Today was our last walking day this trip, and we had a bit of a debate over how much ground to cover. The problem is that once you enter the Nahal Amud valley (and you need to enter it by 1pm in the winter) you need to go through to the end or take a steep 
climb up to Ein Koves after about 5 km. Eventually, we decided to keep the day short given the drive back – and it suited me in the end as I had a very early flight home and things to do in the house.
We started at Mt Meron Field School near the Ottoman ruins and continued the climb of the previous day up towards the peak of Mt Meron – at 1,204 metres the highest point in Israel and on the INT. It was a steep climb through the Mount Neria Reserve with spectacular views as we got higher, both over Lebanon and the Hula valley towards the Golan shrouded in early morning mist. There were a couple of view points for photographs but we resisted too many stops until we reached the Mt Neria view point.
After a short break, we then continued our climb for another kilometre or so to Mount Meron. Mount Meron is accessible by road and towards the military radar and listening post at the peak we came across school kids and others bussed up to the picnic area near the top.
From there we started our descent down the Meron and Amud valleys which will ultimately take us to the Kinneret, some 215m below sea level.
The descent was an easy one through light woodland . The surprise was the range of beautiful flowers on the way (in November!), mainly crocuses but of various types including rare Saffron and a large patch of Sternbergia almost unique in Israel – or so we were told by an elderly lady enthusiast walking up the trail from another nearby parking lot.
We hurried through the crowds there and soon found ourselves lone again walking through open rock strewn hills towards more arable – if rough land. We passed the large Druse town of Bayt Jan and a number of fields tended by Druse until we reached a memorial to a Druse Medic killed in 1992. Being further from the border, we hadn’t seen a memorial on the trail for a while – although there were plenty in Safed – and it was again sad to remember a young life cut short.
We started to get glimpses of Safed in the distance and the trail started to drop more steeply towards the Amud stream. We were walking through limestone formations and Kastic caves up to 100m deep formed by water erosion started to appear.
So too did some rocks eroded by water in to shapes – like the one known as Elijah’s chair
We passed some more ancient wells and structures eventually reaching a synagogue associated with the great Mishnaic commentator Shammai – the contemporary of Hillel. A structure there is said to be his tomb and we stopped for lunch before walking the remaining couple of kilometres to the car park on the bank of the Amud, below the town of Meron, where we had left my car.
A pleasant much shorter day – we finished by 1:30pm – and after collecting Rafi’s car we started to make arrangements for three walking sessions in 2019 and to make our separate ways home.
Hiking the Israel National Trail 