As you know from my
recent post, Mister Handmade in Israel recently celebrated his birthday. He is truly impossible to buy gifts for. He really doesn't want anything (whereas I always have half of Etsy on my gift list!). I decided to arrange a mini getaway for him instead. Of course I got to join in on it as well!
We started off our weekend at Nesher Park in the town of Nesher, a city in the Haifa District of Israel. Nesher Park covers an area of 200
dunams (200,000 square metres) and is located on the northern side of the
Carmel Mountain. The main feature of the park is two suspension bridges, about 70 metres in length, spanning a ravine cut by a seasonal winter river, Nahal Katia. The bridges are constructed from steel ropes and beams and sway as people walk across them.
A marked trail for the bridges crosses the river on one bridge and returns via the second bridge. We reached the first bridge by an easy, unpaved path along the northern bank of the stream. Crossing the bridge was a bit daunting at first (I am not great with heights) but I geared up for the occasion and it was well worth it. The views of the park below were wonderful! The only negative was that there was quite a lot of rubbish lying around areas of the park. Why can't people clean up after themselves?
From the bridges we took in a breathtaking view of the surrounding area, including the slope beneath the University of Haifa, which is entirely covered by a natural, well-developed forest, and views down towards the Zevulun Valley. The forest has Israeli oak, pine,
Greek strawberry trees, carob, and terebinth trees. Hiking trails lead through the forest and down into the riverbed and, in addition to the trails and the suspension bridges, the park has picnic tables and a playground.
It was a lovely place to visit for a short hike and some nice views.
We stayed in the port city of Acre overnight, which I intend to write about in
another post. On the second day of our trip, after exploring the old city, we made our way further north to Rosh Hanikra, which we
last visited back in 2013.
Rosh Hanikra, which literally means "Head of the Grottoes", is a geologic formation on the border between Israel and Lebanon. It is a white chalk cliff face which opens up into spectacular grottoes and is the only cliff in Israel that descends straight into the sea. Geologists have revealed that its bottom layer is made of hard limestone, the middle is soft chalk embedded with flint, and the top layer is hard, porous dolomite.
At the base of the cliff are cavernous tunnels formed by sea action on the soft chalk rock. They branch off in various directions with some interconnecting segments. In the past the only access to them was from the sea and experienced divers were the only ones capable of visiting. Today a cable car takes visitors down to see the grottoes, though Mister Handmade in Israel and I didn't go into the grottoes on this occasion. Instead we chose to go down to the shore at Rosh Hanikra Sea Reserve, after first admiring the picture-perfect views from the top, of Achziv beach with its pedestrian promenade stretching south though Nahariya to Haifa.
People usually associate crystal clear water with Greece, but this area of Israel's coastline looks very similar. Mister Handmade in Israel and I spent quite some time simply watching the waves from the Mediterranean sea crashing onto the rocks and observing the military ship which was patrolling the area, since Rosh Hanikra is so close to the Lebanon border. Though we didn't notice it, in the water you can apparently see a line of buoys separating Israel from Lebanon, one of which is a
sonobuoy to detect any surface or underwater activity. We could easily see the so-called "Elephant's Leg", a natural formation created in the cliff by the seawater, which looks like a trunk or a leg. Afterwards we enjoyed walking along the rocky beach, admiring the clear water, the ponds and the outstanding rock formations.
Rosh Hanikra once served as a passage point for trade caravans and armies between Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Egypt, and Africa. In 1943 a tunnel was built by the British to connect the local and Lebanese rail networks and to establish a continuous rail route from Egypt via Sinai, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and Turkey to Europe for troops and supplies. Part of the
Ha'apala (Illegal immigration) fleeing from the Nazis made use of this tunnel to find haven in The Land of Israel.
The bridge and tunnels were all constructed by engineering units of the British Army from South Africa and New Zealand. A sign of the date of the construction can be seen above the entrance to the tunnel, below. The inscription "40th Coy SAEC" (South African Engineering Corp, company 40) is the name of the South African survey unit that designed and constructed the railway, together with the New Zealand engineering unit.
The railway bridge at Rosh Hanikra was spared by the
Haganah during the 1946
Night of the Bridges operation. The aim of
Operation Markolet - known as "Night of the Bridges" - was to destroy 8 bridges linking British Mandatory Palestine to Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt, in order to cut off British Army transportation. However, in February 1948, following a late-1947 British announcement that they would
withdraw from Palestine months ahead of schedule, the western end of the bridge at Rosh Hanikra was destroyed by Jewish underground fighters, under the noses of the British soldiers. The aim was to prevent Lebanese arms being smuggled into the newly founded State of Israel. As repairs to the bridge were prohibitively expensive, the tunnels were later completely sealed.
The
Lebanese railways have been largely dismantled while the Coastal Railway in Israel currently ends near Nahariya, several kilometres to the south. No train will arrive at Rosh Hanikra until there will be peace between Lebanon and Israel.
