During a recent trip to Israel, deep yoga breaths came in handy as I tried to control my anxiety. My fear wasn’t related to political danger; rather, it was the kind of fright you feel when you are dangling from a rope on the side of a steep canyon of the Judean Desert.
Yes, I had a harness on, and the rope was controlled by the skilled hands of our 20-year-old guide, Boaz Langford — a soldier in an Israeli army unit that specializes in rescues involving supports and extreme climbs. So I gently rappelled my way down the 40m cliff, feeling increasingly secure and ultimately exhilarated.
With terrain that ranges from snow-capped mountains and vast desert to lush valleys and continuous coastline, Israel is being recognized as an ideal destination for adventure travelers.
“For years, Israel was known in the US as the land of the Bible and a place to visit relatives, but in the last decade we see a major change in the reasons people are coming to visit,” said Arie Sommer, Israel’s tourism commissioner for North and South America. “Between the hiking, biking, snappling” — rappelling — “and jeeping, people are discovering that Israel has a lot to offer.”
With my husband, Rich, and our three children — Simon, Emily and Nicole (ages 8, 12 and 14) — I have hiked, biked, rafted and rappelled in places like Costa Rica, Montana and the Canadian Rockies. We didn’t expect much from our excursion but ended up thrilled — and completely exhausted — after a day of hiking, rappelling and swimming through natural pools in the Rachaf Canyon two-and-a-half hours south of Jerusalem near the Dead Sea.
Our tour was organized by Israel Extreme (www.israelextreme.com; 972-52-647-8474), which says its business — 80 percent of its clients are Americans — triples each year. “All of a sudden, people who have been coming to Israel for many years are realizing that there is more to Israel than Jerusalem and Tel Aviv,” said Moshe Meyers, who runs Israel Extreme.
Meyers typically customizes the tours, often combining activities like hiking, zip lining and rappelling. The company provides a guide for every seven people for about 1,500 shekels a guide (about US$420 at 3.60 shekels to the US dollar), including insurance.
For each of twice-yearly trips to Israel, Rachel Gittleman, a college student from Lakewood, New Jersey, and her family recruit Israel Extreme for a couple of new adventures. After more than 10 outings the last three years, the Gittlemans have rappelled through waterfalls, crawled through caves, hiked through streams and swung from a rope like Tarzan. “There is no better way to know Israel’s beauty than to explore it,” Gittleman said.
Israel’s connection with nature runs deep, and there are many ways to gain access to its diverse landscapes. The 930km Israel Trail allows hikers to venture from Dan in the north to Eilat in the south. It is divided into 40 segments marked by the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, founded in 1953.
For help mapping a route on the trail, contact the Israeli Tourism Office (www.goisrael.org).
Because of its variety of terrain, Israel lends itself to adventures both extreme and soft. Last summer, Kim Heiman of Cincinnati pushed her thrill-seeking threshold to new heights, literally. Thinking she was going along for the car ride to watch her two older children on a skydiving expedition, she ended up joining them.
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