Yam L'Yam Captain's Blog: Day 4

It has been brought to my attention that it seems I "was the navigator of the trip"... I would like to remedy that misconception right now. In no way was I navigator. As anyone who knows me, I have the WORST sense of direction. (Like I even have to bring up the Thanksgiving Debacle of '07... - Andi gets another shout out!) All I did was walk in front of 21 other people for an extended period of time, making sure that I periodically saw paint stripes on rocks in the appropriate trail colors. Do not worry, I was never more than 30 feet in front of an Israeli who knew exactly where he was going.

Now that I cleared that up, let's wrap up this saga!

So remember that mountain we had to climb to reach our five-star campsite? Well, as Newton said, "What goes up, must come down, so you should have planned that before you hiked up a mountain." (I'm paraphrasing) Our first order of business was to climb back down that doozy of a hill. It didn't seem as bad now that we weren't fighting gravity and fading sunlight... but we still moved cautiously.

The second leg of Day 4 consisted of a ridge. We hiked along the ridge of this mountain for a few hours. It was (my new favorite word) treacherous. We had just enough wiggle room on either side so that I didn't freeze with fear, but let me tell you, the drop-off was nothing to scoff at. 

This picture does not properly convey the pit I felt in my stomach
when I stubbed my toe and thought my life was over.

Once we reached (more) solid ground, I felt a lot better. Enough of the rock obstacle course. The Israeli Parks Department was kind enough to even add those metal rungs in some especially dodgy areas... but they only ended up giving me flash backs to the Negev (see: "Don't rush me, Brah").

I don't have a witty remark. I just think this is a really cool rock formation.

One thing (one of many things) that continually impresses me is how diverse the landscape is here. We trekked through the whole gamut. After emerging from our latest terrain, we had to cross a highway. Playing real-life Frogger was a different kind of scary from the cliffs. Next up, tall grasses and thorny bushes! Oh, and more cows. We walked through a thin path - and I am thankful I was wearing pants - because even with the extra layer, the three different types of plants with prickly leaves still got to me. At one point, there was a separation between the front half of the group and the back half, and a cow cut across the path...and pooped. I couldn't help but laughing.

The last leg before the home-stretch consisted of a dry river bed. It was a different type of rocky: sun-bleached, post-apocalyptic, last-people-on-earth rocky. And just like that, we reached a banana field. I knew it was coming, but we still made jokes along the lines of "Did we take a wrong turn? We're back where we started!" Give us a break, we had been walking for close to 80 kilometers, our material is bound to be a bit rough.

Miriam, Nina, Sarah, Yael, Jessica, and Me
We can practically taste the Kinneret (good thing it's fresh water)

So here's a funny story... we walked for 4 days and 80 kilometers... and the Kinneret was closed. YES. I said it. CLOSED. Apparently, all the beaches on the Sea of Galilee are private...so we could not technically get to the water. This was such an unexpected twist to our story, that even I didn't see it coming. ::shakes fist at dramatic irony:: (Also, our destination was a town named Ginosar - we made plenty of jokes, so I won't make any more here.)

Ladies and Gentlemen: I present to you, the Kinneret. Look, don't touch!

So after begging talking to the guy at the hotel to let us touch the water, we left and walked another 3km to a campsite. This was a very nice campsite compared to the cow pastures and rocky hills we slept on the previous nights. We also had to fork over a small amount of shekels to stay there (nbd). It was a lovely compound. Tal met up with us - and she wrangled up a grill and some chicken - and we had a great bbq. Best of all, we got to touch the Kinneret! I got to empty my Mediterranean Yam into the Kinneret Yam. (let's pretend both were salt water or both were fresh water...shhh)

You're free, Mediterranean Sea!!! (ps - awesome photography skillz, Nino)

There's also a picture of me doing the Lebron pre-game powder move - but with my Yam-bottle... but I just look ridiculous, so I won't post it. Anywho. It was a GREAT feeling to finish the hike!! Such an accomplishment. There were times where I thought "Bitch, you cray cray!" or "There's no way your 80 year-old knees will let you continue..." BUT I DID. Days later I'm still in awe. I want to say, "I am a lot stronger than I thought I was," but I feel like that might backfire on me this summer when I'm forced to climb up that fire tower (I'm telling you right now, family, I am NOT climbing up that rickety old fire tower). It seems I have digressed a bit...

Sarah, Me, Nina, and Molly in front of the Kinneret

Epilogue: The campsite was hosting a slew of "Jersey Shore" Israelis (Arsim). These folks were not, by any means, roughing it. They had a huge sound system, tables, impressive tents, and so on. I went to bed pretty early, but group consensus was that the blaring music never stopped. When we woke up (due to the untz-untz-untz - and a phone that wouldn't stop ringing, and a dog that wouldn't stop barking) at 6:00am - the music was still blaring! Let's just say, we packed up, called a sheruit bus, and got the eff out of Dodge by 7:15. We got out of there faster than any of the previous mornings! We caught a different sheruit back to Tel Aviv. I gathered my stuff from Beit Leni, and took the bus back to Jeru where I enjoyed a quiet, relaxing, weekend. I am sad that I missed out on the blister-tending parties, and feet soaking get-togethers, but there is nothing like a little peace and quiet after becoming one with nature.