Golan Heights & Banias Falls

Dad really wanted to go up in the Golan Heights and so on our last day in Tiberius we hired a taxi to drive us there.  It all sounds really easy right?  Hire a taxi and just go.  Not quite! Even getting a taxi driver is interesting in Israel!! :D Thursday morning we walked down to the tourist information center in Tiberius.  The employee was very helpful and told us the best way to tour the Golan Heights is hire a guide, which was not really in the budget.  Or the cheapest way was to rent a car for the day. This was not possible since we left in such a rush on Saturday for the wedding in New Jersey, daddy forgot his wallet which had his drivers license in it!  The employee told us he would call a taxi for us and it would only be 900 shekels for 6 hours.  We didn't have enough shekels so we left to go exchange some money at the bank.  Not even a hundred yards after we left, a taxi driver comes up and wants to take us around Galilee to Capernaum and Ein Gev.  After we finally got him to understand that we had already been to Capernaum and that we wanted to go up in the Golan Heights he told us he would take us for $200 US.  We decided to take him up on his offer since it was a better deal and because he pressured us quite a bit!

We were only 60km away from the capitol of Syria!

With our taxi driver, David, on the Golan Heights looking into Syria.

There was a ceremony with lots of army officials on the Golan Heights when we were there to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Yum Kippur War.

 We went down into the bunkers that the Israeli's took from the Syrians during the 6 day war in 1967.
It was pitch black down there so I can only imagine the adrenaline rush the Israeli soldiers felt as they fought hand to hand combat with the Syrians as they overtook the Heights!

Evidence of the fighting that took place here

 Looking out of the bunker into Syria.

We also went to the Banias Falls located at the foot of Mount Hermon in the Golan Heights.

This is one of the three water sources that feed the Jordan River.

We hiked the Suspended Trail over the stream.

On the way back to Tiberius David tried to persuade us to visit other places along the way so we would go over our 6 hour time and have to pay him more! :P  I think he figured out that we weren't the typical tourists ready to spend money at any suggestion! lol He finally just stopped trying and drove us back in time!

In the evening we went to the market for some fruit...

 

...and sunflower seeds!  They're huge and a nice snack for during the day!

 

On Friday we rode back to Jerusalem where we spent the last three days of our trip.

 

~Kaitlyn