Day Trip to Nahal Amud
We
love when the breaks in the
lockdowns come out on days when the weather is beautiful! That was the
situation in the middle of last month, so we immediately packed up a
picnic
lunch with fresh home-baked grain-free rolls and took off for Nahal
Amud.
You
might already know that the
stream is named after a pillar that
rises high above ground and is located near a
channel of the stream near Kibbutz Hukok.
The gorge that
forms the channel at this point holds many caves once inhabited
by Neanderthal
Man such as the cave at Zuttiyeh and
the Amud cave.
They were the object of the first paleoanthropological excavations
in Mandatory
Palestine in 1925–1926. Most of
Nahal Amud (8923 dunams)
was declared a nature reserve in 1972.
There
are three different sections
of the nature reserve – the upper, middle, and lower sections. We were
actually
in the “least interesting” part of the stream, which is the middle
part. The
upper part is for experienced hikers (not us!), and the lower part
holds the
namesake pillar and the caves. We definitely have our sight set on the
lower
part for an upcoming outing! Still, we were surrounded by sunshine and
beautiful flowers and enjoyed our lunch in the fresh air.