Day Four

Today we hiked through Timna Park. Click on Timna Park to view the their website. This is a beautiful Park that has at its welcome center a wonderful man-made lake that a few of the hippies jumped into. I don’t recommend it as it really did not look like healthy water ( lots of chemicals ). It’s a good place after a few days in the dessert to buy some ice cream, beer, or just some normal food. The people here are very friendly and love to meet people doing the Israel Trail. There are showers and a place to refill your water. Hiking through the park ( which usually costs money but is free for hikers ) is amazing. I am still with the hippies. Its amazing how this community operates. Everyone does what he or she can to make the wheels go round. So as a guide here in Israel I volunteered my knowledge to the community. The sandstone here comes in many colors. From reds to purples, and purples to orange. The greatest challenge of the day was hiking up Timna mountain. The elevation was high and the steepness was great. I think this hike would have been challenging without the 25Kg bag on my back! Timna Park also boasts a wonderful display of copper mining from the chalcolithic period to modern times. For those of you who don’t know, chalcolithic means copper, it was during this time 6,000-4500BCE that copper was first used and here at Timna Park you have one of the first copper mines in the world. Even the Egyptians mined here, and rumor has it that this was one of the sites of King Solomons famous mines. There is a new modern cooper mine being built right now next to Timna Park.