I went for a walk to the canyon. The moon lit the way. When we arrived, I was astonished. The canyon was huge and unreal – like something you see in the movies. I screamed into it and it echoed back 2 seconds later. The moon was beautiful as I stood on the edge of the canyon, so steep and high. But I wasn’t scared… I was one with nature. This is where we hiked the next day.
As the sun rise, we rose. We packed our backpacks with lunch and water; we started the hike a bit before 8am. I knew it was going to be intense but I had no idea what to expect. We began at the top of the canyon and hiked down. The ledges were narrow and the height at which we were walking made my legs shake. I had to keep my eyes on the path, but once I stopped to look up at where I was, everything was okay.
About an hour later, we finally made it to the bottom of the canyon into the canal. This is where the river runs in the winter. It was very dry at this point of the year, but there were pools of rain water and bacteria throughout the trek. Once we reached the canal, the trek became more difficult: fitting through tight spaces, climbing over rocks by pressing against sides of the canal. And through all this there were even bigger, unexpected challenges. The first one I remember was a ledge about 4 stories high. We had to descend backwards and use metal bars embedded into the rock to guide us down. This is where we ran into traffic. Since everyone had a break for Pesach (Passover) many families and groups came to the trek. We had to wait some time for these groups to pass through these tough spots. I was nervous, but I did it – relatively quickly. I quickly learned that the trick was to be swift; it was 75% mental: figuring out where to put your body and how to do so. Moshe was the best (with his experience from the army) so I mainly watched him. The next challenge was crazy. Now we were descending from a much higher point into a pool of bacteria-infested water (with small, worm-like off springs of flies squirming EVERYWHERE). This time only a ring was embedded into the tock. Moshe, the mountain man, took out the rope and looped it through the ring. My little experience in rock climbing helped me a lot during this process. Un-harnessed, I grabbed the rope and pushed my feet against the rock. When I scared to the bottom, I handed my bag to Yair who swam it in a flotation device to the next piece of land. I swam myself and waited for the others on the damp, cold rock. We were all trembling from the cold and yearned for the sun to enter the narrow canal. But the back-up was too long, and we realized we had to wait for the sun to come to us. Everyone was shivering and wet. I sat quietly and meditated with the birds as they soared through the thin space.
Echoes of voices speaking Hebrew filled the canal. I caught some things, but for the most part I was alone. A woman approached us at this point with a furrowed brow. She says in Hebrew, “We need to hurry up or we won’t make it out of here before dark.” Assaf laughed at her, “It’’s only 11am!” She smiled back, “You don’t know how long this trek is.” Sure enough, hour s later we were not laughing. Dirty, bruised, gashed, and wet we continued through one of the most challenging treks in Israel. No one had any idea it was going to be like this. We were all in the zone – this was too serious to play around. Scaling the canyon without ropes, harnesses, or metal bars high enough where if you fell you would die instantly became normal to expect on this trek. Of course people were afraid, but I learned so much about myself at these moments. I was so much braver than I ever thought I could be – I did not hesitate or even sweat because it would just add extra slip to my grip. Why Worry? Why get scared? You HAD to do this one way or another. There was no turning back or not alternate routes. To get out you needed to do EVERYTHING that God put in front of you. So I used my intelligence to figure out how I would get through the rough spots. I was short and small enough to holy myself up and maneuver with just my arms, I was flexible enough to reach awkward spots with my feet, I was thick enough to protect my bones when I collided into the rocky walls. I was so impressed with myself. Yes it was long, hard, and challenging but part of me couldn’t wait for the next challenge – I wanted to see what more I could do! And I did it all.
We took a break for lunch – pickled cucumbers, canned corn, tuna, chips and water. Of course, Moshe takes out his can opener the size of a quarter and opens all the cans in a matter of minutes. Then he takes 3 cans of tuna in oil and opens them. He places a small sheet of tissue on top of the tuna and lights it on fire! The entire can was BLAZING! He explains that when the oil burns out, the tuna will be cooked. Sure enough, it was the best tuna I ever ate.
11 hours later, we were still walking. My legs were beginning to give out, but I wasn’t tired. I couldn’t be beack I had NO IDEA when the trek was finally over. I led the group through the canal as the sun began to set. I started to cry; I was so overwhelmed. This experience changed my life. It opened something inside me. I turned the corner of the canal to see Jordan in the distance.
No comments:
Post a Comment