Return to Gamla

Today, I made sure to feed the snakes first thing so that we'd have time for a little trip. So, we headed out once again to Gamla Nature Reserve. This time, we decided to hike out on the trail to the waterfalls (the highest in Israel, at 51 meters), about 45 minutes each way according to the guy at the gate. And, I think that's actually about how much time it took us. David didn't make it all the way, but sat he and waited for me while I walked to the place from which one can view the falls. The trail was rocky and somewhat muddy, which made it a little more difficult to walk on, but it was still an interesting hike. We also walked a short distance down a paved trail to the vulture lookout area, and, sure enough quite a few vultures were soaring over the canyon.

The following are several pictures that I took along the way, with some commentary on each of them. Enjoy!
These are some small yellow flowers that were blooming everywhere in that area.

This is an example of something called a "dolmen". There are thousands of these in the Golan, including about 700 around Gamla. They were erected 4000 years ago (!) during the period of the intermediate Bronze Age.

Here's a picture of the waterfall itself. In the background, in the upper left, you can see the round moutain (Har Peres), which we can also see directly east from our house.

In case the flower picture made you think of Spring, here are a couple of photos that will make you think of Autumn: a tree in full Fall color, near the parking lot, and a detail of some beautiful leaves on another tree, along the trail.

This is a picture of a fennel plant. These grow quite abundantly is this area.

Finally, a vulture. Although there were quite a few soaring over the canyon, it was very difficult to actually capture one in a picture with my camera, which is really not fast enough for this kind of photography. Nevertheless, I did get one fairly good picture, which you see here. The vulture is in the extreme upper right corner. In the lower left corner, you can see the Kinneret. The second picture is simply a detail from the first showing only the vulture.