Golan trip (Gamla and Har Bental)

Today is a beautiful, warm day here, so we decided to take a drive to the Golan. Our first destination was Gamla National Park. We had hoped to take a tour of the ruins of the ancient city (destroyed by the Romans in 67 C.E.), but apparently they no longer offer vehicle tours down there and thus the only way would be to hike down and, more worryingly, up again! Since we weren't willing (or perhaps even ABLE!) to do that, you'll just have to settle for this picture, taken with the maximum zoom on my camera:

There were plenty of other lovely things to see there, though. Here's a gorgeous white flower of a kind that I'm not sure I've seen before:

Here's a close-up view of a bee enjoying a yellow Bishop's Weed flower:

Here's a caterpillar that was hurrying across the paved path. We saw several of these:

We see a lot of these small birds all over the place in the North. This one was hanging around the eating area near where they sell snacks:

After we left Gamla, we continued north along the Waterfalls Highway and stopped at this one, called Ayet Falls. In this picture, you can see the waterfall and you can also see the highway right above it:

Further north in the Golan, I stopped to snap this picture. In the distance on the left, you can see Har Khermon (Mt. Hermon) with some snow still on it. Somewhat closer, on the right, you can see a row of power-generating windmills (which we have visited and I have written about previously):

At the same place where I took the previous picture, next to a road leading west, I saw this sign, a reminder of the military presence that is necessary in the Golan:

We finally arrived at Har Bental (Mt. Bental), one of the many volcanic peaks in the Golan (some of which, including this one, we can see from our house). Along both sides of the path from the parking lot to the top of the mountain, there are scrap metal statues by a Dutch artist. These little signs have always seemed just a little humorous to me. This is the entire sign; notice that it's only in Hebrew. What is the message that needs to get across, but apparently only to Israelis, you may ask? It's "Please don't touch!" I guess they're not worried about other people touching?!

Here's the overall view of the top of Har Bental. On the left, you can see the entrance to the coffee house. In the background in the middle, you can see Har Khermon with snow still on it. In the foreground, you see the bunker where soldiers can stay if they need to defend this mountain again. For now, though, it's open to tourists, and, in fact, I walked through it again today.

Looking east from Har Bental, one looks directly into Syria. Here's a view of the Syrian city of Kuneitra: