Aliyah Blog 80: Sorek Estuary

Estuary: where a freshwater body of water meets the ocean and the water mixes.

Israel has … none, according to any tourist website I’ve seen. So far, I’ve found two. The Yarkon river in Tel Aviv meets the ocean. The Sorek Estuary, however, is kept in its natural form and Israelis don’t even seem to know it exists despite being right next to Rishon LeZion and just south of Holon. There’s a loooooong beautiful beach with no one there as a reward for trekking 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) and then back. (It seems you might be able to cheat and drive to a town called Ha-Midron which abuts the beach.)

GPS to “Nachal Sorek Estuary” works just fine … then, in typical Israel fashion, there aren’t actually signs telling you which way to go though you can narrow it down by:
a) not going back towards the highway, and
b) not going past the signs that say “shooting range – my name is Inago Montoya, prepare to die.” (Rough translation.)

Finding the path

Okay, walk past the picnic tables and around some pathway which takes you under the highway you just didn’t walk toward and you reach the river:

Don’t actually cross the river. Just keep going down a path which widens into a … one of those “go north”, “go south”, “fight the troll” maze sort of games. Banks are like that too here.

I did find one tree with trail markings. The problem is the trail markings seem to indicate the trail just goes aroun the tree:

So . . . I walked around the tree. <shrug>

Then it gets all sandy …

Then I was low on water – brought only 1 liter. Oops. They always say bring more than you think you’ll need. I was also wearing a button-down shirt and didn’t think this was a ‘real’ hike. I did bring sardines though. Israeli sardines are highly recommended.

One hour passes.

Then it gets more sandy … and starts going uphill … and bluer …

. . . and while you trudge up a hill of sand, look up . . . the ocean appears:

My pictures don’t capture the beauty:

I didn’t walk to the ocean because it was easily another 3/8th of a mile and I had very little water left. I do plan to come back sooner rather than later. I did, however walk to the Sorek river:

I thought you had to go up north or down south to find nice water. This is right in the center of the country.

I sat behind some shrubbery in the shade eating my sardines … and headed back where there’s a this cute cave … and signs saying, “don’t go in there unless you want a cave-in on your head”. Given the dearth of danger warning signs in Israeli, when I do see them, I believe them:

Then I walked back down a different path:

It’s kind of like Dune Shacks Trail in Cape Cod – which is also an excellent hike. The Mediterranean beaches are much nicer and warmed than Cape Cod beaches.

I can’t say walking next to one of Israels desalination plants was as nice as the prior path, however, it does make you realize the ingenuity of Jews on the land. We have a water surplus while the rest of the Middle East is drying up (except Jordan which gets a lot of its water from us):

This path was different … until I found that tree with the contradictory trail signs:

Turns out the trail signs were correct … in that you could go any direction you wanted and you’d get there.

Then I realized I did that thing Disney realized at the Magic Kingdom … most people, after entering, go to the right. I had gone to the right upon entering and leaving so I saw very different paths.

When I went to Hollywood Studios, I noticed that the much larger path veered to the left and the smaller path to the right. They seemed to have corrected for that.

Enjoy!