Wave to the animals

On two walks at Palmahim, discover the other creatures that enjoy the scenic beach.

By AVIVA BAR-AM
A Roman-style bathhouse (photo credit: REUTERS)
A Roman-style bathhouse
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Early each morning during the nesting season, rangers from Palmahim Seashore National Park patrol the beach, looking for eggs sea turtles may have laid in the sand.
When they find them – hopefully the day they are laid – the rangers bring the eggs up to their hatchery farm, together with the sandy nests on which they were lying. That way animal predators like gulls, herons and foxes can’t get them, and humans won’t step on them – or eat them: thousands were killed during the British Mandate, when officials had a fondness for turtle soup.
Perhaps that’s why one of the only two species left in the Mediterranean (out of the eight that once lived in the waters) is so rare.
Fortunately, rangers at Palmahim are doing their best in their conservation efforts to preserve the turtle population. Indeed, last season, says park director Amir Chen, over 800 healthy turtles were born, later to emerge at night and crawl towards the ocean.
With the help of transmitters, park officials know where some of the adults will be hanging out: at feeding grounds in countries like Turkey, Cyprus and Tunisia. And one day, any female turtles who have avoided strangulation in fishermen’s nets, wounds from motorboat engines and toxic water pollution will return to the sands of Palmahim, as turtles rest their legs at the nesting site where they were born.
Neglected for decades, and often the venue for some really wild parties, Palmahim only officially came under the auspices of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority in 2003. It’s a wonder that it took so long because besides its foliage, wild animals and fabulous antiquities, the Park’s 25 hectares (62 acres) – from Kibbutz Palmahim 200 meters past Tel Yavne Yam – include a long stretch of beautiful coastline.
During the summer, 10,000 to 15,000 swimmers and sunbathers flock to the park each day. But unless you are only interested in sun and water, the best time to visit is during the cool days of spring, fall or winter; that’s when you can thoroughly enjoy one of Palmahim’s two delightful circular walks (uncomfortably hot in summer). Perfect for all ages, the shorter trail is 750 meters long, the longer about 2 km.; both lead you through lush natural foliage and to unusual excavations while offering great ocean views. And while you walk, keep on the lookout for a curious fox, a gazelle or two, gerbils, porcupines, wild boar and other non-human creatures.
THE TRAILS begin together, at the southeastern corner of the parking lot. They have you walking through a veritable jungle of tangled plants and blooming flowers on a ridge made of kurkar, a sand dune that fossilized over the millennia and turned into rock.
This first portion of the trail is named for the prickly boxthorn evident everywhere. Flowering from spring and throughout summer, the boxthorn bears red fruit and lovely cup-shaped flowers in a subtle shade of purple. Boxthorn may be the thorns mentioned in the parable of Jotham (Judges 9:14), also perhaps in Psalms 58:10, “Before your pots can feel the thorns, He will sweep it away with a whirlwind, the raw and the burning alike.”
White broom is another biblical plant (Elijah slept under a white broom tree in the desert), which blossoms in winter and saves surface area by sporting green needles. Beduin shepherds and shepherdesses are said to become betrothed with the help of the white broom, for when a boy falls in love with a girl he has seen at a watering hole he leaves a knot of needles near the water to announce his intentions. If the feeling is mutual, they say, she adds a knot of her own; if she doesn’t like the fella, she unties the needles.
Other flowers blooming now include white hedge-nettle; Hottentot fig is found along the trail as well. Also known as the ice plant or pig face, it will begin to sport very large pink flowers in May.
One plant you will see often is the saltbush, generally found in the desert. It appears on the coast only in areas where there was once an ancient settlement – in places like Apollonia and Ashkelon or here, at Yavne Yam. Some say travelers to the area brought saltbush as food for their camels and donkeys; others, that the animals left seeds here in their droppings.
Saltbush leaves are tasty and mentioned in the Book of Job as food for the haggard and hungry men who roamed the wastelands. “In the brush they gathered salt herbs...” (Job 30:4). What helps saltbush survive in the desert is a mechanism that excretes excess salt onto its leaves; the thin white layer keeps the plant from absorbing the sun and prevents the leaves from drying out.
Leaves from the saltbush, incidentally, are delicious – although flood waters can wash away some of the salt. And researchers have discovered that the leaves are a good source of insulin: fat sand rats, which feed almost exclusively on saltbush, were found to develop diabetes when they were deprived of its leaves.
Ahead of you, on a finger of land jutting out over the ocean, you will be able to make out the walls of an ancient fortress. They belong to Tel Yavne Yam, once a flourishing city famous for its convenient, strategic port. Standing on the tel, you have a stupendous view of the coastline from Ashdod and Ashkelon to the south, the towers of Tel Aviv in the north, and between them the virgin sands.
Settlement at Yavne Yam began about 3,500 years ago, continuing off and on until the Middle Ages. In the beginning it was populated by Canaanites who were under Egyptian control, but during the late seventh century BCE, the region came under Judean rule. Residents were a mixed bunch, ranging from Israelites to Phoenicians.
After the Greeks took over the reins in the Land of Israel, the Phoenicians – and perhaps the Jews as well – adopted many aspects of Greek culture; thus, during the Jewish Revolt against the Greeks, Yavne Yam apparently favored the Greeks. Judah Maccabee set fire to the town (according to the Second Book of Maccabees, to save the city’s Jews) but it was only conquered and finally destroyed later, by one of the Hasmonean kings.
Too important a port to ignore, it was rebuilt by the Romans, whose historians mention Yavne Yam several times. And throughout the Byzantine era (fourth to seventh centuries), pilgrims often came to the Land of Israel through the port here.
The city was heavily fortified by the Muslims, who conquered the Land of Israel in the seventh century, and it continued to be a very popular port. Indeed, Yavne Yam became known as the “second port,” with Ashdod being the first. It was finally abandoned in the 12th century for reasons unknown.
Archeologists have been excavating Tel Yavne Yam since 1992, and have come up with an abundance of fascinating finds. Besides items like sixth-century mosaic floors and a clay lamp decorated with a menorah, they have discovered correspondence between the citizens of Yavne Yam and Emperor Antiochus V (the very young son of the “cruel” Antiochus, whose behavior led to the Maccabee revolt in the second century BCE).
A vastly important pottery shard was discovered immediately south of Yavne Yam; written in biblical Hebrew, it dates back to King Josiah (end of 7th century BCE). On the shard, a field hand appeals to the governor about the unjust confiscation of his cloak and mentions finishing his work before Shabbat; this is the oldest-known reference to the Sabbath outside of the Bible.
A Roman-style bathhouse is one of the most interesting of the remains on the tel. On view are its “hot” room, with double floor and oven, clay pipes for hot air to flow through the walls, small pools paved with marble and a drainage canal. Thus far, it is the only Roman-style bathhouse in the world to be found in a Muslim citadel.
AS YOU stand on the hill overlooking the sea, you will probably spy a large flock of cormorants flapping their wings in a very distinctive and ultra-relaxed motion. Almost wholly black except for whitish throats and necks, they fly in procession with their beaks thrust forward. The sight is common at Palmahim, since according to Chen, thousands of cormorants spend the night on trees above the Sorek riverbed and appear here regularly every morning, ready to swoop down into the water to catch their breakfasts.
From here, you can (carefully) descend the rocks almost to the water. If you have ever been to Ireland and are here on a wintry day, you may find the scenery looks a lot like an Irish shore (except for all the pottery shards). From here, you will be able to see the base of a tower and more remains from the wall that surrounded the city.
After descending the tel, you can continue on the longer Cliff Trail, from which you can take side paths down to the water; or you may continue on the short trail, which circles back to the park entrance and to a covered picnic site. As you walk, enjoy a wonderful view of the sea from above the water; along the path, leaves of the sea daffodil, or sand lily, promise that more flowers are in store for hikers in the fall. Many believe the sea daffodil is the lily mentioned in the Song of Songs: “I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valley.”
Bulletin boards at the picnic area are full of information about the site’s history and wildlife. Just beyond, a brand-new camping area with a marvelous view of the water, bathrooms and a field kitchen will open in the summer. Its lights will be very low, for turtles coming in from the sea tend to follow the light and can end up getting lost, and hurt.
While enlarging the camping site, a tractor uncovered a quarry used by the Canaanites thousands of years ago to build Yavne Yam and probably other cities in the region. Later populations lived in the resulting cave, as evidenced by jars and perfume bottles found inside; one of the residents carved a window out of the rock, still visible today, and even built his family a yard.
Cost: Entrance fee is per car. Sunday to Friday: NIS 25; NIS 13 for seniors (if there is at least one senior in the car). Saturday: NIS 30; NIS 15 for seniors.
Hours: April: seven days a week, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. May to mid-June: Sunday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Information: (03) 726-5633/3902 Reservations: Summer campers must reserve in advance and can stay a maximum of four nights. Area is BBQ-free (there is a special site for this).
Special Passover event at Palmahim: For the fourth year in a row, there will be a sand sculpture competition on Friday, April 10, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., on the subject of children’s stories about nature and history. Come early!