Talkid (Jordan Valley)

Participants: Surd, Anna, Zbz, Bella, Vova, Sergei.
Length: ~9Km

pic: me misha and vova - "The keystone"

Well, wasn't that a looong break? It is my fault - I wasn't participating in any tip for a few months. Since we've been to Turkey/Kackar with Misha and Bella, actually. About that I'll write another time. maybe. Anyway, that's my fault. I always found some severe reason not to come, but in the bottom line, I've missed some 10 trips in a row..

This one was somewhat spontaneous, certainly from my side, as I was recovering after a two weeks illness, and it wasn't clear to me if I'll be able to come. The thing that broke me was the end of the 90 days long professors strike. It's pretty clear now, that for the following months it will be tough to get ourselves out of the books, as we the students will pay for that strike with an overloaded semester. Another drawback was a location, and in particular, the way to it. We're talking about Jordan valley - very close to the territories, full with working Palestinians. The road is through the territories via Carmiel. Nevertheless, after comparing the dangers and the beauty of flowering Shomron, we (most of us ;) ) decided to go.

And the reserve is beautiful indeed. The desert is greenish this time of year - the white cliffs are covered with little bushes, grass and flowers. Just the right combination of the abstract beauty of the desert with light touches of refreshing green. The weather was great - while all the country is freezing during this very cold winter (some 4 degrees at night were pretty common in the last two weeks!), we were walking around in T-shirts. The cliffs in the area are great for climbing, so walking through the pretty canyons got many interesting climbing occasions as well. The topology itself is a playground - the low hills are deeply cut through with many wadies, so it's fun for navigation. It's kind of a "boulders wall" for hiking. This "desert" is definitely one of the greatest places to go to.

As you can see from the map, it was a pretty freestyle track. Points of special interest: the whole red path, the unmarked canyon in (191,188) and the two kilometers walking on the hills range from N to S.

Casualties: one hand cut (Anna), one head bump (Bella) and many thorns (Surd).

pic: Vova in "When noone is watching"

We've started at 9:30 and were back by 4:30. Well , actually, being all the time in the distance of a few kilometers from the road made us very confident in timing, although we were pretty stressed to get through the territories before it's getting dark. We almost made it.

A bit for the occupied territories experience. It was my first time there. I didn't like it. It's a wild west of driving rules, which is cool. But from any other point.. The cross Shomron road is a narrow corridor of type C territories between large parts of type B territories. Meaning, it's kind of a artificial separation of two Palestinian domains with semi border. Palestinians are not always allowed to move in this B area. When we were coming back, we didn't see any Palestinian car and many Israeli. We've seen the line of cars waiting on the pass in the Tapuah junction. The fences along the road, the soldiers, Palestinian people standing by the road waiting for a ride probably. It's an occupation, and an ugly one, however righteous the reasons for it are. And just to put the things strait: I do believe that if that's the only way to stop them from terror, so be it. Still, although I know much more on the subject than I've seen today, simply being there made me feel, maybe just a little bit of the truth of the disgrace and the suffer .

I was thinking about the connection line between these two paragraphs, but couldn't find it. Maybe because there is no such. Because, 25 minutes after going back beyond the green line we were sitting at Vova's eating pizza, drinking beer and watching the photos. In another hour we were on our ways to our homes, back to the reality.

Special thanks : this time we were lucky to get Anna's creative and humorous camera to document some real moments of truth.

This is Bella in "go/no go" desicion. She wanted a picture of her sitting in this cave, but was affraid to go there. Finally, with Misha's virtual help she got up there. You go girl :)

Here's the best pic of Anna, the shadow worker, I got. Actually, that's the answer for the phylosophical question, of how do you see the men behind the lense.

Here you can see an illustration to the very nature of my relationship with Misha. He's pushing me up, and I'm pulling him up.

Update: 31/1/08. Surd was criticizing me for being "too French" describing the theritories situation, and now he's doing a reserve duty at that very Tapuah junction. Actually, he cannot get there, because the roads are blocked by the snow :) However, it is a funny situation. One day you pretend everything is normal, and the next day you sustain that illusion for somebody else. Oops, here I go French again :)