Hike Through Northern Israel

My director must think we are getting fat 
and decided to do something about it...

by taking us on an all day hike in northern Israel in the heat.
 Sweat it out girls!!

Or, this was a planned MASA activity where we hiked to places epic wars in Israel were fought.

..............

While sweating the excess hummus out of my system.

We arose with sun and headed north (which I didn't know was possible,
but we went north east towards the borders of Syria and and Lebanon)




We started the hike near Mt. Hermon and circled
an army base on the mountain.
Our guide showed us plants we could eat and named flowers
and plants that grow in Israel.
We stopped often to look over the valley of Galilee and see the beauty.
It is always beautiful, but when I hear
"...and the battle of so-and so was fought here",
it makes the landscape some how seem special for being
so beautiful inspite of all the destruction that occured. 
We stopped in true, Israeli fashion, to eat our packed breakfasts
along with tea and cookies.
I can't get over that we can be ANYWHERE and
I can count on tea and cookies.

Vineyards

This is a nice hole in the ground where they use to make wine--

'I Love Lucy' style.

Centuries ago, they made wine here and shipped it to Rome, where they paid top dollar, because the wine was from the Holy Land.

This is how Israel marks their trails

(thanks to the British when they occupied Israel)

Walking on the right of the rocks means you are going towards snow.

Hence the white stripe. 

Walking on the left means you are going towards the desert. Orange.  

Border of Lebanon and Israel. Once again, a battle with many casualties was fought here. We were on a kibuttz that was pretty much on top of the border. We saw exactly where snipers would sit and how easy it was/still is for Lebanon to invade Israel.

Israel now has one of their main Army bases at the top of Mt Hermon,

which looks over Lebanon. This base is called The Eyes of Israel.

 Israel doesn't have the space to make an attack,

but they sure are prepared to defend.

 Israel is the size of Rhode Island, and almost a third of it is not under

The Jewish States control. ie. Gaza Strip and West Bank. Crazy!

Going up..

and down all day.

We walked along the Jordan River on a nature preserve and it was BEAUTIFUL.

 I didn't really notice the lack of water in Israel until I was

standing next to its own Oasis.

Everyone ended up jumping and I took the liberties of soaking my twisted ankle from earlier on in the hike. Nothing can beat the healing powers of the icy Jordan River!!

This was our last stop for the day.

We stood on an inactive volcano and looked down at the border of

Syria and Israel.

This is Israel and you can tell because of the agricuture.

This is great place to grow food because of the volcanic soil.

You can tell where the border is quite well.

Green=Israel  Not Green=Syria

Oh yes. Another war was fought here.

Inside the bunker

View from the bunker--looking out on Syria.