone structures, so there are no actual natural pools or waterfalls. The water sources in the center are all in the use of the huge metropolitan called Gush Dan, supplies water for more than half of Israeli populatio. In order to find a natural water spring in the range of an hour from Tel Aviv, secluding north, south and west (the Mediterranean) is to drive east, pass Jerusalem. Hard to imagine fresh cool water flowing in the Judean desert, a especially in the hot summer after dry winter. But I am up for the challenge; I am taking my daring friend to one of my personally favorite secret spots…
As we drive east, passing Jerusalem, after 55 minutes we arrive at a small Jewish settlement on the north Judean desert: Alamon. This peaceful village is located between east Jerusalem, Ramallah and Jericho. Very exotic and unusual location for a luxury trip…after entering Alamon's gate, we drive through dichotomy visions of hard core yellow, dry dessert hills, small beautiful houses, men planted tries and extremely risky slopes taking our car down towards the surprise my friend is going to experience in a few minutes.
He couldn’t guess that his dream is going to come true in this empty and dry valley. As we descent to the about 200M we arrive to an amazing oasis, with lush fig trees, palms, pomegranate trees and olives. Symbols of constant human presence in its authentic forms.
We have arrived at one of the most fascinating places in the area, Wadi Qelt or in Hebrew: Ein Prat, the spring of Prat. This river is unique to Israel cause it flows all year around, and drains the rain that falls on the national water shade on the high mountains of Judeah and Jerusalem. The river flows in a gorgeous serpentine path for about 20 km and entering the Dead Sea from the north, passing through ancient path ways and fortresses. The eastern parts of Wadi Qelt are very proximate to Jericho and passing by area B, therefore it's important not to hike alone and to have an updated map of north Judeah.
My goal is to pass the families and the youngsters that came to this place of heaven for a lovely picnic. I want to take my friend to my secret pool that will absolutely justify the journey. We hike east, taking the red marked trail towards the Ein maboa spring. Passing gorgeous green river banks, swimming in the turquoise pools with planty of fish and crabs. After about an hour's walk, we stop by my pool…what my friend doesn't know is that I have my trail of crumbs and I easily find the way to the pool, thanks to the small barely seen numbers marking the trail…and the amazing pool should be number 16. Finally we arrive; we are already wet and happy, but this pool is a unique combination of perfect isolation, shade and smooth deep erosive lime stone naturally deep pools. As we set up our coffee kit and slice the watermelon we truly believe we are in heaven. My friend wants to know about the place, how come no one comes here…So its not completely true.
The palace had his days of glory, when the area of the Dead Sea and Judeah dessert was the economical center of Provincia Judeah. The hashmonians royal Jewish dynasty understood the potential. Dead sea was a very profitable source of natural elements. The trade with neighboring kingdoms was flowering, the Nabataea passed here on their way from Yemen to Gaza. And in the times of Romans Cleopatra was willing to do many things in order to lay her hands on this area…So the Hasmonians build 2 fortresses here, just on near the path we are taking. But the King who really developed the area and erected palaces in a place we can hardly bare walking…was King Herod. This area, similar to Massada a 45 minutes south east from here, it was his refuge. He builds a road fortress and names it after his Mother Kipros, we can actually see its remaining in the end of the 18km hike ahead of us.
"What really strikes me, are the structure we saw hanging from a cliff when we started to hike…it didn’t look like 2000years old palace". My friend said from his perfect small whirlpool. "You hit the spot...Once again…"and I start telling him that the origin of Christian monasteries and monks is actually from Judeah desert. Those hermits, some known as the Church fathers, followed the steps of Alijah and John the Baptist looking for a refuge in the wilderness of Judean dessert. Here, they could enjoy spirituality and only been bothered by the wild animal and hot weather. For what the hide themselves in the caves we can easily spot today. One of those followers was Father Chariton, a Russian monk that came to the old ruins of the ancient Chariton Monastery.For years he rebuild the monastery with his own hands.He was very handsome and charming when I first met him 6 years ago. Chariton is an orthodox monastery, a refuge for a Hermit that taking care of the place and modestly living of the nature and the kindness of the visitors. Only 4-5 hours walk, an amazing hanging monastery of St George, a local saint the patron of many countries and cities, among them is Moscow.
As we walk and talk about history and Christianity in the area…meet Palestinians, Bedouin Sheppard hoarding ships and goats. We also see Gazelle elegantly jumping between extremely steep cliffs. We are getting hungry… our best option is to mingle with the biblical vibe and to dine in a authentic style, sitting on the floor in a tent. Tearing freshly baked pita with some fresh hummus and vegetables…I was dreaming about mint tea and smells of tabun (traditional baking pan). "I remember this place; I say…its right here, in the middle of our hike. Almost 8km from our starting point Ein Qelt. We have to exit the nature reserve and to walk up the mountain towards this settlement you see on the hill south of us. It worth it… lets go!" as soon as we get reception, I call my friend that has this amazing Chan- Caravan Saray that makes all those tasty dessert style meals. He is willing to pick us up, as a good host should do in the dessert. He reminds me the way of our four father Abraham that walked here in the dessert. We are hosted in a tent in a place called "Eretz Ha Mirdafim" the Escape land and very pleasantly relive the biblical way of serving local food. I don’t think we can walk after a meal like that, for this problem David, the host has a magical solution...jump on his camel and the camel, a blond toned female named Sarah is happy to take us back to Ein maboa from where we came and can continue descending towards St George monastery in the end of our track.
A few hours before the sun set, we finished our journey; my friend suggested to stop by the Dead Sea before ascending back…the natural beaches in the north of the dead sea are a perfect way to finish this amazing day…
Mission completed! My friend had his fresh water swim and I had another wonderful opportunity to drag a friend for a new adventure…