Birgitte i det store utland: Trip to Golan Heights and Lake of Galilee

For the days we had off for Easter we decided to go to the north. Our destination was the Golan Heights where we would also be able to see the lake of Galilee.

Shai, a very nice girl we met on the road, and Helene. Have a look at the sign behind them:)

The three hiking-babes

We got a glimpse of Syria the first day. We drove by the borders.Quite interesting.

Helene

Golan Heights

When we arrived to the lake of Galilee Shai invited us to join her and her friends for some relaxing by the lake. We accepted her nice offer, and watched the sunset by the holy lake.

The next day we woke up to sunny and warm weather. We decided to spend the day at the lake to be able to cool down.

Hanging out before going to the lake

We arrived and it was really nice. However, since it was the jewish Pesach(exodus from Egypt), the place started to get crowded shortly after we came. People with loud music, water scooters, too big tents were enjoying their vacation a bit too much, and I would have preferred to come the week after. But we still had a nice day by the lake, and we got to swim there as well.

In the evening we made BBQ, very summerish:)

I was served a little too much food...

After dinner we went to our next destination; the northern Golan heights. We stayed there over the night, and got up pretty early to go hiking there. We were acompanied by our new friend Asaf from the Golan heights who had a long experience of hiking and showed us all the nice spots.

Our first stop was at the Gamla nature reserve. Although the sky was a bit cloudy we were not cold. And it was beautiful there, green, mountanious and FULL of flowers...

Me on my invisible bike

At Gamla you can find ruins of bysantic civilisations.We had a look at what was there.

I do think it is interesting how this area has been influenced by so many cultures, and if you look at the middle east(Israel and Palestine) you will find that the area has not always been called by the name it has today. Turks, persians, romans, arab muslims, even britain was here. They say that Palestine has its name from the greeks who came here a long time ago. They came from an island with a similar name, and therefore they named their new home Palestine(Filestiin). Palestinians would also claim that this is where they got their blue/green eyes from.
So if you manage to look further than the conflict in the middle east you'll find one of the most interesting areas in the world. Even the areas we were walking in have been occupied by Israel since 1967. They originally belonged to Syria.

Asaf took us to a watch point where we could spot different birds including eagles and vultures. Asaf is a photographer, and he took some pretty nice pictures with his professional camera.

Infront of the utkikkspost

Birdwatching...

Looking at one of the biggest waterfalls in Israel

We also wanted to go down to the hill with the shape of the camel back.

Ruins of an old synagoge

After Gamla we went further on to the border with Syria.

Watch out; mine fields

Arrangert bilde

We went to a little lake and had a break there...

For some it was a chance to get a power nap

We moved further to have a look at the lake of Galilee again.From above...

View to the Lake of Galilee

After this little adventure we went home to have dinner, relax and then have a good night sleep. We had to be prepared for the north the next day. We would go to the north. We got up early again, and we had breakfast, put on more clothes since this day would be colder than the day before. The north of Golan usually is colder than the south. We drove all the way to the top of a hill where could find a military base and the coffe shop Coffe Anan.

Where to go, where to go...