Once every few months or so, Aardvark takes us on an overnight Tiyul somewhere around the country. In times past, we've been to the Lower Galilee, the Druze North, Masada and this shindig in Jerusalem. This time around, they brought us to the very northernmost part of Israel. Our itinerary was apparently changed last minute, as it was supposed to rain the day of our hikes, so we didn't get to do the hikes we had voted on, but things worked out in the end.
 |
| Farmington River ain't got shit on Banias |
We all went to the Banias (Hermon Stream), which is an incredibly rapid river. Our tour guide said it was Class 9 rapids, to which I argued there's only six classes. He then proceeded to tell me how he's rafted in rivers all over the world (Peru, Costa Rica, Thailand, Colorado, etc.), and I shut up. As I look now on Wikipedia, the academic gods seem to shine in my favor, as indeed there are only six classes of rapids. Ha. Anyway, the hike was beautiful. Yeah, there were like 60 of us, and it was more a social event than a hike, but still, I was grateful for the ability to go somewhere awesome on a Tuesday when I'd normally be bored to death at some museum.
 |
| The incredibly green north |
The hike followed the stream and the 1.5 hour walk was over in three after a fair deal of stops (one of which was near a rusting overturned tank on the riverbed). After the hike, we went to a youth hostel in Tel Hai, a bit north of Kiryat Shmona. Everyone else at the hostel were incredibly arsey. Seriously, it was weird. Anyway, I spent a good chunk of that night socializing, hanging out, and eating pizza (to which I am still indebted to Zaydek and he left for home today… :-/ ).
The next day, they took us on a bus tour of the area. We drove up to a hill on the border of Lebanon near Metula. Unfortunately, it was really foggy and the otherwise spectacular view was nothing but grey. Other stops included a waterfall in no-man's land between Israel and Lebanon, a museum at this historic farm (I admit I was asleep for much of that stop), and this incredibly impressive waterfall near Nimrod's Castle. It was hilarious…by the last stop, everyone was griping about how much the "tour" sucked, and when everyone saw the waterfall, they all clammed up. Personally, I thought the whole trip was very well executed considering the circumstances.
 |
| Sa'ar Waterfall |
Turquoise Hexagon Sun - Boards of Canada
No comments:
Post a Comment