Hod Hasharon Ecological Park

As I wrote on my previous blog post, Israel is at war and we are living through sad times. I have posted a couple of blogs about the situation but have decided now to share some posts about the beautiful side of the country I live in. A country filled with nature trails and historic ruins, gorgeous birds and flowers. The posts were written a year and a half or even two years ago, before I lost my youngest son. I haven’t felt like sharing them but now think that the time is appropriate to show you another side of Israel, a side that you will not currently see on the news.
This is Israel.

Hod Hasharon Ecological Park is located south of the city of Hod Hasharon, a city in the Central District of Israel. The park is home to a delicate ecosystem based on treated wastewater. You will find a large ecological lake and a flowing tributary of the Hadar Stream, three birdwatching hides, pedestrian paths and cycling trails. The park was inaugurated in 2018 and while it is not complete, it is already a beautiful place to visit. When development is complete, it will cover 1,400 dunams (140 hectares).

The lake, which is the main focus of the park, was planned as an ecological body of water. Underwater sandbanks resembling the natural stream beds of the area have been built on the 2 metre deep lake bed. These create a variety of habitats that sustain an entire ecosystem, from bacteria to algae to fish and amphibians. Birds that nest in burrows, such as the European Bee-eater and the European roller, have dug their nests in the banks and some 150,000 plants of about 30 species typical of the natural vegetation of the area have been have been planted there.

The source of the water for the lake and the park is the Hod Hasharon-Kfar Saba wastewater purification plant. The water receives its final purification in green basins south of the park and, from there, with its quality greatly improved, it is channelled to the lake. The water in the lake is replaced every five days. Pumps draw out the water and send it on to the Hadar Stream and the Yarkon River.

The hill on the west side of the lake is also made of recycled waste. Har Hazevel, or "Garbage Mountain", was a solid waste landfill until the early 1990s. It is still undergoing rehabilitation and is currently covered in mud and sand. An easy climb to the top boasts beautiful views of the park and the surrounding area. The route is already popular with cyclists and hikers.

Behind "Garbage Mountain" is an abandoned stone building, below, which will eventually be restored as the park's visitors centre. The Arab village of Abu Kishk once stood here and this building was a school built by the British in 1925 for the children of Bedouins living in this area. By the mid-1940s it had 108 students, including 9 girls. Today cactuses and almond trees grow nearby.

Hod Hasharon Ecological Park is a municipal park and when we visited there were a lot of people around, especially young kids. We enjoyed a picnic in the park then, after our climb to the top of "Garbage Mountain", the crowds began to die down and it became a lovely place for some birdwatching. However, if you can, I would suggest arriving at sunrise (during those hours, the birds are active, and there will be no people).
From the birdwatching hides I spotted little egret, cormorant, black-crowned night heron and squacco heron on the island in the centre of the lake and along the banks. During the season many migrating birds arrive in the area. The park provides them with a proper place to rest and "refuel" before continuing their journey.

The Hadar Stream was once a short, dry watercourse that channelled sewage between cultivated fields. Only rarely, after heavy rainfall, did water briefly flow through it. Soon after water began flowing through the Hadar Stream in 2014, species of fish appeared there that had adapted to the treated wastewater. Among these are the Eurasian carp and redbelly tilapia. They have been joined, whether as permanent or occasional inhabitants, by various amphibians, reptiles and mammals. You can see Caspian turtles and the Nile Softshell turtle in the lake, as well as Coypu (nutria), the large, semiaquatic rodent which we last saw at the Hula Lake.

Hod Hasharon Ecological Park is always open and you can visit at any time. At night there is artificial light. It is forbidden to start a fire or make barbecue at the park. Swimming and fishing are not allowed and dogs should be on a lead. Entrance is free.

I highly recommend a visit.

* This post has been shared on The Good. The Random. The Fun. and Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday).

Egrof Varomach Memorial, Kula Forest

The Egrof Varomach ("Fist & Lance") memorial for the 147 fallen soldiers of the 27th Brigade (later the 60th and 204th Brigade) can be found in the Kula forest. The brigade was founded in 1952 as the first reserve armoured brigade in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF). They took part in many battles, including the Sinai War, the Six-Day War, the War of Attrition, the Yom Kippur War and the 1982 Lebanon War, until the brigade's dissolution in 2014.

The memorial site includes two half-tracks and an AMX-13 tank which was damaged by the Egyptians during the Six-Day War. It was originally erected near Refidim in Sinai and in 1980, prior to the evacuation of Sinai following the peace agreement between Israel and Egypt, the monument was moved to the outskirts of the Kula Forest. Following road construction 500 metres east, the monument was renovated ahead of Israel's Remembrance Day in 2018.

A path with the green and black badge of the Egrof Varomach brigade on both sides leads to the memorial site. At this site, a wide plaza is enclosed by a fence and there is a large seating area. Beside the half-tracks and tank, there is a sign with details in Hebrew and English about the brigade and the battles in which it participated. Above the sign is the badge of the unit, at the top of which is the word Yizkor, "Remember". A memorial wall bears the names of  the fallen.

The Kula forest offers another memorial, nature, ruins and even a Roman mausoleum. We last explored it in August 2020. This time, after visiting the Egrof Varomach memorial, I had a lovely time photographing the early Crown anemone and Persian cyclamen, which were just beginning to bloom. I also spotted Arisarum vulgare, or Friar's Cowl, an unusual-looking wildflower which is a member of the Arum family and occurs in the Mediterranean region from October through until March.

There were just a few beautiful anemone, or calaniot in Hebrew, to be seen. A few weeks later and no doubt the fields are now covered with magnificent carpets of bright red, with the odd white, purple and pink head scattered between them. Anemone have a symbolic place in Israeli culture as well as a natural one. During the time of the British Mandate, the term was attached as a nickname to the British soldiers, due to the bright red colour of their berets. A song about the flowers, written by the Israeli poet Nathan Altermann in 1945 and made famous by the Yemeni-Israeli singer Shoshana Damari, then became used as a protest song against the British. The song, about the life of a young girl and about anemones which are always blooming all her life long, is one of the most played, performed, loved and cherished songs in Israel today.

The Persian cyclamen, or rakefet in Hebrew, is one of the popular winter flowers in Israel. It is a delicate flower, but it can grow almost anywhere, even in rocks and shady forest groves. Cyclamen bloom throughout late winter and into spring, adding a touch of beauty to cool-weather hikes. They range in colour from pale pink to deep purple. Its petals grow upward instead of outward, so the flowers look like they're stretching up to the sky. It is said that King Solomon saw the cyclamen as the model for his crown, and one of the Hebrew nicknames that has stuck to it is "Nezer Shlomo," King Solomon's crown. The tubers at the root of these cyclamen plants have historically been used to make soap.

The Palestine iris, or Iris eretz Israeli, below, is a white to yellowish flower, though in the south of Israel, light blue specimens can be found growing in the warm dry conditions. It is a low-growing plant rising to a height of 13cm. The fragrant flowers are short-lived, produce nectar and are known to bloom in the morning. It was first found in Mesopotamia, part of Syria, and has been used as a medicinal plant in the Middle East for urinary tract infections by boiling the leaves or the rhizomes in water.

The Kula forest, which was planted in the 1950s, actually has three names. The first name, Kula, is after the Arab village of Quleh which once existed in the western section of the forest. It was depopulated during the 1948 War of Independence and the ruins of crumbled houses and terraces now lie among the trees. The forest is also know as the Koah Forest or Forest of the Kaf Het. In gematria (a Jewish form of numerology in which the letters of the Hebrew alphabet are substituted with corresponding numbers) Koah is 28. 28 soldiers from the Alexandroni brigade died in a battle on the 15th July 1948, when Jordanian forces with tanks returned to the conquered Quleh village and killed 28 Jewish soldiers. The village returned to Israeli control on the 18th July. The name Koah commemorates the soldiers. Finally, it is also known at the Elad Forest since it is located by the city of Elad, which was established in 1990.

After exploring the area of the forest near the Egrof Varomach memorial, we crossed the road and parked near the Alexandroni memorial, above. At the memorial we found a short description of the battle that occurred during the War of Independence, when the IDF and Arab Legion forces fought over the village. A monument with the names of the fallen engraved on it is located on top of a hill and, if you look down below, you can see the remains of trenches the fighters used during the battles.

* This post has been shared on Little Things Thursday, Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday), Tuesday's Treasures, Pictorial Tuesday and My Corner of the World.