Climb, hike and bike in Ein Prat, my adult playground. click here

I would like to invite you to climb, hike and bike in Ein Prat, my adult playground.

 Ein Prat is 20 minutes east of my inner city home in Jerusalem and is a national park named for the spring gushing out of the cliffs in the upper part of a wadi (valley). This valley, generally known as Wadi Kelt, is 28 km long. The river flowing from the spring is the Prat Stream. It starts at 770 meters above sea level just outside of Jerusalem and continues via Jericho to the Jordan River and the Dead Sea, at 395 m below sea level. The river cuts through the surface of the Judean desert to expose cliffs of colored limestone.

 Ein Prat is in Area C of the West Bank, as defined by the Oslo agreements between Israel and Palestine. National parks in Area C are administered by Israel, even though not located in Israel proper. Now, understand that Israelis are not allowed into the Palestinian Authority where 95 % of Palestinians live, and that Palestinians have very little access into Israel. But because of the Area C deal, the park is shared by both Palestinians and Israelis. So on the weekend day of Friday the parking lot is filled with Israeli and Palestinian cars. You can hear Hebrew and Arabic spoken at adjacent picnic tables. Signage, maps, and rangers use Arabic, Hebrew and English.

 Drive down from the park entrance and take the trails away from the parking lots and the picnic areas. This area is too busy, with picnics and ice-creams. First check out the cool clear pools of water surrounded by lush greenery, dramatic to find in the desert. Then walk in any direction for twenty minutes. Even on the busiest days, you will have the valley to yourself.

 History surrounds you in Wadi Kelt. Unusually for the Middle East the river flows all year around. So you can see the remains of water systems from Ancient Greek times (second century BCE) and from the British Palestinian mandate (1930s). There has been continuous Christian monastic settlement since the end of the 3rd century. Across from the monastery are caves, half way up the cliffs, in which monks would contemplate eternity in isolation. When you examine the locations of the caves, you realise they were also the valley’s first rock climbers.

 Most of all, checkout the rock climbing in Ein Prat. It‘s the best crag west of the Jordan river. The limestone is warm, usually solid, and often glows pink in the sunshine. The time to visit is winter, when is the weather is warm and dry. This is because Ein Prat is just over the desert side of the border between the Mediterranean and desert climate zones. Leave the European or American cold winter behind you!

 There are over 100 routes in the valley. Mostly they are one pitch, hard and bolted. Face climbs, often with overhanging sections, using crimps and small pockets. The guidebook list 59 routes at grade 6, 34 at grade 7, and 4 at grade 8. The Israel Climbing Club does a good job of bolting the routes. Me, I am now too old and stiff to climb seriously, but my more active buddies have returned to this arena every week for years.

 Get there early. The park gate opens at 8 am and the wadi’s north side is where you go in the morning because it is then in shade. One of the first routes you see is Crossing Red Lines, a dramatic 8c route. Further up you can follow the way of the ancient monks on The Monk, 6a. Later in the day you cross the valley to the southern sector to find more shade, some breeze, and cliffs with shorter routes.

 But Ein Prat is not just a place of fun, peace and tranquillity. It is also a place for disputes.

 For climbers, the dispute is between them and the Parks Authority. Climbing is new to Israel, and so lives uneasily with the Park pre-existing nature preservation network. Almost all the good crags are in the parks. Many climbable cliffs are banned to climbers, since by a strange quirk of Israeli law the Parks Authority is legally liable for all accidents in their system. And the Authority is (overly?) worried about rockfall.

 A few years ago I took part in a unique demonstration. Climbers marched with banners into the park in protest. Some climbed the cliffs and established themselves on grade 7 routes with banners and portaledges. Which made it hard for first the rangers, then the security guards, and finally the police, to ticket them. Of course, Israel is small and everyone knows everyone else. So tickets were eventually issued with the right names. Now relationships are a little better – but not good.

 To many in the international community, the dispute is with Israel. They assert that the existence of the park is an act of Israeli colonialism. That its true name is Arabic, - 'Ayn Fara. That the park should be Palestinian. That the Oslo Accords were intended to last 5 years  - not 25. That there was meant to be a peaceful transition into the separate states of Israel and Palestine. None of this happened. And adjoining the park is a disputed Israeli settlement, Almon. One of the two entry roads to the park goes through this settlement  - which restricts access to only Israeli cars. The second entry road has no restrictions. There is a Palestinian climbing school in nearby Ramallah that prefers to walk in the ‘back way’ to avoid paying extortionate entry fees to Israeli ‘occupiers’.

 A personal story of how complex peace and dispute can be here. I biked once with a friend the length of Wadi Kelt. From west to east. This trail, not now well defined, follows the line of a road over 2000 years old from Jerusalem to Jericho. At the east end we visited the 1600 year old St George Monastery - a spectacular cliff-hanging complex of buildings and gardens.

 It was a long day of biking, along an isolated trail. Against advice - there had been a deadly incident nearby during the Second Intifada - we went without guns. (We don’t of course own guns.) The trail broke up in places so carrying the bike was often necessary. The valley dropped down to the right of the trail, often frighteningly steep, to the river floor of giant boulders, rock pools, and limestone caves.

 We rode out of the valley onto the main road to Jerusalem to catch a bus home. All the buses passed us without slowing. We took a ride in a Palestinian taxi and the driver explained that he was not allowed into West Jerusalem. But he would take us to a spot in East Jerusalem where we could cross over the Israeli separation barrier and enter West Jerusalem. I climbed up the concrete wall in full biking gear carrying my bike, waved to the Israeli border patrol, and descended into their side. When they came up to me, carrying serious weaponry, I explained that I was Australian and spoke only bad Hebrew. They were too astonished to do anything except wave us on home.

 From Ein Prat I take away tranquillity, not discord. My daughter, during troubled teenage years, lived with a couple in the only inhabited house in the valley. She attributes healing qualities to the park. I agree. The park is a small and special island of coexistence where the citizens of this too often violent part of the world can come together and understand that peace is possible.

 Information

 Google maps location 31.832636, 35.306790

 The Park is managed by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority https://en.parks.org.il/ParksAndReserves/enprat/Pages/default.aspx

 The Israel Climbers Club bolts and documents the crags. It can also provide you with contact information for climbers. https://www.facebook.com/IsraelClimbersClub/

 There is a Guidebook to climbing in Israel, in English. http://www.climbing-israel.com/

 The Wikipedia entry on the Oslo Accord. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oslo_I_Accord

 Camping is not allowed in the park, and the best budget accommodation in Jerusalem is the Abraham Hostel https://abrahamhostels.com/jerusalem/