We ate breakfast on our own at the cottage.
We drove up to the main Pina BaRosh compound (restaurant and guest rooms), parked the car and met our guide for the day, Hagai Gilat.
Hagai drives a big land rover, like the kind you see on safaris in Africa. I didn't take a picture of it, but here is one from his web site
He was a Ranger for the natural preservationist agency for 20 years - the head ranger in the north. He knows this area backwards and forwards. We spent most of the day driving off road, down rocky pitted dirt paths that till now, I would not have thought that vehicle could travel. It was a great day.
Here are Josh and Hagai at the first little plateau in the morning, where we had a view looking north over the Hula valley. The valley is the rift between two tectonic plates. Hagai explained the geology of the place a bit. He also told us about how he lost his foot in the Yom Kippur war, stepping on a land mine on Mt. Hermon as he went to help someone else who had been injured. Now he wears a prosthetic foot, which also wears a sandal, like his real foot does.
After the introduction to the region, we headed up to a spring. Here are my guys at the first little hike. I think the place is called Ein Atila, or whatever would translate to the Spring of the Fig.
Hiking down the stream
At the top it's steep and the water is very shallow.
At the bottom, it flattens out to this part (the rails are there to stop you from bushwacking off the side) and then to a little pool.
Josh was the only one who chose to immerse himself in the pool. He never misses a chance to get wet.
Cris in the pool at the bottom of the first hike
We stopped at Assaf winery in the Golan. Assaf is a friend of Hagai's. Assaf's son Oren has trained in Israel and France and Sonoma to be a vintner. He poured for us. We bought a bottle of the first wine he ever made and drank it that night. The wine was very good - Cris and Ted bought a case (6 bottles), so now they have their work cut out for them for the rest of the trip!
We stopped for shwarma in Katzrin, which doesn't appear to be much of a town. Even at a place like this, with mediocre food, there is a sink and a pitcher for washing hands before the meal.
Rehavam Arches, aka Umm al Kanatir
We did a long stop at this archeological site, where a very small crew is laboring to rebuild this synogogue exactly the way it was built originally. The current theory is the the original builders were copying what they thought the inside of the Second Temple looked like.
Josh in the spring at Umm al Kanatir
Sam jumping into the picture
Sam and Josh in the jeep
storks in their nest
at a kibbutz in the Golan
Along the edge of the southern Golan
the red trianlge means danger - in this case, land mines on the other side of the fence. This dirt road took along the edge of the Golan, above the southern Galilee.
This sign appears alongside many fields.
It's dangerous to clear the landmines, so often the Israelis prefer to simply give up some grazing land, and just fence off the area. The Syrian planted land mines on the hillside below.
UN sesimic detector
The UN has planted seismic detectors around the Golan and Galilee to catch if the Israelis are doing an underground nuclear experiment at Mount Meron. I took this picture from inside the jeep as we drove by, which is why you see the steering wheel at the bottom.
At the memorial for the two Turkish pilots whose plane went down on their pioneering flight from Istanbul to Alexdrandria in 1914.
Considering this was only 11 years after the Wright brothers first short flight, it's kind of an incredible thing to try.
Blue dots show where they made it (Istanbul, Beirut, Damascus)
Red dots show where they did not make it (Haon, where they went down, Jerusalem, Cairo, Alexandria).
The pilots were unfamiliar with the winds that are turulent off the Golan's rim, and it forced down their tiny plane.
On the way back north to Rosh Pina, Hagai drove on some dirt rooms among the farmlands and lagoons between the paved road and the Sea of Galilee. He knew Josh wanted to get wet again.
He drew through a little pool of water, down near where the Jordan flows into the Sea of Galilee., and stopped part way and told Josh he could jump right out the back if he wanted. It looked like a snake-infested swamp to me, but I trust Hagai, so I let Josh go.
Josh slipped out the back door of the jeep and into the water.
Hagai played the recorder. Sam and Ted and I threw a frisbee in a little glade next to the banana fields and the lagoon.
Hagai is an excellent guide and good company.
Here is his web site. I highly recommend spending a day with him in the North.
Back at the cottage that evening we returned to Rosh Pina. We picked up a pizza for the kids, then Ted, Cris and I went up to Shiri's bistro (associated with our Pina BaRosh B&B). The food was delicious (and rich) (and plentiful). But the best part is the view over the Hula valley from the outdoor dining patio.
Josh took this picture of Ted
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