Saturday, November 13, 2010

A visit to Khamat Gader

Today, David and I visited חמת גדר Khamat Gader for the first time. It's located in the Yarmukh River Valley (the Yarmukh River flows into the Jordan River not far south of the Kinneret) right on the border with Jordan (the country, not the river!) at the southern end of the Golan. There are mineral hot springs there, so there are big pools of warm water (upper 86˚-88˚ F). There is also a small zoo with lots of many different kinds of תנינים taninim (alligators, crocodiles, Caymans, and other similar large reptiles).

We enjoyed soaking in the pools and seeing the animals. The air temperature was just perfect down there (150 meters below sea level). Of course, there were lots of people, but it wasn't too crowded to enjoy. We plan to go back again sometime during the winter, hopefully on a weekday (Sunday through Thursday) instead of on the weekend.