Short walk in lower Nakhal Dishon

This afternoon (Shabbat), we took a short walk in lower נחל דישון (Nakhal Dishon). From the main road that crosses the nakhal there is a paved road that goes down the nakhal to a spring (well, actually more like wells with a pumping station now) called עין אביב (Ein Aviv, which means "Spring (the season) Spring"), and that's where we walked.

Along the way, we saw an interesting lizard that was quite unlike any that I've ever seen before. He had a narrow, fairly long body with some green splotches on the nearly vertical sides and a rigid tail that was just an extension of the body. His head seemed rather too large for his body. When he saw us, he just stood still there in the road. I got quite close and he still didn't move. I backed off, and we went around him so as not to scare him any more than we already had. Just another example of the very different creatures that we find here compared to those in the Western Hemisphere, to which we are accustomed.

We also saw a couple of other creatures running along the hillside quite some distance from us. We believe that they were wild pigs, but we're not completely sure. They were probably rather afraid, because at the same time we could hear the howls of either jackals or hyenas!