By Grace Leibowitz, Jordyn Hirsch, and Aliza Harris
Hi everyone! Jordyn, Aliza, and Grace here! We are three rising seniors from the greater Seattle area and we all come from URJ Camp Kalsman in Arlington, Washington. We all chose Yam L’ Yam, meaning sea to sea, as our chavaya for this summer. We started off our exciting journey with a swim in the fresh water of the Sea of Galilee. That same day, we were supposed to go on a water hike, but due to the immense amount of cows that used the water as their bathroom, our hike was sadly cancelled. Mount Meron, our first campsite, was a lot colder than the Negev, which would have been nice to know as most of us didn’t bring long pants. We spent our first night hanging out, searching for geodes, and playing games of frisbee to help us get to know kids from other buses. As the night was quickly approaching, we were all excited for the amazing night under the stars because we were going to be receiving some state of the art blue foam mats; a luxury we were not given while camping in the Negev. This was a great way to end our first night of our four-day trek.
The next morning, we were happily awoken by our favorite counselors urging us to get out of our sleeping bags. According to them, staying in bed is futile. We packed our new hiking bags with our food for the day: tahini, rice, tuna, veggies, and cooking appliances. We began our hike with our amazing guide Ariel who led us through the woods and taught us a lot about appreciating nature and all that it has to offer. We started the hike with confidence, but soon after we realized we had wandered off the trail and found ourselves next to a large herd of cows. Although they were a bit smelly, it was an amazing sight to see and something that we will never forget. We then stopped for our first meal of the day where we worked together to make a delicious meal of porridge, tahini, and sliced vegetables. Before leaving breakfast, we cleaned all of our dishes with nature’s sanitizer: dirt. Continuing on the path, we hiked for a long time until we found some suitable rocks to eat and relax on. For lunch, we had a surprisingly good meal of rice with tuna, bread with chocolate, and crisp apples. During the mid day, when the sun is at its peak, it is too hot for us to be hiking so we had a relaxing nap and chill time in the shade. When our madrichim told us that we could have ‘nap time’ we all thought it was just a joke but they were actually telling the truth. For the second half of the hike, we split off into three groups of ten to learn how to orienteer and navigate trails by ourselves. Then we drove to our next campsite where we relaxed before another yummy dinner. Each night our appetizer was a tasty vegetable soup with soup nuts on top. That night, our bus was on dishes duty. It seems really boring but eventually turned into a dance party and ended up being a lot of fun. We went on a solo hike at night where we saw fireflies, heard pigs, and became more comfortable being outside at night alone.
The next morning, we woke up to a beautiful sunrise and got ready for the day. Following the same hiking timeline as the previous day, we went downhill to a stream to prepare for breakfast. Dunking our heads in the water was a nice break from the hot morning heat. We continued hiking and eventually made it to a clear pond called the Tamir Basin where we all swam. Our bus, kids from the other buses, and some locals all relaxed and swam in the basin; after not having a shower for the past few days, being in the water was a huge reward. Lunch was a little farther down the stream so we only had a little bit of walking to do to get there. After eating and cleaning our dishes (using nature’s sanitizer again of course) we prepared for our mid day nap. The three of us found a nice spot where we laid out our towels and put our heads on a long fallen tree branch. Continuing our hike after the rest, we crossed over many streams, most of us falling at least five times, while others made the bold decision to simply walk through the water and soak their feet. With our soggy hiking boots we kept walking until we reached the bottom of the crusaders mountain to stop for a snack of crackers and halva before the challenging end of the hike. This was the most difficult part of our hike, but the most rewarding. After 30 minutes of climbing straight up a hill, we reached the peak to see a beautiful view of Montfort. After we reached the top, there was an ice cream truck in the parking lot. All three of us got a chocolate crunch ice cream bar and it was the most amazing thing we had eaten in our entire lives. We had another relaxing night and for our evening activity our guide Ariel used his pointer laser to show us all of the constellations. He asked us if anyone wanted a turn to try it out and so we all took turns pointing out constellations and writing our names in the sky. Aliza even pointed out a group of stars that formed the shape of an umbrella which is fitting because we’re from Seattle. When it was our friend Isaac’s turn, he accidentally had the pointer facing the wrong way which resulted in a big green laser in his face which was both scary and funny. That night we saw the big dipper, the little dipper, and scorpius. We then made s’mores with Israeli crackers, kosher strawberry marshmallows, and some chocolate spread. It wasn’t the usual s’more experience we are used too, but it was still really cool and yummy. Then we went to bed under some trees and fell asleep for our last night under the stars.
We woke up a bit later than usual, but still a lot earlier than we would have liked. We loaded our stuff on the buses, ate a quick breakfast at the campsite, and went over some basics of riding a bike. Today we were going to ride about nine miles from our campsite to our final destination: the Mediterranean Sea. We rode through a village, a banana plantation (this part was especially funny because Grace is allergic to bananas), and even across a freeway, until we had officially completed our the Yam L’Yam adventure. After an emotional reflection it was finally time to enter the water and signify the end of our chavaya. We poured out the water from the Sea of Galilee into the Mediterranean Sea and had some time to swim. We ate a yummy falafel lunch with ice cream (we all had crunch bar ice cream bars again – they really are amazing), and then left for our long bus ride back to the hotel.
This was such an amazing and reflective experience that the three of us would never trade for the world. Although this chavaya might seem a bit intimidating, the reward and memories are unforgettable!
B’ahava,
Grace, Jordyn, and Aliza
