A day out in the Golan

We reached a first milestone today, our first day off! And with it we decided to do a little local sightseeing. Luckily for us a lovely British family with a car was visiting the hostel and they wanted to do exactly the same :). So we all piled in the car to see what the local area has to offer. Luckily we weren't short of places to see on yet another beautiful day.

Our first stop was Nimrod fortress. This is the largest castle in Israel and is truly an amazing site to see. The site has been very well excavated and preserved by the National Park Authority.

Me by the entrance to Nimrod Fortress, in the background is the southern Golan Heights 

The castle is named after the biblical hunter Nimrod who is said to have stood on the mountain and reached out to drink from the Banyas stream in the valley. It's location is ideally situated, both from a picturesque and military point of view. Recent studies have suggested that it was built at the beginning of the 13th century to control the upper part of the road to Damascus. In the latter half of the century it was enlarged by Sultan Baybars (who famously ousted the Crusaders from the Holy Land for good!). It remained in use for the next two hundred years before being used as a prison for rebels in the 15th Century. It was later to be deserted completely until excavations on the site began. Many believe that large portions of the fortress were destroyed by an earthquake in the past.

The main entrance to Nimrod Fortress

We're staying there :) looking up at Nimrod from the fortress walls 

The excavated main hall of the fortress

View of the ruined eastern wall of the fortress (many believe it was destroyed largely by an earthquake)

The fortress's water tank, specially designed to collect rainwater through
an outside collection system and then stored in a stone "tank" under the fortress
to prevent it being lost by evaporation. 

Group photo :). Me, Jehn and Carolyn at the top of the Keep. 

The view of Nimrod Fortress from its Keep, looking south 

After a couple of hours wandering around the fortress our next stop was the Banyas Waterfall. After driving down roads surrounded by fenced off fields with land-mine warning signs we reached the site just after 1 o'clock. Situated in the Hula valley below Nimrod Fortress, the waterfall and the stream it feeds is a beautiful oasis in this very dry landscape. The source of the waterfall is the snow melt from Mt Hermon which trickles into the mountain and finds its way out down in the valley. We got a group ticket from the fortress which allowed us to have discounted access to the waterfall site. There were welcome water taps on the route along the stream to the waterfall but the water turned out to be WARM! Not the best thing to be drinking on the hottest part of the day. After an hour or so enjoying the cool surroundings of the stream we headed back up into the mountains to our final destination.

View of the stream leading down from the Banyas Waterfall

The Banyas Waterfall, a little oasis in a parched land :)

So, our final stop for the day, the famous Mt Hermon Ski Resort (the only Ski Resort in Israel!). Obviously we couldn't go to ski but luckily the resort is open in the summer for hiking and mountain biking. Located on the south-western slope of the mountain, it has long been popular for skiing in the winter time. Unfortunately, recent years haven't been so kind and last year there were NO skiing days at all at the resort!! They have been steadily declining in recent years from 15 days a year around a decade ago. We all saw it as global warming in action and it is a great shame that Israel's only ski resort wouldn't have been open due to a lack of snow...... 

That being said, I don't think i'd like to ski here even if it did snow. The crowds would be horrendous and the chair lift prices extortionate (it was 49 shekels for a ride to the top of the chair lift and down again today, can you imagine them in the ski season?!). Not to mention that I could only really see 3 decent runs down the mountain, so its kind of limited on space to ski. Regardless though, the views from the top were truly staggering as the pictures show.

The view up the slopes of the Mt Hermon Ski Resort 

Going up! Jehn and Carolyn lead the way on the chair lift

At the top of the chair lift, looking east to a neighboring peak

Looking north from the top of the chair lifts, towards Lebanon 

On the way down, looking over towards Syria 

All in all, we had a great day out with our fellow travelers and got to see most of what the area has to offer. Although now I'm kind of worried that I've seen everything at once which leaves me little to do on my days off for the 5 and bit weeks I have left here. It's great for Carolyn and Jehn though, they saw everything on the one real chance they had of seeing things (they leave a week tomorrow). Oh well, i'll just do some local walking (plenty of that to do) or enjoy the view with a good book :). 

That's it for this entry, Guy might be taking me to see his latest eco-building project tomorrow so I'm looking forward to that. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next time.