Day 11: Ein Hod to Zichron Yaakov

I forgot to mention in yesterday’s post about Ein Hod that the neighbouring village of Ein Khud is home to pretty much the most amazing restaurant I’ve ever eaten in. My Israeli cousins had heard about this place via word of mouth. The town itself was hard enough to find because there weren’t any signs leading to it and the road had never been paved. Apparently the family that owns the restaurant does no advertising at all and the mother simply cooks whenever and whatever she feels like that day. My family and I were treated to a staggering array of 20 dishes consisting of numerous salads, stews, dips, chicken, lamb, beef, baklava, tamarind drink, and Turkish coffee. All this was only 90 shekels per person, which is about 25 dollars American.



What’s most incredible about this town is that the entire populace is descended from one man (and I assume several women) who refused to relocate to Haifa after the 1948 War of Independence. The Israeli government has been trying to get the people to leave the town since then, and only in the last few years have they even been put on the electrical grid. Anyway, just another amazing story in a country filled with them.

Today’s hike took us past the sculpture of a naked woman and man in a sardine can, out of Ein Hod (thank God), and through the Carmel Forest to Zichron Yaakov. The Carmel range is approximately 6.5 to 8 km (4 to 5 miles) wide, sloping gradually towards the southwest, but forming a steep ridge on the northeastern face 525.4 meters high. The Jezreel Valley lies to the immediate northeast. The range forms a natural barrier in the landscape, just as the Jezreel Valley forms a natural passageway, and consequently the mountain range and the valley has had a large impact on migration and invasions through the Levant over time.

In mainstream Jewish, Christian, and Islamic thought, it is Elijah that is indelibly associated with Mt. Carmel, and he is regarded as having sometimes resided in a grotto on the mountain. In the Books of Kings, Elijah is described as challenging 450prophets of a particular Baal to a contest at the altar on Mount Carmel to determine whose deity was genuinely in control of the Kingdom of Israel. According to the biblical account, the challenge was to persuade a deity to light a sacrifice by fire, and after the others had failed to achieve this, Elijah poured water on his sacrifice, prostrated himself in prayer, and the fire fell from the sky, consuming the sacrifice; shortly afterwards, in the account, clouds gather, the sky turns black, and it rains heavily.

Finally, in this hike Yonatan proved himself to be a beast.



He’s been traveling the world for the last five years and sleeping outside for the majority of the last three years. He’s what we might call a minimalist, taking care to shed any excess weight in his pack that carries all of his possessions. While I’m generally a fan of moderation when it comes to material goods, Yonatan has really showed me how much I actually don’t need to survive and generally be happy. All I need is some brown organic tahini with garlic and ginger. It’s a valuable lesson.

-Jeremy