BVC in Israel: Take a day off

On Thursday we had a break from work and took a group trip to nearby Ya’ ar Yehudiyya Nature Reserve in the Golan Heights. After about a half hour drive there we acquired our maps of the park, learned the rules, and completed packing our bags. The reserve has about 15 trails ranging from beginner hiking ability (1 hour-fairly flat terrain) to expert (8 hours climbing rocks, crossing rivers, swimming under waterfalls). We chose a 6-hour loop through a river canyon that was intermediate ability; I think it was quite easy. The trail was diverse with hiking through forested area, scaling ridges, and climbing up/down/across rock surfaces. The only wildlife I saw minus an occasional bird overhead was trout in the river. The trail was packed with many people hiking ranging in ages from teens-40s and quite a few were in the military service. I am pretty bright, I can tell by just looking at them; they were dressed like the rest of us in shorts and t-shirts but I noticed they had their semi-automatic assault rifles slung over one shoulder. A huge attraction on the trail we hiked is the three huge pools to swim in, which have high cliffs allowing you to jump into the pools. The highest cliff I saw someone jump off (then had to myself) was probably 50-55 feet high with the pool about 21 feet deep (measured 7 meters). I’ve done cliff jumping before in South Africa but my legs started to question my brain on its decision making (tried my best to act cool and not show it) and before my legs could provide the voice of reason needed at the time I took off running and jumped off the cliff.

Whoa, that escalated quickly.

If you’ve never experienced a descent where you left your feet for longer than 2 seconds this is how it goes: you feel as light as a feather, floating with no force from any direction for a split second which quickly turns into a helpless feeling as you gain warp-speed downward with every high-speed shutter pulse that is your heart beating through your throat. I threw out a quick “peace” sign to my German non-participants watching below and then gave a gold medal deserving toothpick gracefully plunging into the water. 2/3 of our hiking was in the canyon and under the comfort of the tree canopy, though I was still soaked with sweat it provided protection from the brutal sun, which was a impressive mixture of greens and browns from the plants (mostly shrubs and trees, few flowers). Two lasting views from the day: sitting under a giant waterfall with the relaxing massage water drops looking out through the cascade to a rainbow and as we reached the top of the river canyon looking back down into it and seeing the green as we stood in dried grass, dust, and rock. The view from the top of the canyon really fascinated me because the land was all one flat surface adjacent to the canyon stretching for miles to where you could see ridges and bluffs in the distance. It was a painting to me; a fissure just packed with life: green growing plants and running water but then on the horizontal surface dry browns and grey rocks extending until you can barely distinguish a plateau.

Johnnies fans aboad...Benedick (departed zivi)

Ruins at the Church of St. Anna (where the Blessed Virgin Mary is said to have been born) in Jerusalem.

The Western Wall. I took this photo on the Sabbath (Saturday, a big no-no in Jewish culture) and the men on the far left started yelling at me, but I took off running and they couldn't catch me (kidding, that I took off running but they still couldn't catch me). Borderline embarrassing you BPR.