Hiking north from Caesaria along the Mediterranean Sea

Monday morning continued with a hike from Caesaria to the north.  It was about four miles in the sand - but in spite of the considerable effort involved, we had a great time.   We met a brother and sister hiking the length of Israel; the brother has done lots of hiking and the sister will be going into the army soon, so they are using the time now for a great trip.   Later on, we met a group of boys and a horse having lots of fun:
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At least, we think the horse was having fun.

We also saw some abject poverty.  The pictures below show a shantytown, home to several families of (probably) Bedouins.  The people we saw looked surprisingly happy considering their surroundings.
  

For much of the hike we saw the remains of the amazing aqueducts that the Romans built to move water around the country.

Our guide Asaf answers a question from Mike Shon

  

A Roman general commemorated repairs made to the aqueducts under his direction

   

Here is a picture noting that we are still on the Israel Trail, and another showing excursion leader Ron Goldstein protecting himself from the elements.
   

Here is some artwork that someone created along the path:


Following the long and tiring walk in the sand, we had a very nice picnic lunch.  There were three young men who shared their coffee with us.  One of them worked last summer, and will work next summer, at Camp Ramah in the Berkshires in western Massachusetts.  The very riamp where I (your blogger Bob Kimmelfield) was camper in 1964!  We asked him to look up the Cleveland Hiking Club if his next visit to the US took him to Cleveland.

After lunch, we began a climb up the long Carmel Ridge, which goes from Haifa on the Mediterranean Sea for many miles to the southeast.   This will be described further in the next post.