The Golan in Shavuot

Shavuot is the holiday marking the beginning of the harvest (among other things). For this reason, it is celebrated quite extensively in moshavim and kibutzim in Israel. Israel kept telling me that I MUST come to Eliad for Shavuot. So, I did...

In Eliad, every year, they have a rodeo in Shavuot. A real rodeo. OK, they don't actually send the cowboys to catch a raging steer but they do have some people from the moshav riding horses and competing against each other doing various things - like having the horses ride around cones as fast as possible, getting water from a jug on one side and bringing it back without spilling to the other side, and so on. Fun. Israel "donated" his three horses for the rodeo and he and his daughter both rode on two of the three horses in the rodeo. Israel had a lot of fun doing this as can be seen in the pictures below:


After the rodeo they held a grass mower competition. Yup, no mistake here. Did Israel win? Well, no... Someone brought a state-of-the-art grass mower and all the other competitors didn't have a chance really. But still, as you can see, they were not discouraged by this:


The next day, Sharon and Seva came to visit. You will have to take my word for it that they came because I'm not allowed to put their pictures on the blog. I can say that we had a chance to eat some nice olives made by Seva and to eat smoked cheese from Georgia, which was delicious. We went to Gamla together - on that day and on the next. Why twice? Well, Israel always likes to go to Gamla but this time Seva wanted to go down to the archaeological findings and we didn't have enough time the first day to do it, so we came again the next day.

Since I've already written about Gamla in a previous post I will focus not on the archaeological site but on the griffin vultures who were set free there on the second day we visited. Gamla has a large population of vultures. One of the birds set free was a bird hatched in captivity and now when it reached maturity was being released. The other one was caught and was being released. Both were being ringed and fitted with wing tags and radio transmitters before being set free.


Even though the process didn't seem to be particularly pleasant for the vultures we were told that the equipment attached to them doesn't bother them. On the left you can see one of the vultures being fitted with wing tags and a radio transmitter.




Then it was set free:

This fellow was a bit "shell shocked" at first and took a few seconds to get himself oriented and ready to fly. He was actually a bit scary - these birds are quite big - and he took some steps towards us....

Then he took flight (you can see its wing tag clearly in both pictures):


In the picture below you can see the transmitter (and the vulture, of course), enlarge the picture and look at its back...):


One of the next days we went to the Hermon. It was my first visit to there ever! How can that be?! I don't know, somehow never got there. It was a bit different than I imagined it somehow, a lot barer. I sort of thought there'd by alpine woods there, but then woods are not exactly our strong point in Israel so I'm not sure how I came up with this vision...


(notice how I keep finding myself on snow capped mountains when going places with Israel... even when elsewhere it's already spring or summer).

We didn't find many trees up there but we did find some pretty flowers


now, if it were up to my knowledge I'd say that the flower on the left is a pretty purple flower (one of my favorite colors, by the way) and the one on the right is a certain poppy. Israel, is more of an expert in what they call "flora and fauna" and so thanks to him I can also add the proper names of these flowers -

The one on the right is called a mountain horned poppy and the one on the left is a mountain ixiolirion but I like its German name: berglilie (lily of the mountains).

By the way, the Golan trail (thought of and created by Israel) starts from Mt. Hermon:


After coming down the mountain we went to have lunch at the Witch and Milkman restaurant in Nimrod. On this day we also went to Kibbutz Ein Zivan and visited Bustan ha-Golan where one can pick cherries. A very nice place to go to with kids.

Another day we went kayaking in the Jordan river with the dogs which was a lot of fun. Both dogs went swimming, were shaking their coats off, rubbing themselves in the ground and getting them and everything around them very wet and doggy smelling. We didn't take any photos on this trip (the camera would have gotten wet so you'll just have to imagine it in your mind...). One of the people running the kayak renting place was patting Tzachi (see his picture on the left from another trip). At some point Israel called Tzachi over. The guy looked up surprised - Is this Tzachi from Eliad?? it seemsTzachi is a celebrity dog... (the guy knows the dog through Israel's son...).

One of the days on the way back to Eliad we went to the Butmeya water reservoir. The place is very tranquil and pretty. Recently, a group of Israeli air force cadets went over there to clean a lot of garbage in a volunteer project following a hike they took in the Golan.


I will leave you with two final pictures from this great week in the Golan with Israel, one of me on top of the world (well, maybe just the top of our small country...) and the other of the sun setting over Tiberias and the Sea of Galilee taken by Israel from Mitzpe Hashalom near Kfar Haruv:



By the way, all the pictures were taken by Israel except the ones in the rodeo which were taken by his neighbor, Lucy.

The Golan Heights

My faithful readers may have been wondering why I haven't written recently and have I stopped travelling or something. So, the answer is that I have not stopped travelling (I hope I never will, not many things nicer to do in this world as far as I'm concerned). It's just that the destination has changed - instead of travelling in Italy or to other countries in the area, I've been travelling as much as possible to the Golan Heights. Why? Well, if you are faithful readers you may have noticed that there is a new man in my life - Israel - who is a big fan of the Golan - as far as he's concerned there's no better place in the world. I must say, that this idea is slowly growing on me that he has a point there...

The last time I visited the area was during a trip to the El Al springs (not far from where Israel lives) a few years ago. Before that we visited the Golan when I was in high school (a long long time ago) - we stayed at the SPNI's hostel in Katzrin for a week and toured the area. The trips in the area were lovely.

Going back to the present - Israel lives in Eliad which is a moshav (village) in the south part of the Golan. He's been living there since the moshav was established in the early seventies. He's currently the owner of 3 horses and two dogs and many citrus and olive trees. On the left you can see a picture of Israel and one of his dogs - Yovav.

Being in the Golan starts with the trip up north from the airport (poor Israel should be entitled for a special free pass for frequent users of the airport he's been going there so many times recently...). During these trips up north we've already been twice to Afula - twice more than I've ever been there before... There really isn't anything to see or do there - except get closer to the Golan.

Once you're there - there are a lot of things to do, especially if Israel's your guide around there, he knows everyone and everything over there and lucky people (like myself) get to have the grand tour of the area and see the nice things over there.

Here is a description of some of the highlights of my trips there so far:

Gamla - Probably Israel's favorite place in the Golan is Gamla. We went there during my first visit. On the left you can see a picture taken recently by Israel of the place (this is a good time to mention that most of the pictures in this post were taken by him). Gamla is an important historical site which according to archaeological finds was already settled in the Bronze age but which is more famous for its Jewish population living there since the second century B.C. up until the Great Jewish Revolt against the Romans, their heroic fight (and defeat) against them. A good description of the site can be found here with interesting links to other good sources of information.

In addition to its historical and archaeological importance Gamla is also an important nature reserve with a vultures' observation point (to which a 24 hour camera recording system has been added recently, donated by Israel's family in memory of his late wife - see a short TV article in Hebrew here). The place has a phenomenal concentration of birds of prey, some of them rare, living in a relatively small area. Griffon vulture pairs nest on the cliffs, making up the largest flock of Griffon vultures in Israel (and in the whole Middle East) - as stated on a web site encouraging volunteering in Israel in general and there in particular.

In a separate trip we went to Katzrin (the main (and only) town in the region) where one can visit the Golan Archaeological Museum and see an interesting audio visual movie on the history of Gamla as well as many archaeological finds from the region.

Umm el Qanatir (here we have the famous dilemma whether to use the official spelling with a 'q' without a 'u' or to change it to Kanatir, I left it as is even though it tends to be jarring to anyone familiar with Latin languages' spelling) - Another favorite archaeological site of Israel's is Umm el Qanatir (mother of arches, also known as Rehavam's Arches). In this site a synagogue from the Talmudic period was discovered and is in the process of being excavated and restored using special digital imaging techniques. The place was destroyed during a massive earthquake in 749 and hasn't been inhabited since. We went there with Israel's neighbors on a rainy and windy Shabat morning and this is what we looked like:

and this is what the view to the kinneret was like from over there on that stormy day:

Salukia Springs (also known as the Eden springs) - these are the springs from which the Eden company pumps water from. The company donated money to create a lovely little park surrounding the springs. The place is well tended with fruit trees and places to sit and enjoy the water.

Other places of interest (and it's obvious I haven't seen half of them yet) are:

Kfar Haruv - Kfar Haruv is a Kibbutz in the southern part of the Golan. They have this beautiful place there - a kind of a SPA Mitzpe la Shalom where you can go and spend two and a half hours in heated pools with music coming through the water, floating on special floats allowing you to sort of lie there resting your head and the back of your knees on the floats. It's limited to a small amount of couples - 5 or 6 and it's a very romantic way to spend an afternoon. After the swim they serve you hot infusions, dried fruits, wine and cookies. The place also has zimmers nearby and a nice restaurant overlooking the Kinneret. Highly recommended.

Aniam - Aniam is a village of artists and craftsmen. Their web site (only in Hebrew) can be seen here. There are some lovely stores with ceramics, specially framed pictures, jewelry and many others.

To end this post here are a few more pictures from the Golan, which, hopefully will make you want to come and visit this beautiful place:

Oh, and one final thought. The wines produced in the Golan are the best. Very popular in chic restaurants in Israel.