Israelis honeymooning in Georgia rescued from mountains

An Israeli couple that was honeymooning in the European country of Georgia had a rocky start to their marriage. They went trekking, and ended up stuck for almost two days. Aided by their families in Israel and a local tour guide they were eventually rescued on Saturday.

Avia and David Shek married on September 17, and two weeks later went on their honeymoon. Last Wednesday, they went on a trek in the Mestia region in the Caucasus Mountains. "It turns out they shouldn't have gone on that trek, because of the weather," said Iris, the mother of the bride. "The first part went well. They slept in a cabin and two days later were supposed to reach the Adishi village."

  

The mother says, "The signage was wrong, and the amazing thing is that by one of the signs there was writing in stone, in Hebrew, saying, 'Adishi not this way'. But they still kept on navigating according to the signs." The two got lost on their way, entered deep valleys, and eventually got stuck without the ability to move forward. Heavy rain, and then snow, was pouring.

"They called my husband on Thursday afternoon and said how they were," the mother said. "They gave us the phone number of a local tour guide who speaks English, and he recruited locals to help look for them. David kept giving details about their locations and my husband took out a map and started looking for the location by the description, which he keeps saying was like 'google from scratch'," Iris said.

She added, "They survived at nights in one sleeping bag, in a temperature of minus seven degrees and snow. Here in Israel I couldn't eat or sleep. I just thought about what else I could do to help them."

She said, "We didn't hear from them too much until the incident. There were mainly 'good morning' and 'good evening' texts. Luckily, they didn't take a smart phone, but an older phone whose battery lasted close to five days. You can say that's what saved their lives. On Saturday at noon, the locals got to them and rescued them."

Ilan, the father of the bride, is on his way to Georgia to meet his daughter and her husband. "I talked to them. They're okay, but very exhausted. After the rescue they were interviewed by local television."

Illana Ravid from the Foreign Ministry said, "It was great cooperation with the Georgian people which led to the happy ending."