Negev – Once Again In The Heat Of Desert (Part 2)

07/01/2022 – First steps in the desert

I wake up and I feel like a freshly hatched mouse. It takes me a few seconds to realize where I am. The situation is illustrated by a caravan of camels passing in front of the car. I don’t even have to get out of the car to realize that it’s hell outside – the sun is burning at a hundred and six, I don’t want to leave my pleasantly smooth car. On the other hand, the view of the desert is beautiful and tempting. Of course, I eventually open the door and head up into the furnace.

The advantage of running in the desert is that you don’t have to think long about what to wear; the less, the better. So I put on loose shorts and a red T-shirt from the previous day (which doesn’t smell, because bacteria don’t grow well in a dry environment). My friends take a few photos and the drone launches. I have another sip, we chat, and just before ten o’clock I set off on my way.

The beginning is flat, it is on a well-trodden desert road, several cars with tourists pass by, who walk a few kilometers somewhere in the desert and then return nicely to the air conditioning. One car stops me and asks if I want water. Behind me, a drone buzzes as a reminder of the boys who will have to partially return by car, go around the mountain range, because the road ends here at the oasis, and come towards me from the direction of the Dead Sea. As the landscape begins to undulate, a police car passes me, its crew looking at me with interest (and perhaps suspicion).

I turn towards the mountains and the ruts turn into a trail. I try to run, but I have to be careful, because the trail is starting to become difficult to walk. Incredible views of deep canyons open up to my left.

I climb a rocky slope straight uphill a few times. After one such hike, the Dead Sea appears in the distance. It plays with a deep blue color, it’s a picture like from Photoshop. After a few hills up and down, I start to descend steeply. And the descent is steep, from about 350 meters to minus 420 meters. The trail winds through dense serpentines on boulders that are not at all stable. Every now and then I find myself looking at the sea while walking, which is dangerous, because I should be looking at my feet. A Jordanian network pops up on my mobile phone, Jordan is right in front of my nose, on the other side of the valley.

I have another meeting with support at the remains of the Masada fortress. At the same time, it is the entrance to the reserve, where runners and tourists on the Israel National Trail do not pay anything, but others do. When I see the tourist center and the fortress on the hill in front of me, I realize that I have basically not drunk anything since the beginning and that I am terribly thirsty. There should be a hunger window in the center, I’m counting on there being at least one chilled one for me. In the distance I see Petr and Patrik, who have already climbed to the fortress, looked around it and returned. It’s after twelve o’clock and we sit down together under the shelter at the refreshment stand and buy one piece each. I tell them about the journey so far, and since I’m very thirsty, we give them another, despite the unchristian price…

I don’t need to refill my water and in about half an hour I’m setting off further, down to the sea. It’s not far, but the journey takes a long time because of the terrain. I’m starting to get tired, mainly from the sun. When I finally arrive at the coast, I see that I’m waiting for about 4 kilometers along the main road to the town of Ein Bokek, where we have another meeting. To my surprise, the guys are waiting for me here, but I send them away. Those few kilometers are absolutely exhausting, the high-rise hotel buildings in the distance don’t come close at all, the heat is terrible, and so the view of the blue water and beaches made of salt crystals at least makes up for it a little.

While waiting, Petr and Patrik want to try to see if the Dead Sea water will float the repair, but the water is supposedly so hot in the early afternoon that you can’t get in (they’ll make up for it in the evening). I arrive at the parking lot around six and I’m very tired. Unfortunately, we only have hot drinks in the car, so I ask the guys to go to the gas station to get me something cold; I need it like salt. I don’t need much food in this weather, I haven’t eaten anything since the beginning. We go to see the beach, the guys take pictures and launch the drone. Then I leave them and move on.

On the way through the city, I see a few small shops, I can’t resist and buy another cold drink. I’m full to the brim, I’ll pour half of it anyway; my eyes were big… It’s a few kilometers on asphalt, through small settlements. It’s starting to get dark. We have another meeting before entering the terrain. I take a wrong turn, I continue along the road to the place where the guys should be. But I’m standing on the bridge, the path is far below and I know that I can’t go that way. So I call Petr, who will guide me. It’s already dark and Petr is luring me to a place off the road with a laser pointer. I got hungry during those few kilometers, so the guys cook me instant soup before entering the night desert.

I put on my headlamp and head into the hills. I’m walking through a reservation where it’s not allowed at night. I’m relying on luck. The terrain changes between rocks and a relatively passable path. In the pitch black darkness, I walk through a deep and very narrow canyon in the light of my headlamp. It looks very spooky. Sometimes there are blind turns, the markings are difficult to see in that light, so navigation is not easy and I have to turn back a few times. I reach the plain, pass the turnoff, which I return to after a few hundred meters, and I see a light in the hills ahead. I know that there should be a larger campsite here, so maybe this is it. I climb up, pass through the campsite (in the desert it is usually a place fenced off with stones without any facilities) and I notice an increasingly loud noise. It looks like there is some facility in the hills. I follow the road, probably the old one, because nothing would drive along it now.

Around the bend in front of me I see a fence, a fenced area with a few buildings that are dimly lit. There is quite a lot of noise and, most importantly, a parked car. I wonder if it could be a park ranger, and how I can explain to him that I got to this place at night, when it is not allowed to walk in parks at night. I put my headlamp on minimum intensity, try to look outside the object so that I am not so visible, I go around it and disappear into the darkness. I take a breather that no one has seen me. A few hundred meters later, a car suddenly lights up, starts up, and follows me. Well, that’s going to be fun…

There’s no point in running away, I stop at a large information board. I understand that I’m about to enter another park, and from the little English text it follows that this section is very dangerous, full of holes, rocks, and similar tidbits, and that it’s only intended for very experienced tourists. There’s also a note, “No entry at night.” The car stops and a ranger actually gets out. Fortunately, he doesn’t speak much English (and my Hebrew is more than zero), so he doesn’t even ask how I ended up there. I try to explain that I want to continue on, but the man is adamant. He orders me to lie down under the open sky and I can continue on at dawn. He says I can’t go back to the park I just passed either. It’s warm, but insects are starting to swarm in the light of my headlamp, so I prefer not to look down at the ground. I turn off the lights, lean against the information board pillar and try to fall asleep. My brain is spinning, but I don’t dare to go any further. Instead, I send a message to the boys from the tracker around midnight that I’m going down to the Dead Sea and see them then.

So I turn around, walk through the campsite again and make my way along a nice, here and there asphalt road. In the distance below me I see a beautiful set of lights shining into the night – it’s some factory on the seashore, which serves as a reference point. It’s about ten kilometers to the car, but the road is getting shorter very slowly. When I see the white car, I’m walking through some mud that appeared here from who knows where, so in addition to being exhausted, I’m also walking like a pig to the car. The boys are sleeping, which is no wonder at such an hour. I open the trunk of the car, throw my backpack inside, Petr climbs out and lights a lamp to change my shoes – that’s all I can manage and as I am, even without the most basic hygiene, I climb into the car and fall asleep. I have covered 65 kilometers of hard-earned mileage. I leave the discussion of what to do next until I get a few hours of sleep.

07/02/2022 – Through riverbeds and erosion craters to Yeruham

I wake up in the morning, no wonder, all broken and scalded. It was brutally hot at night, the windows in the car couldn’t be opened much to avoid being eaten by local insects. We hold a battle meeting. We have to, not for the first time and not for the last time, change the plan and route. The new version is to drive about an hour from the Dead Sea to the original end of the route from the previous night, and from there I will go over the mountains, dry riverbeds and erosion craters to Yeruham. There the boys have their first night in a guesthouse, where we should all have a bit of fun.

At around half past nine we are at the beginning of the stage. This time the preparation is somewhat more thorough, I have a long journey through the desert with no support. I am packed with water, only a minimum of food, because according to previous experiences I don’t eat much anyway. Before leaving I will just swallow some bread and salami.

Patrik obligingly launches the drone, which flies behind me even after the boys lose sight of me. At the entrance to the terrain, I notice a sign and some information, a map and a crossed-out route, but since they are filming a video, I don’t pay much attention to it. About half a kilometer later, when the drone is gone, I can’t help it after all, I turn around and go back to study what it is all about. Even though the entire sign is in Hebrew, I understand from the map that my route is closed. I stand there in disbelief for a moment – I don’t have an alternative prepared, and I don’t feel like going back and replanning, so I decide to take a chance. If something comes up that I can’t pass, I can always go back and the guys will come get me. In the meantime, they head straight to their accommodation in Yeruham, because there is no suitable road in the desert that would allow them to meet, take a shower and, of course, have the obligatory beer and food.

We had already noticed an airship in the sky the day before. It flashed in colors at night, and during the day it seemed to be watching everything around. After yesterday’s experience, when I walked through the parks at night despite the ban, I have a nagging feeling that it is watching me. I know it is stupid, but I cannot get rid of this feeling. Therefore, I welcome it when the undulating terrain turns into a narrow canyon, where in the wet season there is certainly a roaring river, which will hide me from the airship. The initial rapid progress turns into climbing rocks, boulders, wading in the gravel of the riverbed. My speed drops to an absolute minimum. I sweat blood and at the same time I save my drink, because it looks like a very long (and not only) day.

After a few hours, a flatter part appears. I am happy, but my throat quickly dries up when I see what awaits me. I lost the markings about half a kilometer ago and there is a twenty-meter rock wall in front of me, I suspect that it will be a waterfall during the rainy season. So, what now? It seems to me that on the right there is a hint of a trail leading steeply up between the boulders and with logical reasoning that it cannot be anywhere else, I start climbing. It is not directly to the edge of the waterfall, I have to go higher up on the hill and then probably back down to the riverbed. After twenty vertical drops, it is clear to me that if this is not the right path, the descent down will be very difficult. After another twenty or so loose boulders that have fallen down into the valley, I reach a place where the continuation is a two-meter long and a foot wide ledge without any holds, and it is clear to me that this is not a trail. For the first time, I look down properly and even in the heat I feel a gust of cold. One wrong step or a loose boulder and I am at the bottom, 100% dead. Classic, it’s easy going up, hard going down.

I descend step by step, sometimes having to turn back from unsuccessful attempts to find a safer route. I thoroughly test every stone I try to use with my poles and feet. I am out of breath, as if I had been sprinting, but not from fatigue, but from fear. When I reach the bottom, I sit down, have a drink and try to calm myself down. I decide to turn around and go back. There is nothing I can do. After about two hundred meters, I think I see a trail marking. I had missed that before. And when I look closely, I see that it is not directing me straight, as I originally went, but to the left, uphill – also into the rocks, but a mark is a mark. After a short climbing insert, I reach a wider path, where I have to fight my way through sharp bushes full of thorns. Below, I see that I am again above the edge of the waterfall, but this time on the other side. The descent down is difficult, but not impossible. One last jump and I’m done. I learn a lesson that I follow for the rest of the trail – don’t go where there are no signs.

I continue steeply up, again through the riverbed, when the slopes part a bit, the airship is still staring at me. I’ve gotten used to it, but the unpleasant feeling returns when a propeller plane flies overhead. I know from the map that after the climb I should reach the edge of an erosion crater, which I have to cross along its bottom.

Every little hill looks like the last one, but it’s a false peak. Just when it seems that the suffering is over, a deep precipice appears, around which there is a railing and metal steps in the rock. And finally I find out why the trail is closed. At the narrowest point, a rock slide has occurred, taking a piece of the trail with it. The original railing is half buried in the rubble on the steep slope. I wonder if the risk is worth it. I lean my stick on the railing and it gracefully slides down. To overcome this place means five completely unsecured meters. But because it reminds me a bit of the Gobi, where there were several such places (although not so dangerous), I slide down to the other side centimeter by centimeter. I feel my heart in my throat. As dessert, I climb a few ladders.

Then an impressive view of a huge crater finally opens up for me, I am completely exhausted from the heat and effort. Moreover, I have not had anywhere to rest for a long time, because there is simply no shade here.

What is worse, my water supplies are getting quite thin. I have about 2 liters left and I have to cross one crater, then climb brutally up, descend down to the second crater, cross it again and finally get to Jerucham with another hike. It is not far in kilometers, but I would have to be a squirrel or a chamois to descend quickly, not to mention the climbs. I don’t want to spend the night in such difficult terrain, so I don’t waste any time on the edge of the crater and start descending. I estimate that two kilometers will take me two hours. I start the “rationing system” for water, I always take a sip and repeat until my tongue starts to stick to the roof of my mouth. Unfortunately, this is happening more and more often. My head is starting to spin. Fortunately, I manage to find shade behind a boulder that is just enough for my head and torso, I sit down, put down my gear and rest. However, I can’t lose too much time. I get up, but after a few moments I lace it up again – fortunately I’m out of dangerous passages – and I think I hear voices. I look back and of course no one. After a while, more voices. It’s clear to me that phase 1 hallucinations are beginning, i.e. those that a person is aware of. A few times I find myself thinking about pressing the emergency button on my tracker in moments of despair to call for help. I’m not far from it, that’s how bad I am. I can already understand the feelings of those lost in the desert.

The trail tortures me because even at the bottom of the crater it leads over gentle hills instead of flat. But I don’t dare to shorten it, because as I know from the Gobi Desert, a deep gorge can appear at any time that will be impossible to cross. I’m slowly losing track of time. I think I see some buildings in the distance ahead of me, but I have no idea if they’re really there. My water supply has shrunk to about a liter. When I come across car tracks and the buildings are still standing, I know they’re real. Without further ado, I decide that this will be my temporary shelter, at least until the heat of the sun subsides a little.

I see a long wall with a shadow where I could hide. But I go around the corner and see that there is an open gate. Inside are large pipes, valves and other technical equipment. The building has a closed door, but everything looks abandoned, so I grab the handle and get inside. There is a complete mess, wires, disconnected or broken electrical equipment – but unfortunately no water. I put down my backpack and decide to explore two other, smaller objects that are a hundred to two hundred meters away. It is not about shelter, but about water. But I don’t find any, just more debris. I turn back and even this walk is taking its toll on me. I feel really bad, my heart is racing, so I strip down to just my shorts and lie down on the dirty ground. I just put a plastic electrical strip under my head. I don’t even have the strength to pull out my tracker and write to the guys.

The plan is that I will first cool down to an acceptable temperature, eat something, have a drink, and when I am in a passable condition, I will write to support and, most importantly, look at the map for an alternative way out of this area. It is clear to me that climbing up to the edge of the crater and especially overcoming another one is not in my power and I am not equipped for it either – it is impossible to manage with seven deciliters of water.

After about an hour, I am able to open my backpack, pull out my tracker, sit outside to catch a satellite signal, and write to the guys what is happening. They probably suspect it anyway, because I have been in one place for about two hours without moving. Communication with these trackers is very slow, and because I do not want to fry myself unnecessarily in the sun, which is now shining directly into the door, I leave the tracker in the shade behind a stone so that it does not lose the signal, and go get my mobile phone. Fortunately, I listened to Petr’s advice to download offline maps of Israel from mapy.cz. My mental abilities are somewhat limited at the moment, but I can see that about a kilometer behind the last object, behind the rocks, where you can’t see, there is a pass where the road leads, which then descends into the valley to the main road.

The sun is slowly starting to set, so it’s time to start the emergency descent. I haven’t heard from the guys, it seems that the tracker isn’t working, so I hope that they are at least following me and that they can see where I’m going from my movements and set out to meet me. Indeed, as we said later, the message reached them (their answer didn’t), so when I set off, they set off too. The road is indeed asphalt, it’s gotten a bit colder, so I sometimes run. I already have my headlamp on, it’s getting dark. I’m about ten kilometers down. They pass very slowly. I move around other objects, the purpose of which is unclear to me. It feels like a sci-fi scene in that wasteland, there’s not a single living thing here. When the lights of a car appear in the distance, I know that the boys haven’t let me finish it and have come to meet me. When asked if I’ll walk down by myself or get in the car, I answer non-ultra-sparingly that I’ll let them take me. The anabasis of this day has taken its toll, physically, but especially mentally.

Since the whole plan seems to be in ruins, I decide that we’ll drive together to Yeruham, where I’ll get together, consolidate, reevaluate plans, and set new goals to get the whole project back to a meaningful state. During this “beer meditation”, the owner of the accommodation, who is a big hiker himself and knows the area and trail perfectly, joins us for a chat, and in the middle of the conversation he mentions that no one goes to the desert like this in the summer because it’s a waste, not to mention that the national trail in this area is in a pretty desolate state, which you can’t read about anywhere… After a shower and a beer, and especially after drawing up new plans, I feel like I’m reborn and I know that after a few hours of sleep, I’ll be grilling myself in the desert again.

Article category: Blog, Firstpage, SportArticle