Sticks for walking and pointing

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Nordic walking poles in the Negev.
At an archaeological site on the edge of Beer Sheva.
The sticks double as pointers.  :)
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(Linking to signs, signs.)
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Night hike to a Byzantine-era cistern!

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A cistern from the Byzantine period, right in my town's backyard, near the Meitar Forest!
Some 1,500 years ago people (farmers? monks? villagers?) collected and stored rain water  down there in a big plastered cistern.

I edited the first photo lighter so you could see the nice handwork, how the folks carved out the stairs and entrance in the soft chalk.
But actually we were out there in  the dark, after 8:00 pm!

The group of about 20 was fortunate to have our neighbor, Dr. Zeev Zivan, as our gude.
The hike was part of the worldwide Jane's Walk  global festival of citizen-led free community walks.
Here Zeev was explaining the blaze for the Israel National Trail.

The whole walk to the wilderness was only an hour and a half but we were blessed to witness both sunset and moonrise.
I came home exhilarated, feeling lucky to live so near the desert and its ancient history!
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Israel National Trail

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A blaze of  blazes in the forest!
The orange-blue-white  blazes mark the Israel National Trail.
The blue and white is for a local trail.

Here's another marker on a rock, overlooking my neighborhood in the town of Meitar.

In the opposite direction are the South Hebron Hills in the West Bank.

Over to the west lies the Mediterranean and the Gaza Strip.

The 620-mile,  1000-km Israel Trail is celebrating 20 years since its inauguration in 1995.
I'm lucky to have it right down in Meitar's backyard.
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All photos can be enlarged with two clicks.
Linking to ABC Wednesday.
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International Mountain Day

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Today is International Mountain Day .
This year's theme is Mountain Farming about which the FAO says, "Here we have an opportunity to raise awareness about how mountain agriculture, which is predominantly family farming, has been a model for sustainable development for centuries."

I like to remember my years in Switzerland, where mountains are mountains and farms are farms!
The slopes of the Jura Mountains, near the French border,  are covered with vineyards.
Lots of wine-making there.

In the Alps most of the mountain farming that I saw was for hay-making.
In the brief summers, green meadows are heaven for  cows, sheep and goats, and even deer.
And of course for hikers too! 
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(Linking to SkyWatch Friday.)
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Learning the land on foot

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MEITAR MARCH
    Starting point

Bright and early Friday morning hundreds of Meitar pupils set out on the 23rd annual Meitar hike.

Granddaughter Libby's pre-kindergarten class sat down for breakfast, and their teacher, Orli, used the time to teach them how to look for animal footprints and droppings and try to guess which animals had been there not long before them.

A general orientation of what's out there.
Meitar at the bottom.
Straight west on the middle line would be Lakiya [Bedouin town],  then somewhere on a bare hill the Negev Brigade [Palmach] Memorial.

Going from 10:00 to 2:00 on the "map"--
Hura [Bedouin township],    the Bedouin diaspora [i.e. unrecognized settlements],   Omer [Jewish town],  Beer Sheva [big city]
and to the right:  Sansana Forest,   the Green Line,   Sansana [a Jewish settlement just over the Green Line in the West Bank],    Ramabin Tribe [or clan].

See the area on a real Google map here.

 Border Police were stationed along the route, making sure the kids did not take a wrong turn.

 
I was surprised to come upon antiquities, only partly excavated a long time ago, it looked like!
Will have to find out more about that. 

The whole hike in the desert was only two and a half hours, and then we descended down to little Meitar, home.
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It's great to have the South Hebron Hills / Northern Negev nature right in our backyard.
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