In spite of its fame and its popularity with songwriters, the Jordan is not the sort of river one would choose for a pleasure cruise, and very few people have succeeded in sailing down it at all.
Rapids, rocks, and whirlpools are some of the hazards graphically described in the diary of an American who tackled the river 100 years ago, and encountered this year by Tom Stobbart and Ralph Izzard, who were forced in the end to abandon their boat and swim.