Gershon had a rather full itinerary planned out for us, and we did not make it to everything on it. The day started with a hike. I say that casually, but anyone who has every been north in Israel knows that the idea of a hike in North America is very different than a hike in Israel. Our hike was at a place called Yehudia. We parked in the already hot lot and headed under an overpass, noting the scrabbly, rocky terrain around us. As we moved forward we passed a collection of small ruins, an old Syrian village built on the ruins of an ancient Jewish town dating back, perhaps, to the Romans. We were headed straight toward an enormous gorge but then turned so that the valley between two mountains was maintained on our right. Once again, Gershon had told us to bring swimming things (but wear hiking shoes), and we were quite shocked/dismayed/concerned when we asked where the water was and he pointed ahead and down. Um, okay. Asher was in the backpack on David’s back. Gershon kept reassuring us that this was no big deal, but my mother is no lover of heights. We reached the first “descent,” which really wasn’t anything, but the rock stairs were worn away and there was a steep edge to the side. Just as she was reassuring her grandmother and offering her hand in assistance, Elisheva was the first to slip, banging her knee and making us all hesitant. We reminded the kids to stay away from the edge and move slowly. After telling everyone that this was all good, I took a step forward...and skidded on loose gravel. Wham. I had quite a rock-burn bruise! Embarrassed, and aching, I assured everyone that I was definitely up to going forward, and I gave my mom my hand to help her down the small steps. This brought us to a somewhat narrow path that continued downward until we reached a resting spot under a large tree (plants growing larger as we made our way down). And here my mother decided that she would wait. It was, in fact, a good call, because we continued forward down a series of stone “staircases,” many slippery with gravel. David was awesome in lending me a hand as I was nervous on these treacherous steps. It was a hot, long hike down...but it was incredible at the bottom.
Our hike paid off with a delightful waterfall swimming hole. David and Yaakov were the first ones in (after Gershon). The other kids were hesitant, but I dunked in to acclimate to the cold and followed David out to the waterfall. It was spectacular. Eventually, all of the kids came to the waterfall (except Asher, who bobbed around in his floaty-tube in the shallow area. Swimming, however, was followed by the need to return back up.
 |
This is not our picture. I took it from a random image search
cause it give the best visual of the bottom of the hike.
|
I cannot lie. I was worried that I would pass out on the way up. It had been so hard coming down, steep and scary and hot. We were all shocked to discover that it actually wasn’t such along way down! We made it back to the car and to ice cream.
Our next adventure was just around the corner and started at a kibbutz - but they all seem to do that. Here we met Ronnie, an olive farmer who has won awards for his olive oils but who also gives fun jeep tours of the area. The ride was...bumpy. Everyone loved it, especially Asher who was astounded when he later discovered we were in some kind of a truck. In addition to just enjoying the bumpy roads, we got to see the orchards where they were growing plums and peaches (we tried to find some ripe peaches, but only found some almost ripe ones that the kids tried) and Ronnie’s olive trees. Since we were in the Golan, we were very close to the border of Syria. I mean VERY close. There were fences leading into the no-man's land area. It being very hot, we went around to the side of the kibbutz and Ronnie took us to a spring watering reservoir. After a short (really short, just steep) hike to the squared off cistern, we found out that we were not the first ones there. A small gang of soldiers, experts in guiding artillery, were enjoying the cool water. One of them was British, a lone soldier for whom we gave a hearty round of applause. We had a nice time bantering with the guys, one of whom kept joking that he too was a lone soldier from Con-nec-ticut, he would tell us in a heavy Israeli accent. Ronnie brought some refreshing cantaloupe and we shared it with the IDF soldiers before bouncing along the road back to our starting point.
Our initial plan had been to go next to Metulla but Gershon took us first to a small, almost indistinct memorial from the 1973 Yom Kippur War. It is called Tel El-Saki. From the top, one supposedly has an excellent view to understand the Golan Heights and the Israeli position with its neighbors, but a group of soldiers were training at the top and we couldn't go up. Being tourists...and tourists with boys...we took pictures with a soldier and his fully loaded jeep. The soldiers gave us some left over cake.
The story of Tel El-Saki. The Syrians began the Yom Kippur War with a serious offensive, quickly overrunning many Israeli positions in the Golan Heights with tanks and air strikes. There were 5 paratroops who had made it to the small outpost of Tel Saki, a strategic position that the Israel Defense Force fought to stop the Syrians from taking. A few of the wounded soldiers from the tank division managed to get to them. The soldiers were still in communication with the Israeli command and could not evacuate as they were providing valuable information. The Israelis at Tel Saki tried to stop the Syrian approach, but they were vastly out-manned and ended up surrounded. The soldiers fought back, switching positions frequently to give the appearance of larger numbers. The Israelis were trapped in the solitary bunker under constant fire. The first rescue mission was a failure and almost all of the troops involved were killed. A second rescue operation had slightly more success, and several survived and managed to crawl into the Tel Saki bunker. The bunker was under siege. The soldiers inside were busy destroying all valuable information and preparing their goodbyes. At the request of the commander, Menachem Ansbacher, one soldier, a volunteer named Yitzchak Nekerger, emerged from the bunker and surrendered, claiming that he was the sole survivor of the battle. The rest of the soldiers played dead and, amazingly, the Syrians believed him. Nekerger sacrificed his freedom to save his comrades and was taken as a POW to Damascus. For hours and hours, the surviving soldiers remained still and quiet lest the Syrians realized their ruse. Finally, a few of the soldiers snuck out to a destroyed IDF tank and contacted the IDF. Although they are surrounded by Syrians, the IDF managed to get them food and water. The area commander couldn’t imagine anyone was still alive and he organized a unit to get to Tel Saki and try to collect the dead. The outpost was still overrun by Syrians. Finally they drove the Syrians off and to their shock they discovered the survivors - 30 hours after they were presumed dead.
I thought Tel Saki was pretty awesome but it was also fairly obvious that we were losing the kids’ attention. Gershon had a few more ideas of places to go but we only went to one more, Ben-Tal, a mountain in the Golan that offers a tremendous overlook of the region, including well into Syria. It is, not surprisingly, the site of an old army outpost. Ben-Tal is twinned with another slightly higher mountain, Av-Tal (Av meaning father, ben meaning son) which form the mouth of a now dormant volcano. As we approached, we heard a strange boom and Gershon said it could be training exercises. It was later confirmed for us that it was not training exercises, it was Syria! (Yes, Gramie, there’s a reason we didn’t mention this!). When we pulled up to the parking lot, where there was a good view, Asher was asleep and most of the kids didn’t even want to get out of the car. There was a small but somewhat steep path up to the top, and my mom volunteered to stay with the kids in the car. The only child who came along was Shevi. At the top the view was incredible. Also there was a strange assortment of metal sculptures by a Dutch sculptor named Joop de Jong and the Coffee Anan café. It seems the UN comes up here frequently (there compound, not too far away, can be seen from the top) and the name of the café might be a “tribute” to its former head.
Well, the kids were certainly not up for any more touring. But we did have one more long-awaited and much anticipated stop to get to in Tiberias. Kosher McDonalds. It was quite an experience. Yaakov and Asher got kid’s meals, which made me smile. There was a small play area, which was great because David, Avi and Gershon had to go to Mincha (afternoon service) and we waited there for a while. The meal was thoroughly “eh,” but the kids enjoyed it.
No comments:
Post a Comment