This september I tried to hike Israel National Trail in 1 month, covering about 1000km over hills, valleys and desert. On day 21 I decided to stop. At that point I had covered ~700km in 18 days (I took a few days off before desert).

All advices in this article should be taken with grain of salt. I started in early September with goal to finish whole trail in 30 days, and I will assume you want to do the same. My budget was 3500 NIS (~500 LVL), not including flight ticket to Tel Aviv.

After first few days I broke my camera, so had no choice but to take very low-res photos with my phone. Sorry about that.

Just a small update about the last few days: after deciding to end Shvil Yisra'el, I stayed in Arad for a few days in room offered by trail angel (something like couchsurfing but for INT hikers).  Then I moved to Jerusalem for 4 days where I stayed with local family, walked Jerusalem Trail (2 days, 40km) and just explored city (both new and old). Now I'm in Tel-Aviv, found a place through couchsurfing and will be here till my departure.

I've decided to stop hiking the INT. Main reason being - my budget ended. I've covered 700km in 18 days, including ~80km in desert. Caching water in desert can cost 3000 NIS (450 LVL) if you are alone. And that's almost all the money I planned for the whole month. So I stopped while I still have some money left to explore rest of Israel.

I'm alive. Today was at Nimrod Fortress - hot as hell, but what a view. Haven't slept 2 days tho.  Computer stuff here ir RTL - funky browsing. Saw chamelion in the wild - touched it (not in the wrong way, just so you know). Everything is expensive. I love airplane food. Haven't seen anyone else walking. Sleeping 2m from the pond. Got local nr: 054-5858552 - but international calls are expensive.

I will begin my month long trail from Nimrod Fortress, which is ~15km before official INT starting point, but is supposedly one of the most beautiful northern parts of Israel. If everything goes as planned, I will be there tomorrow, on september 2 at 15:00.