In The Golan

For those of you who have never been to Israel (which was us until two weeks ago), close your eyes and imagine being in the Golan. So is the picture above what came into your mind? Prior to Thursday, it was certainly not the image that came to my mind. Desolate hills, conflict, fear were more the images that I had. In fact, a month before we left, someone asked if I was afraid of traveling to Israel based on the recent (early June) conflict on the Israeli/Syrian border. My response was, "We weren't planning on going to Golan Heights." Case closed.

However, on our first night in Haifa, my cousin Jeremy and his friend Erin convinced us that we would love the Golan, and gave us the name of a tour guide, Lior Shelef. We emailed Lior and arranged to meet him at the entrance to Hermon Stream Nature Reserve/Banias on Thursday morning. After setting that up, I looked up the location on the map and realized that were traveling into a "finger" of Israel poised between Lebanon and Syria. Okay, take a deep breath...oh, look at the lines on the map indicating things like DMZ, U.N. 2000 Blue Line, 1949 Israeli Syria Armistice Line, 1974 Cease Fire Line. Seriously?

But, with a full tank of gas (definitely don't want to run out of gas around those "lines") we headed off on the 2 hour drive from Haifa to Banias. Here you see the entrance to the trail to Banias Falls.

Our tour guide, Lior, walked across the parking lot to meet us. He grew up, and continues to live in Kibbutz Snir, which is adjacent to the entrance to the Nature Reserve. He is 35 years old, and he and his 31 year brother started their own tour guide business a few years ago that focuses on the Golan. Their grandparents were holocaust survivors and part of the original founders of the kibbutz. He has a great love and passion for this area and it was contagious. We had placed our day in his hands, so of we went following him along this trail. He explained that the Hermon Stream (the main headwaters of the Jordan river) was the original border between Israel and Syria.

We walked along this suspended bridge (left side of picture below) which was just built a few years ago, enjoying the sounds of the rushing stream - as well as cool breezes.

We arrived at the Banias Falls and Lior said we were very lucky as there was nobody else there. He explained that most of the time there are 300 people standing on the deck overlooking the falls. He shared stories of jumping over the falls when he was a boy (before it was a nature reserve restricting access to the water). He laughed and said that his mother still doesn't know that he did that.

The video below will help you feel like you are there - such a surprise to find this in this arid/dry country:

After the falls, we drove on (with him directing us - so nice to have a break from being the navigator) to Tel Fahr, a former Syrian outpost that the Israeli's took over in the Six Day War.

Above you can see one of the Syrian tanks that remains there. The area is preserved as a memorial to the Israeli soldiers that died there.

As we stood at the outpost, Lior pointed out the significance of the location. Up on the hill of what was once Syria, we were looking out over the cultivated area (which was at the time, and still is Israel) to the hills on the other side which is Lebanon. So basically Israel had the flat area, surrounded by hills of enemies looking down on them.

Above you see a grove of what are Australian Eucalyptus trees. Prior to the Six Day War, the Israeli secret service sent a spy, Eli Cohen, into Syria, where he rose to a high ranking position. In a feigned sympathy for the Syrian soldiers in the hot Golan, he suggested planting shade trees to make their service more comfortable. So when the war started, the Israeli soldiers new that if they saw a grove of these trees it was a marker for a Syrian base.

All around were barbed wire fences with warning signs for mine fields - not just here but al over the Golan.

The trenches were open to explore.

From there we went up a narrow winding road to Mt. Bental, overlooking the Valley of Tears.

Interesting to have this display of whimsical sculptures on the entrance to this serious place.

Below you can see the Israeli outpost (not active, but left there in case it needs to be reactivated) as well as a sign with mileage markers. Damascus, Syria - just 60 km (37 miles).

From here we could see Mt. Hermon (where there is actually a ski resort; Lior explained that the Golan has snow for about two months/year - but enough snow for skiing - ski season last year lasted only 9 days) as well as the Syrian border. This was one of the places of the Yom Kippur attacks (1973).

Mt Bental was a volcano, and below is a village or kibbutz built inside what was the volcano.

So, here we are in the Golan, with Syria behind us. While our guide was clear with his bias about the importance of Israel maintaining control of the Golan, he did speak with sadness that there seems to be no solution. He has heard that Damascus is beautiful and would love to be able to travel in Syria.

For a change of pace, we next went on to the Mt. Odem Winery, a family run business, to taste wine made from grapes grown in volcanic soil.

Here are some of their bottles uniquely displayed in lava rock. This was some good kosher wine. Our guide explained that all of the wine made in Israel needs to be kosher to be successful, which makes it a bit more challenging in the international market (I guess we all think Mogen David wine at Passover). But Mt. Odem has been getting wave reviews in international wine competitions - and we were impressed.

After our pre-lunch drink, we stopped in the nearby Druze village of Maasale for lunch at Nidal restaurant (this is looking from where we were sitting up into the mountains - so the awning is for the restaurant or bakery next door - I think our dessert may have come from there?)

Not even sure what was inside, as we sat in this outdoor area. In another nice feature of being

taken care of by a guide, Lior ordered all of the food - so a delicious assortment of Druze/Syrian salads, humus, falafel, labanee (goat cheese), and pita, followed by Arab coffee and a yummy dessert (called something like Osh al-sarais).

Stuffed with good Druze/Syrian food we went on to Majdal al Shams, the largest of the four Druze villages in the Golan. These villages were all a part of Syria prior to the war in 1967. So inhabitants had the choice of leaving their homes and going to Syria, or remaining and becoming a part of Israel, but they would not be able to travel to Syria. So while most choice to remain, they are separated from relatives and friends.

What you see below is the Valley of the Shouts - the "no man's land" between Israel and Syria.

Looking across the construction sites on the edge of Majdal al Shams you can see

(looking at the photo above) on the right a United Nations post, and on the left a building with a porch. So, for special events like weddings or the birth of a child, the Druze relatives on the Syrian side will gather on that porch, with the Druze of Israel gathered on this lookout point - and they will shout back and forth to each other, the valley carrying the echoes across. Quite heartbreaking. Lior recommended a movie called Syrian Bride, a story about families beling torn apart here, that we have added to our netflix.

This was also the site mentioned at the start of the post - one of several places where the borders were charged in early June (anniversary of the Six Day War). The border fence here was destroyed, and the Israeli military attacked back and Syrians were killed.

Below you can see one of the Israeli Military Humvees involved in the repairs to the border fence - that road is the border.

We headed back to Herman Stream Nature Reserve, to the Herman Springs - where the Stream first comes out from under the mountains - eventually becoming the Galilee and Jordan River.

I now need to explain that in the emails setting up the tour with Lior, I had not mentioned that Jim was raised Catholic. In telling him about our day in the Galilee, Jim's religious training was mentioned. Lior was apologetic and said he didn't lead Christian tours, so didn't have much to offer along those lines. But when we got to Herman Springs, he ran to the gift shop and bought a vial for Jim to retrieve some holy water. So here is a photo and video of that special moment!

Above the springs, is the Temple of Pan, a Roman archeological site, built by King Herod and named after Pan (Paneas), the god of the forest (in fact, Banias is the arabic pronunciation of Paneas)

Our last trek followed along the stream. I enjoyed the "cupcake" look that was created as the water cascaded over this boulder.

We ended up at this old flour mill and in spite of the signs prohibiting getting into the water, it was the one place where people ignored it, including our guide who immediately was up at the little water fall dousing himself and filling his water bottles. It felt great to wade in the water.

This little guy was clearly enjoying his adventure as well! Nothing like being carted around all day, not needing to make any decisions, and just being taken care of. Which is exactly what our tour guide had done for us.

After dropping Lior off back at his kibbutz, we headed back to Haifa so full of wonderful stories, history, political perspective, good food and wine, and incredible views/sites.

So glad we went - a most special day.