When my wife and I went for an early morning stroll out the village, I noticed that the air was crisp and the weather fine for walking, so after my 12:00 Sunday dentist's appointment at Dr. Walid's in Abu Ghosh, I left the car with my wife and walked home from Shoresh. It's a distance of only 14 km but with sharp descents and an elevation difference or around 400 m. A couple of poor choices when following OsmAnd and Google Maps lengthened the trip, and I got home at 16:30.
Since it was a spur-of-the-moment idea, I didn't have my good hiking shoes, so no good traction on the slippery limestone outcroppings and loose stones you meet on the way down.
The Iranians were kind: there were only two missile alerts and a couple of high-altitude booms from interceptors. Since people are tending to stay home more than usual, I encountered no other walkers along this section of the "Israel Trail", which extends from the Lebanese border to the Gulf of Aqaba. The trail would normally be relatively busy with hikers in this season.
Many pretty flowers; with pink cyclamen, yellow chrisanthemums, red anenomes and lemon-yellow mustard embedded among the lush late-winter greenery.
More photos:
https://vikshepa.com/blog-photos/2026/walk-2026-03-08/
