The Best of 2020 - Part II

1. POP-UP Museum TLV 2  2. Gazelle Valley 3. Beit She'an National Park 4. The Argaman Iris Reserve 5. Celebrating My 50th Birthday in the Middle of a Pandemic 6. Nahal Arugot 7. Latrun Fortress 8. The Masrek Nature Reserve  9. The Scroll of Fire and Anne Frank Memorials 10. Shvil HaErez (The Cedar Trail)

Happy New Year! I am going to start the year with my second review of 2020, my top 10 favourite places that I visited last year.

When I started writing this blog back in 2008 I initially kept it as a blog purely about my papercut art. However, I soon found out that people were interested in reading a little more about me and my life here in Israel. I started to write blog posts about my Jewish faith and many of the holidays we celebrate and about some of the beautiful places I have been fortunate to visit in Israel.

This month I will be marking 26 years living here. Over the years I have enjoyed exploring my little country, from north to south, indoors and out. Of course 2020 was like no other year. We have been in lockdown three times and were barely able to leave the house. Foreign travel was impossible, though back in February I was fortunate to spend a lovely couple of weeks with my dad in the UK, before all the coronavirus troubles really began.

Having said all that, Mister Handmade in Israel and I have made the most of it and have really got to know the area around us. From the summer onward, we hiked almost weekly, rarely driving more than 40 minutes from the city where we live. We have discovered some beautiful areas and some amazing history. I was once hesitant to hike without a guide but now we regularly pull on our walking boots and set off on a new route. I'm not saying we never get lost - of course we do - but that has been part of the fun and there have been no major disasters!

The Ancient Synagogue of Beit Alpha

Rosh HaAyin Forest

The Beit Itab Ruins

As you can see from my Top 10, the year started off with just one "indoor" visit, to the amazing "Pop-Up Museum TLV" graffiti event in Tel Aviv. Also in January, we spent a lovely day in Beit She'an with friends visiting from Cyprus. After that, everything has been about just the two of us exploring the hills and forests around us. I celebrated my 50th birthday in a national park just outside Jerusalem and in June we travelled further afield to the Dead Sea area, to spend Mister Handmade in Israel's birthday hiking at Nahal Arugot. I have blogged about many of these amazing places and more. Please click on the names above and enjoy exploring Israel with me!

The Mazor Mausoleum and Kula Forest

Ein Kobi and the Seadim Ruins

* This post has been shared on Nature Notes, The Good. The Random. The Fun., Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday), Tuesday's Treasures, Pictorial Tuesday, Our World Tuesday and My Corner of the World.

The Masrek Nature Reserve

The Masrek Nature Reserve is a small reserve in the Judaean Hills, which in ancient times were the allotment of the Tribe of Judah. The reserve is located at the top of Mount Masrek (Giv'at HaMasreq) and extends over an area of just 117 dunam (approximately 29 acres). In the past large Jerusalem pine trees (Pinus halepensis) grew here but many of those old trees have been destroyed by snow or by a fire that raged through the nature reserve in 2001. Now the remains of agricultural terraces and fruit trees, mainly olive and almond, can be seen alongside the woodland and pine trees. In April two rare varieties of orchid bloom there: Violet Limodore (Limodorum abortivum) and the Drone Bee-Orchid (Ophrys holoserica), whose beautiful flowers are brown, yellow and violet. In addition, a tall antenna has sprung up at the top of the hill.

Mister Handmade in Israel and I visited the reserve recently. From the car park we climbed up some stone steps to Mount Masrek. At the top our path lead us past communication trenches where the Arab defenders of Beit Mahsir took cover during Israel's War of Independence. Beside the trenches was a small cave hewn into the rock. The trenches were dug into soft yellow chalk rock of the kind referred to by geologists as Beit Meir formation, which is sandwiched here between layers of hard chalk rock. Greek strawberry trees (Arbutus andrachne), which grow easily in the soil created by this soft rock, can be seen scattered here and there throughout the reserve.

The trail made its way through an attractive plot of woodland and led us to a gorgeous observation area facing the coastal plain, below. Below us we could see the buildings of Moshav Beit Meir, and on a clear day it is possible to see as far as Ramla, Rehovot and even the high-rises of Tel Aviv.

From the observation area the trail emerged on to a short road that skirted the buildings of Moshav Beit Meir, which have spread all the way up to the nature reserve. A narrow path branched off the road and once again took us into the shade of the woodland trees, to the top of the hill. There we found a Muslim shrine built in honour of Sheikh Ahmad al-Ajami ("The Persian" in Arabic). According to tradition, Sheikh al-Ajami was one of the companions of the Prophet Muhammad and actually served as his barber. Today the presence of a monument to a barber at a site called Masrek ("comb" in Hebrew) seems an amusing coincidence.

The main hall of the building is still standing but it is fenced off and you cannot enter as it is apparently in danger of collapse. Instead, I walked down the side of the building and peeked through a window. Beyond the double-arched entrance lies a large hall whose two small ceiling domes were once decorated to resemble the interior of shells. The mihrab (prayer niche) in the southern wall indicates the direction of prayer, towards Mecca.

Continuing on, the footpath left the plateau and made its way back down the hill, passing the remains of a bunker dating back to the War of Independence, above and below. From there it was just a short distance back to the flight of steps we had come up at the start of our route. 

A short drive from the reserve lead us to a lookout point that offered an excellent view of the Masrek Nature Reserve, above. Among the rockroses and thorny burnet bushes (Sarcopoterium spinosum), a number of signs describe the sequence of events in the area during Operation Maccabi, a military operation which took place between 8th-18th May 1948. The operation was designed to open the transportation route to Jerusalem, which had been under Arab siege for months. After three days of fighting the area of the Masrek Nature Reserve and the village of Beit Mahsir were captured. Operation Maccabi succeeded in gaining control over the road to Jerusalem: to open the road and keep it open for the transit of convoys, in order to renew transport between the coastal plain and Jerusalem.

* This post has been shared on The Good. The Random. The Fun., Nature Notes, Sharon's Souvenirs, Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday), Our World Tuesday, Tuesday's Treasures, Pictorial Tuesday, My Corner of the World and All Seasons.