Cycling on New Trails in Jerusalem Park

Perfect weather, not too hot, not too cold, and new bicycle paths – what conditions could be more perfect for a winter morning bike ride through a section of Jerusalem Metropolitan Park? On Friday, November 30, at least forty bike riders met near the Beit Zayit dam on the outskirts of Jerusalem, where they were greeted by Yoav Becket, a KKL-JNF bike riding guide who helps plan and develop new bicycle trails in KKL-JNF's parks and forests. Yoav explained that the group would be riding along the Nahal Sorek streambed to the Telem springs, about eight kilometers away, on a trail that is almost completely paved in asphalt. Jerusalem Park is maintained and developed thanks to the help of friends of KKL-JNF all over the world, particularly from Australia, where supporters recently made a substantial contribution for park development. 

Suzanne and Michael Farber, who came with their daughter Nava, ride regularly with a group of cyclists from Jerusalem's Givat Ze'ev suburb. "When I was a teenager in London," Suzanne said, "I pretty much went everywhere on my bike. When I immigrated to Israel, I sort of put my bike aside. One day I was talking to my friend Mona, and we both realized that we really miss riding our bikes. So we invited a couple other moms and started riding regularly, every Friday. We even gave our bike riding club a name – M.O.B. – which stands for Moms On Bikes.

"At first, we mainly rode in our neighborhood, but then we started biking in nature, and eventually, our husbands and some of our children joined us. We discovered that KKL-JNF had blazed new bicycle trails in all sorts of open spaces, for which we're very grateful. The more bike trails KKL-JNF makes, the happier we'll be."