Free style Ossafia - Genesys
Finally, a hike worth mentioning :)
That could be the lamest students' festival. It was my 7th festival in technion, a fact that can make any activity boring. The performances are not as exciting as they used to be, no one but Misha had come to celebrate the special date and the 12 litres of beer I've prepared remained orphan. Besides, I hardly come to the university at all, i do not know anyone - Misha bet me on counting ppl to say hi to (and he doesn't even study here!)
So, in the second day of the festival, instead of trying to revive the memories and the joy of the 20 years old gang, we packed my trunk* with water and wine and gone hiking (too shame that Lui didn't make a "Gone hiking" song. It could be a hymn.) Starting off from the University,we made some pretty general walk to the valey between Daliat el Carmel and Ossafia, with a few shortcuts and a climbing or two. That's a nice area - little Switzland they call it, but I'm too much of a frequent visitor there to be enthusiastic enough, so I'll spare it.
For our surprise, there was water at the watermill of nahal Oren. Well, it was probably a water some time ago - actually, that's probably the sewage of Ossafia. The only thing surviving there were probably the thousands of tadpoles we found. The closer we got to "The city of Carmel", the more soap foam was gathering on the riffles.Oh, and it stinks. For that reason only I won't recommend going up that beautiful stream.
After messing ourselves into torn field, and grasping that an apple and an energy bar are clearly not enough, we arrived into Ossafia. That's a town (village) worth talking about. It got the most terrific views for both the sides of the mountain. The locals are mostly Druze, but there are Arabs as well. It got some two churches. There are many rich people and poor people, but literally no authority. This time we've seen a pink house with classic statues and a J6 (?) jeep, totally open up. (No body cover at all. whatsoever. overtaking other cars on his way out ).
We had a good lunch at our usual "Zaman" bakery. The prices got a bit higher (Crisis,crisis!), but the portions as got bigger as well, and kept their great taste. It wasn't that much of a lunch though, as we didn't have enough cash. Later, we've seen a brand new and pretty modern looking bank branch on the main road. On our way out, I've asked the "manager" (? well, the guy didn't work, but seemed to be in charge..), where the nearest bus station is. He said it is just 20 meters away, the station itself is no longer there, as someone crashed into it, but the bus stops there nevertheless. That's the problem with these Arab towns - the state of Israel ends on their entrance. No law, no taxes, no police, no municipal services. No obligations, no benefits. They don't like it, we don't like it, but we keep our eyes shut, and ignore the problems that get bigger and bigger.
Just before the bus station, we stepped a few meters aside and stopped for a smoke, on a terrace with a terrific view to Yagur. We really did intend to come on time to all the performances, and Mihlin did promise us a dinner with seafood and wine.. It all was just a short bus away. "Are you pondering..?" "We'll need to buy more water..". The map was reopened and in a minute we were on our way down to Nesher.
We've cut a corner down to Nesher nahal, via the ever expanding Ossafia building zone. That's not always trivial in the Carmel forest. The last time we tried to make a 2km cut, it took us 2 hours to get through the bushes. This time, it was easy, though. We followed some cows' path. On our way we passed something that looked like improvized motorbikes playground. The creek route was nice, and got even nicer, after we got beyond the marked route (I guess, we should have guessed that barbed wire is not a normal ending for a route..).
Suddenly the nahal abruptly ended, and we found ourselves right above the quarry of Nesher. That's a pretty astonishing view. "Here you've talked about the people of Ossafia damaging the nature? We'd fucking destroyed kilometers of forests, to the ground, _with_ the mountain they stood on." Kilometers of white wall hundred of meters high. Roads to nowhere on the wall sides. Gigantic geometric forms. Huge pills of crushed stones. Big machines, ant sized, far bellow. Sunset. It's like the morning of a new world being built. But the opposite.
So we started climbing down. Literraly, like ants in a sand castle. The place looked quite abandoned, so we didn't feel we're intruding. When the night came, and the "factory" became iluminated with white projectors, suddenly a tractor and a truck, appeared out of it, glimmering with lights and projectors, going into the career. This activity of the giant bugs in the ant house looked strange indeed. Avoiding meeting them, we walked directly to Nesher lights right ahead. At the exit, we met the guy responsible for the explosions. Yep. Personal memo: when the quarry seems abandoned, that's exactly the time _not_ to get in. It might go BOOM. Then we came to the gates, where the gatekeeper let us drink from his cooler, making us pay by listening to his political views. Then we just were siting and waiting for Mihlin to pick us up ("please please forgive us for being 5 hours late and take us home please"), counting cars going to and from a graveyard (pretty strange activity for 9PM!). By the time we got home, we didnt make it to students' festival, but it was worth it.A week later i compensated it with Students' white night at Jerusalem, but that's a whole different storry.
* After my car was dismembered, I've come to a notion, that I totally have to carry some "little home" with me, just for the case I stay in some random house for the night and there is no whicskey there. So I've baught a 35L Vaude,which I call a trunk, and I carry it all around. Sort of a hitchhiker's towel, if you'd like.
** The scenery reminded me a movie.
Russian speaking ppl - that's a recommendation
posted by Sergei at
3:29 PM
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