Yar Manit

Finally the girls are coming with me on bike trips. I am getting them into singles now at Yar Manit. They were fantastic, really did well. What a joy for their dad!

Nahal Pratzim, Har Sdom

13 November , we set out to The Southern Dead Sea area, to ride along Nahal Pratzim to The Flour Cave, and then across to Har Sdom and looping back down Nahal Sdom to where we began. All in all a 30km loop including the detours up wadis and exploring. A beautiful day, the ground was soft from the previous nights rainfall, even muddy in places and some puddles too. The Flower Cave entrance was closed, it had colapsed! I spent the day Living in the Moment, alone in the silence of the desert, in the wadis, overlooking the Dead Sea and Jordan at the other end. Shooting down Nahal Sdom, riding the walls on the s bends. Finally ending the day with a relaxing dip in the Dead Sea, letting the minerals and salt soothe away the day. On this trip were Yaki, Golan, Hadar and myself….guess we need to come up with a name soon!

Nof Carmel

So there we were 7am on a glorious saturday morning, up in the hills of Nof Carmel. The usual group of myself, H, Yaki, Gugu and Koby. A pleasant ride, nothing technical, wide paths hugging the edge of the hillside, high up above the Meggido plains below. Below the mist had not cleared yet making you feel that you were high up in the mountains..In short fantastic. So the ride took us to Osafiya, through the village and looped back to the start, All in all 35km…. Rumor has it that Yaki and Golan slept 4 hours that afternoon, infact I hear that Yaki only really woke up today! I can tell you I crashed out for 2 hours of sleep that day and ate like a horse the rest of the time!

Nahal Yavniel

Ah finally an addition to the old bikelog! Its been a long time I know, but that doesn’t mean we aint been riding! Just haven’t taken the camera along.

Anyway today we did Nahal Yavniel, a wonderful long 23km downhill endinga at Kibbutz Zera on the Sea of Galilea.

Latrun 1 July

Amazing how easy it is to get up at 5am when you know your going on a bike trip! Today we headed off to Latrun and the Canada Park area. Cobi navigating on his Green machine, the Shwing he traded in his Jeep Sufa for…Medi on her Specialized Epic, Golan on his Trek Fuel, Hadar on her Specialized XC Comp myself and Yaki on our Specialized StumpJumpers and a new comer Shmulik on his no doubt soon to be traded in bike, didn’t get the name of it, sorry. Anyways with Cobi in charge we all knew we were in for some serious uphills, and he didn’t let us down. (Excuse the pun). All I can say is thanks Shmulik, you saved my life! But I have to admit the highlite of the day was seeing Yaki fly off his bike into a thorn bush at the end of a very fast downhill run that suddenly became more of a series of deep rivets then a path. He did it in great style I must say, and happily landed safely, but very funny anyways. Gotta say a big well done to Shmulik for making it all the way, hope it opens his appetite for more.

Manit Forest 25June

Well finally I am back after my bout with Bell’s Palsey! 1st week was hell, 2nd shit and the 3rd a blessing! At last I am back on my bike and with my friends and we are having fun in the Manit Forest on a balmy saturday afternoon. Singles in the trees, technicaly not difficult, but challenging if you put on the speed! Alot of fun!!!

Riders: Yaki, Hadar, Kobi, Shabtai, Ilan, Sharon and myself! Ofcourse there is only 1 pic of me, as I am the man with the bloody camera!

Eilat 25-27April

OK so we went down to Eilat for a romantic break, no kids, no demands, just me and the Mrs. It just so happens that I arranged to upgrade our bikes avoiding the V.A.T. slapped on up here in the rest of Israel, saving a considerable amount of cash along the way! So 2 new Specialized bikes were waiting for us, 1 bordeaux Stumpjumper for me and a red an XC Comp for H, (yeh, so? Gimme abreak, so what if mines better then hers!!) Well my friends I can only begin to tell you the joy of rear suspension, hydraulic brakes and the smooth gear shifts, after the past couple of months on my Hard Rock. Its another planet!!! These bikes are amazing, they react to your actions with lightning speed and glide through stuff my old bike would have sunk in! In short we are chuffed!

So our first trip was in the late evening after getting the bikes, just to break em in, from the Ambassador hotel up Wadi Shlomo, not far, as it was getting dark, we then charged through the promenade along the beach towards Taba and back, we decided to complete Wadi Shlomo in the morning. So at 6am we set off towards Taba to warm up on the flat road hugging the glorious Red Sea. Reaching the border with Egypt we did the return run to the entrance to Wadi Shlomo, from here on its a continuos uphill ride through this fantastic canyon, with the sunrise behind us casting long shadows and clear blue sky on red mountains in front of us. 6km up we reached the western road out of Eilat, I am not sure but I would say its at least a 400m climb, so the ride back down is fantastic and as fast as you want it! Total distance 21Km, 2.5 hours.

The next morning we drove out to the outskirts of town, past the airport and the industrial area, and just past Kibbutz Eilot. Parking on the eastern side of the road we set off past Vinyards on the Israel Jordan border, working our way north to the Duane Palms right in the middle of the Great Rift Valley. Completely alone in this incredible landscsape apart from some gazelle running in the distance. The return run was made easier by the northerly wind we had battled on the way out, so we flew back reaching 40km/hour on the flats. This time though on the eastern side of the vinyards we rode along the rim of the resevoirs on the border with Jordan.

Total Ride 21Km, in 2hours.