Mador to Oron

We woke up early enough to have our packs on our back before the first rays of sun peaked over the horizon. The stretch we will hike today is considered the most difficult of the entire trail according to the guidebook we were using. The trail takes hikers onto Mt. Karbolet which is the collapsed southern rim of the Makhtesh Gadol (Large Crater). Unlike the Ramon Crater and the Small Crater we didn't hike into this crater but rather got to walk the edge, looking down into it.

The first few kilometers this morning were on 4x4 roads until we reached a steep climb in the Nahal Afran (google translate gave me the vague meaning to be "dirt stream"? - please correct me if that is no where close). Even if that definition is wrong "dirt stream" is a pretty accurate description of what we were walking in. It looked like water could have been present at some point in the past but now it was just sand and dirt.

We found ourselves scrambling straight up rock faces with a few metal ladders interspersed throughout. The climbing was a nice change from the flat terrain we had experienced for the past couple of days but I would have preferred a couple less descents. I am an extremely timid downhill walker if I am unsure of how my foot will react with the ground. This caused me to take probably three times longer than I normally would to get anywhere today... Not the best when we only have so much daylight to work with that won't boil our insides. But I did my best.   
Climbing our way up and down the side of the crater wall also included finding a way around (or in Andrew's case through) some murky water. All of us climbed the wall around the pool except for A. He decided he wanted to go through it even though we had no idea how deep it was. He got in to about his knees when he put his trekking poles in front of him and they were swallowed by the water. Instead of continuing he found a way to climb out and somehow ended up where we were waiting without falling backwards.

All of my pictures from the top of the crater somehow vanished from my memory card so I sadly have no documentation of the gorgeous view from up there. Months later and it is still a very sore subject for me.

Due to the slow pace we were going in the beginning of the day we got the the middle point a little later than we had hoped to. N, A and I decided to take the side and slightly more direct trail to Oron. P continued on the trail and planned to meet us at camp. 

We followed the side trail back to a 4x4 road and walked towards Oron. It was hot. So so hot. Like yesterday shade was something we didn't seem to have a lot of. Not far from getting to Oron we met a man location scouting for a new factory he was building. He offered us a ride to Oron and N all but jumped through the window to get into the air conditioned car. Once we were driving down the road he told us about a "pool" that was a little past where we were supposed to meet P. I was opposed to going but apparently was outvoted by N and P who wanted to go swimming after such a hot day. N also wanted to wash all of his clothing since he had somehow already caked everything with dirt in the last day and a half. 

We passed the campsite and were dropped off next to a bunch of tour busses that were visiting the same "pool". The man assured us that we would be able to get a ride the three kilometers back to Oron. I had my doubts. 

We walked a little ways to the "pool" and walked right back the way we came without getting any closer let alone getting into the water. The pool was closer to what one might consider a spring. N and A were pretty disappointed and when N realized we would have to walk another 3 kilometers on a road to get to camp he was not in a good mood but we did what we had to do and eventually got back to Oron. P was already there talking it up with the other hikers we had met yesterday. 

There were a bunch of picnic tables we all congregated at playing cards and eating the pizza some of the locals had the idea of getting delivered there. 

It got really dark and the breeze that had been blowing all day turned into a pretty strong wind that made it almost impossible to set up one's tent alone. Plus, there was broken glass scattered around the ground which added to the challenge of not breaking our tents. However, after we got into our tents the wind died down enough for us to hear every honk and alarm coming from the Oron plant we were camping next to. 

Suggestion: If you have the sunlight/the energy, I highly recommend filling up your water at the faucet here but then continuing on to the night camp that is a couple kilometers farther north on the trail (if you are going southbound you will probably have to camp near the plant because of water).