Udim Nature Reserve steps away from the Highway 2 and Netanya is a natural oasis in the middle of urban Israel. For this tiny trip, we got to see an amazing natural phenomenon (hint: picture above), cross a muddy brook and find ourselves back in another section of the Israel trail.
Arriving at Udim Nature Reserve
The main entrance to Udim is right off of the 2 Highway, just before the Poleg interchange. To get to the nature reserve in Udim, just follow the main road all the way through to the end of the village. We parked across the street from the last row of houses before the nature reserve.
For this exploratory tiny trip we were without a trail map. The first part of our exploration, we walked in by the main entrance sign up the hill. The trail was slightly thorny but provided for a great view of Netanya up ahead, and a cool natural phenomenon: estivation!
Land Snail Estivation
What is estivation? Simply put it’s when an animal goes into dormancy in the summer in order to conserve energy. In other words it’s like hibernation but in the summer! Look at all those snails!
From there we could see other hikers down in the valley. So we went back towards the entrance and walked straight down another trail.
Poleg Brook
Walking down into the valley, the dry summer trail gave way to the lush greenery around Poleg Brook (Nahal Poleg). Seeing as it was summer, we were able to easily cross the brook, only getting a little muddy. The logs dropped in, made it clear that the informal crossing was readily used by other hikers.
Once on the other side of Nahal Poleg, we connected to the main Israel trail markers of the Poleg Reserve. We continued our walk until the little one started tiring. With some help, we crossed back and up the hill to our initial starting point.
Looking for more hikes in central Israel? Check out the nearby Sharon Beach Nature Reserve.
Thank you for this. To help others, such as myself, find the entrance would you please consider posting the what3words address /// in future? Thank you.
Garry
I don’t have the specific address, but if you put Udim Reservation into Waze, it will come up! Hope that helps!