Yehudiya Nature Reserve & R'anana

9.1.10

After watching the sunrise from outside our teepees, we went back to sleep for a few hours and then packed up our stuff, had some stale bread and laughing cow cheese for breakfast and rolled out of Nimrod and headed to the Bental Mountain, an israeli bunker and viewpoint of Syria, Mt. Hermon, and the Golan. We wandered around and looked at the views and hiked down into the bunker and imagined what it would have been like to be a soldier during the yom kippur war.

Then it was off to find the Yehudiya Nature Reserve which after a bit of a drive we arrived there at about noon. The reserve guide sent us out on a 3 hour hike to these amazing deep pools of cool water and a waterfall with yet another deep pool. We weren't prepared for a 3 hour hike, but we went for it. We bought a 6 pack of cold water, drove to the trailhead, texted Lisa that we would be much later than I thought and embarked on yet another Mark and Micah adventure.

It was very hot, but we drank water, the hike took you through some super slow swampy water rock hiking, jumping from rock to rock, a good 30 -40 minutes of hiking and drinking water. The trail was full of rocks, not a hard hike, but not an easy hike either. Finally we arrived at the first big deep pool, we stripped down to our bathing suits and got in the water immediately, there were some guys there jumping in from the top of the cliffs so Micah and I climbed out and jumped and yes I jumped too, Micah is just not as good at taking sports photos as I am...

So we jumped and we swam, we checked out the fish and wished we had a fishing rod, then went to the next pool and found even higher jumps. It was awesome. We swam around for at least a half an hour if not more, it was just fun. "Ezeh Kef" (What Fun!)

And then we continued on to the waterfall and swam in the pool beneath that jumping and diving in and just having a good time. And then we hiked out... getting out around 3:15 or so, it was just as long as the guide told us it would be. My phone was going dead so I found a place to plug it in, we got some ice creams - the worker recognized us from when we bought our water - "ahh you made it back - you look tired. how was it?" "It was great, i'm not as young as I used to be, but it was great!" "Ahhh you're not so old." and we sat down on some steps and relaxed. The worker who sold us the ice creams was walking by and I asked him how long a drive it would be to Herzelia, he told me 2 and a half hours, and then he sat down to talk to us. He was a super nice guy, talked to us about living in Israel, his family lived in a town nearby, 200 members of his extended family leaved there. He talked to us about what happened in Hebron - 4 people were killed by terrorists because of the peace talks, and he didn't believe there would be peace in our generation, he felt that there needed to be new education on both sides, the kids need to learn that we need to make peace, not that arabs or jews are evil. He was really interesting to talk to. When we said goodbye, he said to drive safe and Micah said wow that was really cool talking with him...

And then we drove and drove to Herzelia stopping in Hadera for a schwarma. And then found ourselves in Herzelia around 6:15 pm looking for the car return. I called Lisa who had looked it up on the map and she told me she didn't think it would be open, but directed us there via the cell phone while I drove and she was right, It had closed at 6 pm. So she talked me to a spot where I met her and we followed her home.

And then after settling in and saying hello we went out into the streets of R'anana (rhymes with banana) and had some local falafel.

Another great day.

a praying mantis... is he jewish?

Some rock climbing before his jump by the waterfall...


Micah's big jump and his backflip...

Another Epic Day

8.31.10

Another Epic Day... the outline:

Tel Dan, the Dan River, the first truly cold (mountain) water at the wading pool

Bannias Waterfall, "The Fish Frenzy at..."

Har Harmon, the view of Israel's only chair lift

Tee Pee at Nimrod

Dinner at the Witch's Cauldron and the Milkman

Tee Pee, campfire, teaching Micah how to whistle, sitting inside the fast moving mountain clouds, passing cars providing us with a light show...

The first cold night in the mountains, practically the highest point in Israel - getting acclamated for a brief moment to the weather back home

sitting at the campfire, thinking about the journey home, remembering the paradox of choice, a trip never to be forgotten...

The details:

We woke up and had breakfast at the Safed Hostel, hopped in the car and drove out of Tsfat. When we got to the main road we pulled over to check the map and the phone rang, my best friend from junior high, "Marc with a C" calling to see where I was. We will see each other in a day or two for the first time in at least 25 years.

Onward we drove to Tel Dan Nature Reserve where the Dan River roars. It was a great forested trail to some ancient ruins and along some beautiful clear streams next to the fast moving water of the Dan River. There was an ankle deep wading pool along the trail where we experienced the first naturally cold water in Israel! Just before leaving the trail we bumped into three young boys, Micah's age, who were fishing! They had these metal tubes with a line and a hool and some sort of bait made from bread. We watched them for a little while and tried talking to them. Micah saw a fish swim right by their baited hook.

We continued onward to the Bannias Waterfall, a short hike along another stream of water, super clear, rocky forested, this trail was built suspended over the river and then down to a path to the clear pools and the beautiful long rushing waterfall. On the way we stopped by this clear pool of slower water and we spotted like 6 trout just swimming around...

That's when we really wished we had a fishing rod, my 2 weight would have been perfect. I had asked Dori about fly fishing and he said it wasn't allowed, but he knew the guy who was in charge and they never checked or really cared so we probably could have fished. That's when I remembered the potato chips and got a big devilish smile on my face. I looked at Micah, "we could throw down a potato chip .." and the fish went crazy, there must have been 100 fish jumping and splashing, trying to eat the chip. At one point I tried to catch a fish with my hat, but that didn't work, but it was fun. We sat there in the shade and enjoyed the fish frenzy (see video) and then moved onto the waterfall.

And then to our next stop, the Bannias springs, which was the home of more ancient ruins, a palace built by Agrippa, one of Herod's sons. and we saw more fish, big fish swimming in the calm pools created by the springs.

And then we drove to Mt. Hermon, the Israeli ski area, we got there too late to ride the chair lift to the top, but we enjoyed taking pictures and seeing Israel's only ski mountain, which is more or less the Explorer Chair of Big Sky, not even, you can see the top from the bottom.

And then we drove onto Nimrod where we found Avi and his 3 tee pees, no one else there, so we picked out the best tee pee, set some stuff inside and since we hadn't really eaten since breakfast walked down the street to this turns out to be super high end fancy restaurant in the middle of the nowhere called the Witch's Cauldron and the Milkman.

The food was exquisite, delicious soups, Micah had truffle raviolis in a cream sauce, he loves truffles and I had their special local lamb stew, unbelievable and then would you believe Micah's favorite... a chocolate molten cake for dessert! What a celebration meal!

Back at the tee pee we read our books. Avi came by and we made a camp fire and Micah and I sat outside watching the flames of the fire, just hanging out. It was actually a bit chilly out, up so high in the mountains, it was the first time we were almost cold. I taught Micah how to whistle, didn't know he didn't know how and he got it. When cars drove up the road you could see how foggy it was, we were sitting in the middle of fast moving clouds. The cars created a light show for us as they drove by. As the fire died out we headed to bed. What a great day!

In the morning I woke Micah up at around 6 am and we watched the sunrise up over Nimrod Castle, up over Mt. Hermon. It was somewhat similar to watching the sunrise over porcupine and Ramshorn from our house in Big Sky... then we went back to sleep...

this sign is the marker of the most successful advertising campaign in Israel according to Dori and Drori, it was something drummed into kids from an early age and no one in Israel ever picks wildflowers...hmmmm...

the fish frenzy...