[Camelrider]

It was time to do some riding and the Carmel mountains looked like a good place.

I started out from my house, over some back roads through the hills to get to the mountains.

Crossed the road from Yoqneam to the coast and turned right, off the pavement.

Some curving dirt roads up and down, but mostly up, till a lookout point.

They had to plant that power line in the middle of my view, the houses on top of the hill is the town of Yoqneam.

These are the Carmel mountain range, on top of the mountain in the middle is a white building, that is some monastry.

The road from Yoqneam to the coast that I crossed over before.



This dirt road took me on a loop around and back somewhere on the road to Daliat el Carmel.

A little further up that road I turned off again to the dirt.

This is the Carmel scenic road, the road is in bad condition, as is written, in red, on this sign.

It’s a nice road for the TW, curving around the mountains. On many places there are loose stones and ruts in the road, cut out by water, although it almost did not rain since last April.

The terrain is used for grazing cows.

We are getting closer to the monastry of Eliah.

A BMW Dakar past me by.

A last picture of the monastry before I pas by underneath it. There is a great view from the roof of the monastry, to the West the Mediterranean Sea, to the East the valley’s between the Carmel and the Gilboa mountains.

There are signs on the road side to make sure that we know where we are going.

 

[Camelrider]

Yoqneam can still be seen from here.

Some locals taking a walk.

The road down there will take me back home, later on.

Looking back at the road that I was on just before.

A herd of goats from the Druze village.

A view over the hills with villages, East of Haifa.

Another road sign from the Forest Service and some houses from a Druze village in the back ground.

After every turn in the road there can be ruts in the road or loose stones, so it is slow riding.

A wrong move and you can fall down the mountain side.

 

[Camelrider]

The buildings of Haifa, that means the end of this road.

There is a nice curving asphalt road that I can race on down the mountain to the road back to Yoqneam and back through the hills to my home.

This was a round trip of about 4 hours.

The weather was warm and I was wearing my winter coat, that was a mistake, too hot.

But it was a great ride, only a few people where taking the opportunity of the nice weather and go outside.

 

[Gerry]

Nice pictures, thanks. I am frequently amazed that 'far away' places can look just like home.



We seem to be well on our way to Winter with lots of rain and a chance of snow this evening. Guess it is time to take the bike back into the shop and see if I can take a few rough edges off of old mods. Gerry

 

[admiral]

I'll second what Gerry said about some of the pictures looking like home, yet so very far away. Some of those "dirt road" pictures look like they could have been in some of the places I've ridden here in Idaho. Can't hardly tell the difference. As anyone from everywhere can say this, there is so much to see from other places. Thanks for sharing those pictures of the Carmel Mountains, very interesting.

 

[Rohnsman]

These TW's really -do- get around, don't they?? Fun seeing life in your part of the world.

 

[Camelrider]

When visiting in the USA I noticed that many places there, looked like home to me.

Although I am from the Netherlands, I regard Israel as my home.

We don't have much of a winter here, until today, temps of 82-85 F on the day and 60-65 F in the night.

If you have too much rain, you can send it over here, we forgot what it looks like.

 

[elime]

When I saw the title my first thought was Carmel California then I saw your pictures and knew it wasn't. Nice pictures. I liked them. Thanks for sharing



It is raining right now and has been for a couple of days and predicted to for a few more days. I would gladly trade some rain for some warmth.



A link to Carmel CA. http://maps.google.c...071754&t=h&z=14

 

[sinophilia]

Thanks for sharing! A beautiful ride.

 

[Camelrider]

Those pics from two weeks ago are history, since Thursday 12-2-2010 the forest is burning. About 18 000 people are evacuated, many houses and bussineses burned down and some 42 people died in the fire, 10 more are in the hospital fighting for their life. A big international effort is on its way to contain the fire. My place is to the south of the Carmel and not endangered by the fire.

 

[Gerry]

How horrible. A similar event in my community was certainly not as tragic, but changed my life.... No longer can I ride through the forrest and not realize that this beauty comes at some risk. As well, let me suggest that (as silly as it sounds) should you be out and about in what will likely be very poor air (smoke) give some thought to wearing one of those (simple) particle masks. I had to many things on my mind and did not, though many did. I went about my chores as normal. Two months later I felt compelled to visit my doctor as it was getting difficult for me to secure a full breath of air... The smoke did not cause my condition, just made what was taking place worse (sooner). And here I generally felt smug with my healthy non-smoking life style. How ironic.



Minimize your exposer, wear a mask outside. Be safe, and please take care. Gerry



this represents the air quality, and I am shooting into the Sun.

 

[Camelrider]

We were lucky, around where we live we did not have any problem with the smoke. The wind was from the East so the smoke was spread out over the Mediteranean see towards Cyprus. The coastal area between the Carmel Mountains and the see may have had a problem with smoke.

In any case we do have full militairy gasmasks for all our family members, courtesy of the government.

By the way, on the South-West side of the Carmel is a village called Paradise, like the place where you live, Mr Gizmow

 

[admiral]

It's too bad such a nice forest has been burnt, but even worse those who lost their lives.