Day 5 - February 23 - Close to the West Bank

Good-bye, Star Guest House, hope never to return! It took me a while to get ready in the morning, I closed my eyes not to see the horrible staircase and started riding just before 8 am. I was pleasantly surprised to see a dedicated bike line - and got a good laugh when it ended abruptly.

I had to right around the runway of the Ben Gurion airport, heading souhtwest, then, when all the planes allowed me, I turned southeast. In the absence of bike paths, I rode on major highways, but it was not all too bad, the traffic got lighter and lighter as I got out of the city.

A while later, I was riding through green farmlands, it all was a bit hilly - and I was surprised to suddenly see a hill with pine trees, then, almost without a change, farmlands again.

...then there a field full of red poppy flowers...

After a petrol station, Google Maps sent me on a goose chase - it told me to make a right turn, head steep uphill, then back-track...where would this lead to? I did not have too much time to ponder over this - as I had my first (and spoiler alert - at least on this trip, the last) puncture. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise...let us see why.

The bike lacked not only the lights, it also had no pump. All I had was cartridge, which is not too hard to use - but you only have one chance. I saw a petrol station and pushed my bike to it, where I first asked if they had a pump - no luck. Then I tried my luck as the cartridge - ooooh no...also did not work. To cut a long story short, I turned around and rolled to the bottom of the hill. A car came and I asked if he could drive me back to the petrol station, he agreed, it was just a couple of kilometers. This was a strategic idea from me, as I had seen some bikers start and/or end their bike trip there. It turned out to be a wise one, soon, a biker pulled up, just finishing his trip there, his car was full of "goodies" - a spare tire, a pump and even an extra cartridge. I was really thankful to this gentleman called Or for his help. He explained I should not follow Google - it often gives weird advise and just follow the main road.

So I lost about two hours due to the detour and the puncture - but the silver lining was that now I was on the correct road heading south. While visiting till Acco/Acre was interesting, the section near the coast (for the lack of bike paths) from there till here was not uninteresting, but also not too unique - I could have ridden on highways anywhere close to home, did not really have to travel to Israel for this. From here onwards, the trip turned a lot more interesting and special.

The green farmlands finished and the surroundings became more barren. The traffic was not all to bad - and it was actually a good stretch of road (called Road 38) for biking. I reached an intersection at Beit Guvrin. Here I had a choice, if I had ridden eastwards, I would have entered the West Bank. It would have been a shorter ride for sure, as I now had to head yet again towards the south-west., to go around the West Bank. As mentioned earlier, I made a pledge to my relatives not to enter that part - as it was rather unstable politically.

So I played it safe and continued on the road 38, till the junction to road 358., leading to the border to , albeit not into, the border with the West Bank. There were quite a few surprises. First I thought to see snow on the top of a higher hill. I was quite far south from the Golan Heights and the hill was not that high, so...? Getting closer, I found out this was a settlement of white houses right on the peak of the mountain, on which the sun was shining on. This was already within the West Bank, as it was behind the Wall.

Yes, the second surprise was the Wall. So far unknown to me, there was a large concrete wall separating the Palestinian side from the Israeli one.

The had such an impact on me that I had taken quite a few photos of this, here they are...

Actually, it was quite depressing. I found a heavily guarded crossing, with two border guards equipped with machine guns and bomb-proof vests. I thought I only live once and rode up to them. They were firm, professional, but not unfriendly. I was told I may not cross, it is only by special permission. When a car pulled up, they told me to take some distance - I thought it would be better to get the heck out of there.

Actually, a few days later, an American tourist was killed not far from this area - and the skirmishes were the worst in decades. So kudos to my relatives for having warned me - I have to say I felt pretty safe, but who knows, maybe I was not. But I did live to tell this story. Here is the story of the shooting.

I was less worried about getting shot, more about it getting darker and darker. A main town was still about 25 kilometers away and it was also getting quite cold.

Suddenly, right on the other side of the wall, I saw a gated entrance to a kibbutz, called Neta. Kibbutz = hotel, thought to give this formula a try. Even though the gate was closed, it opened up magically in front of a pizza delivery guy and I slid in. No-one screamed at me, in fact, the mood was festive, as it was Bat Mitzvah, celebrating when a young girl turns 13.

I asked if there was a "zimmer" as they call a room to let, they told me there would be a room, but I would have to wait a while. Guy came up to me, well, this was a person called Guy, and told me he would like to invite me for dinner while I waited.I thanked him and followed him - he was by bike and riding really fast., I had to really buckle up to follow him. We got to his large house and soon a yummy and plentiful dinner followed: meat balls, rice and sauces, followed by apple. I was indeed hungry and ate more than I probably should have. Guy told me he had seven children and soon they started trickling in, one by one. He was really nice, not only did he serve dinner, he also gave me dates, nuts and some juices for the following day.

Guy informed me that the room would be ready, I thanked him wholeheartedly. The colorful room was really nice, it was in a basement, had good air-conditioning, a warm shower and a comfortable (but maybe a bit narrow) bed. The price was around €60, which was really a great price - this does have some significance for the coming days. That day I had covered some 100 kilometers.