Hiking Wadi Kelt

Hiking Wadi Kelt is my personal favorite I would recommed if you are looking for a nice, a bit adventurous one day hiking trip. From Jerusalem you take a bus to the Dead Sea and get of at Kfar Adumim junction or Alon junction. Leaving Alon on your right, the track goes down from the street just before the guardrail starts. When you can see the yellow barrier in the valley, just some hundreds meters further down, you know you are right!

After the barrier there is a well, where you can also swim and there are quite a few israelis that spent some time there. Those who go all the way down to Jericho are only few, especially not israelis, since Jericho is part of the palestinian territories.

I did this trip a few times four years ago, but somehow I did not have in mind that the first part of the trail is really a bit impassable, especially when you have a 20kg bag on your back. Btw, most of the stuff I had in my bag, we did not need at all. It does not rain in this region in April at all, so the tent was unnecessary and all the cooking stuff I could have left at home because I could not find the right gas cartridge in Jerusalem (rather bring a stove which needs a cartridge without valve, if you’re not sure where to find a specific type for your high-tech stove). And also the clothes I bought in Bethlehem (good Nablus jeans made it not easier. Just leave your stuff you don’t need in Jerusalem if possible, makes it much easier…

Anyway, it was worth it to take the 7 o’clock bus in the morning, because we arrived just before sunset in Jericho and could easily go further to En Gedi beach to relax a day at the dead sea. That is really nice, because you can sleep on the beach an have showers and everything there. Just beware of the wild parties going on there especially on friday nights. On the beach the music was so loud as if you were in a club, and it only stopped when they ran out of fuel for the generator, which was at 4 o’clock or something.