Wilderness in our back yard

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A new stretch of path, about an hour's hike, was completed during the past year in the Hills of Jerusalem.

(All photos enlarge when clicked.)

Last week I missed the bus to my moshav (village), which you see above in the center of the photo, and decided to try out the new path.
The trailhead is at the bend in the highway and leads down some new steps into the forest.

Suddenly I was totally alone in the quiet wilderness!
I could only dream about such close-by nature and long for it when I was growing up in Chicago.

Lots of terrace walls, some of them thousands of years old.

And here and there a shomera.

I don't know what they would be called in English. Maybe a corbelled stone farmer's hut?

I think in Arabic it is il-girna.

Here is the other side.

This one is nicely preserved. Many are half in rubble.

This one short stretch of path had been "paved" with sharp stones.

Good that I had my hiking boots on. (Actually I don't have any girly shoes. LOL)

At the bottom of the valley is some flat land. Not much, but enough to do some small farming.

I reckon agriculture was practiced in the wadi and on the terraces right up until the mid-20th century.

The trail ended and I emerged on this, what once was our village's only road to the outside.

From here it is just a slight climb of ten minutes up to my house.

Down and to the left of the barrier is a nice underground spring.
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Thanks for your company along the way.

That's it for That's My World Tuesday.

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