HIKING IN THE GOLAN

Hiking in the summer in the Golan Heights is all about finding the largest waterfalls and the most isolated natural pools to swim in and cool off.  No, these are not the tallest waterfalls you will ever see, and certainly not waterfalls with massive flows of water, but they may well be among the most beautiful.  The backdrop to the whole experience is the parched landscape of the Golan in the summer.  The rain of the winter months is a distant memory. The slopes of the canyon are covered at this point with dry brown growth. Fields that were green a few months ago, in the winter, by now lie dried out and drenched by the hot summer sun.   But the cold water from the Hermon mountains that has filtered down into the canyons of the Golan still flows in the river beds at the bottom of the canyons.  On one such day last week, my wife Shauna and I were on location in the Zavitan river canyon not far from the town of Katzrin.

Imagine hiking for hours in the hot sun and then happening upon a natural pool filled with cold water from a mountain stream .  The rock formations on the banks of the stream are sculpted into odd hexagonal prisms of varying heights that make is simple for even a 62 year old like me to climb down and dive into the pool. Think of the Nestee commercial. Splash!! The rock formations are the product of flows of lava that erupted from nearby volcanoes (currently extinct) and cooled suddenly as they dripped down the sides of the canyon.  The lava crystallized into hexagonal shapes that eroded unevenly and formed into the beautiful structures bordering the sides of the pool.

 After drying out a bit in the sun, having a snack and talking to all of our new found swimming buddies, we proceeded down the canyon to the next pool, and the next. We could have taken a dip in each one if had the energy. Along the sides of the river bed dozens of Oleander (in Hebrew Harduf Hanehalim - הרדוף הנחלים) bushes take advantage of the abundance of water and produce thousands of exquisite pink flowers.  Caution! ingesting the petals of the flower or the leaves of the bushes can be fatal. They contain a chemical that slows down the functioning of your heart, so if you intend to make some tea bring something else to flavor the water.

 After another half hour or so of walking along the upper edge of the canyon, you happen upon a breathtaking sight. You are overlooking a 30 meter waterfall that carries the water of the river down  a sheer cliff into a pair of still pools sitting side by side. Up ahead there is a path inviting you to climb down and go in for another swim.  This time, you can anticipate a swim right up to the base of the waterfall and pounding cold shower.

Following the trail, you come to a steep climb that descends with the help of a ladder down into the bottom of the canyon. There, we clambered through overgrown trees and shrubs, and then back tracked though the flowing water at the bottom of the stream to the first of the pools where several families are already swimming including families with small children (It is possible to come directly to the waterfall without undertaking the whole hike). Climbing over the rocks on the side of the pools we made your way around a section of rock protruding into the water and up to the first pool which is fed directly by the waterfall. Here, it is a little more difficult to find a place to put down your pack and get yourself organized to enter the water but the effort is well worth it.

As we swam up to the waterfall and back, suddenly we noticed up above us a climber lowering himself over the side of the side of the cliff onto the boulders right next to the waterfall.  As he walked himself down the side of the rocks above us, he stepped right into the water of the waterfall and enjoying every moment of the experience (so he later said), he stepped his way down the cliff as the water beat down around him and drenched him from head to foot.

 As he lowered himself into  the water at the bottom of the waterfall, he had an fiendish grin across his face,  and proceeded to take a swim around the pool like the victory lap of an athlete after a long race.  I was reminded of the passage from Psalms that compares the rising and setting of the sun to the thrill of an athlete running a long distance race  - ישיש כגיבור לרוץ אורך.

Then, for us, came the inevitable denouement.  The long climb back up out of the canyon to the top of the waterfall and then the climb up to the road and the long walk back to the parking lot where our car was waiting to take us for a well deserved lunch.