Day two of our three days on the Trail started early. We had a short drive to Hadera Station and did not need any variant of the two car shuffle. We planned to walk as far ar Netanya and simply to take the train back from Netanya to Hadera.
We left the car near the shopping mall and walked through the hundreds of commuters and their cars into Hadera woods. It was another perfect day weatherwise and easy hiking through and along the edge of the eucalyptus trees planted in the early 20th century to dry out the original swamp.
Everything was washed clean by recent rain, verdant, and spring flowers were abundant everywhere. There were also areas of land seasonally flooded with large ponds attracting hundreds of birds – many making their way north for the summer. The markers got a bit hard to find at times but we made good progress as the terrain became a little more rolling. To our surprise we then came across a scene more in keeping with the wild west – a couple of cowboys with their horses and a dog, and a herd of cattle they were looking after. It seemed pretty out
of place, though very picturesque. We chatted a bit to one of them, a weather-beaten guy of perhaps 55 or 60 years of age and he directed us along the trail to the underpass under the railway lines. There were a surprising number of groups of kids walking around the 
area given how few people we seem to encounter on the trail – even in what must be the height of the hiking season. The red book says here: cross “USING THE UNDERPASS. DO NOT CROSS THE RAILROAD BY WALKING OVER THE TRACK“. Really?
We walked for a while along the side of the track and then turned right along the bank of the Alexander River. We didn’t realise there is a diversion here to see the soft-shell turtles that live in the river (some way 50-60kg) – although Ronnie and I saw one on its own later – and we walked east towards the sea. The cormorants were out in force in trees along the bank and
after a while we came to Hirbat Samara, a late 19th century building on a small hill used by Ottoman customs officers. The purple irises here were magnificent.
We crossed Route 2 and made our way across an area of soft sand to Beit Yanai beach – where the first ship to break the British Manadate blockade – the Velos – landed.
From here the walk along the cost to Netanya was at time pretty tedious. After an hour or so, a cool
dense sea mist rolled in from the Mediterranean and the scenery did not change. We found a large dead turtle washed up on the shore and shortly after had lunch on the beach (I found a convenient abandoned bright yellow plastic chair). Eventually we reachd North Netanya and climbed a path up the cliff to Nitza and the Tayelet (Promenade). Walking through a seaside town felt very different – people around, pavement and tarmac, shops – but it was more interesting. As we walked south through Netanya to South Netanya the town became more modern, and the Tayelet itself is an extremely pleasant, and a great social focus used by a large number of people.
The Southern suburbs of Netanya are still growing. We passed a large park with war memorials include the Holocaust Train Car,[1] Beit Yad Lebanim – a memorial to fallen IDF soldiers from Netanya, the National Memorial for Fallen Ordnance Corps, the Alexandroni Brigade Memorial, and the National Victory Monument – dedicated to the Russian Red Army victory over Nazi Germany and the Memorial to Victims of Acts of Terror.[2]
After a while we turned right through the Purple Iris Nature Reserve. This was the perfect time of year and the flowers were simply magnificent – not just the irises, but many others. The smell of Jasmine was extraordinary. I could have spent longer just admiring them, but time marched on and we went a little further on to stop our hike for the day on Poleg beach and a well earned drink at the lively beach bar there – close by my brother Leon’s (and most of Stanmore’s) new apartment(s) in the magnificent new Briga Towers complex.
From there, having checked emails and relaxed a bit we called a taxi to Netanya Sapir station, from where we took a taxi back to Hadera and the car.
Hiking the Israel National Trail 