Camping in Nahariyya

This weekend we had the opportunity to go camping with several people from our college.


Before we left we checked the weather and we found out that there was a forecast for rain for the whole weekend, but since this was one of our only free three day periods we decided to go anyways.

We planned out trip to be one with a couple people but it soon grew to a pretty good sized group. We traveled to the northern most city in Israel on the coast called Nahariyya. It is a popular vacation spot for the summer months and even though it is still winter here we thought we would head down to the coast maybe catch some good weather and camp out on the beach within the property of a hostile we found online.

We left on Thursday at about 3:00 and we already delayed by the many trains and buses that we had to take to get us to our destination. By the time we reached Nahariyya we were already couple hours behind our planned arrival time but nonetheless the town was bustling and it was a lot of fun to walk around the small city and also along the beach.

At about 9 pm we figured we should start heading to our camping spot and set up our tents, which JUC thankfully provided for us, in case it started raining. We decided that we would walk along the beach and try to find a place to camp. After about 15 minutes we decided that the places we were wouldn't be too safe to stay since they were very close to the city so we decided to try and find the hostile. This was easier said than done. We had to walk up the coast three miles and find it in the dark. To make a long story short after walking two and a half hours we finally through talking to several people found the campground but unfortunately it was closed so we headed back to the beach. We found a safe spot within about 20 meters of the Mediterranean and set up the tents. We dug troughs around our tents to help hold the rain out and went to bed.

At about 6 am we were awaken to the crack of thunder and the flash of lightning. This went on for awhile and was a little bit scary since we were so close to the beach and the storm was right on top of us. It stopped after about half and hour but unfortunately I got soaked from rain getting into the tent. we went back to sleep and at about 9 am the real storm started. The wind picked up almost instantaneously. Our tent started to be blown in and I had to stand and hold it back and one time it even threw me to the ground. We quickly took down our tents and walked in the pouring rain about half a mile to a apartment building where we decided to take a bus and head back into town to get a hotel. By this time everything we had was completely soaked!

Once we got back into town we decided that we would head back to Jerusalem because we were completely soaked and Shabbat was approaching and there was nothing to do within a rainy town of Nahariyya when everything shuts down. Thankfully even though the buses had already shut down we were able to get Sheruts back to Jerusalem and even made it back for Shabbat dinner

Overall the trip was a blast and totally worth it! As I told Mark as we were walking in the pouring rain, "This really stinks now but once it is over this will make for a great story!" It was amazing to camp right next to the Mediterranean on the beach. We learned that when they say it is going to rain in Israel it is going to RAIN! You can expect thunder and lightning and cold weather to come with it. I wish I had time tell the full story of all that we did and experienced on the trip but it would take too long now so Ill have to tell you when I get home!

Once again our internet is super slow so i will put up some pictures when it gets a little faster.