Saturday, 25 October -

We had our breakfasts delivered to our cottage at 7:30.  It was huge basket that also ended up being most of our dinner.   Our first stop was the Gamla Nature Reserve.  There was an ancient city on the side of a very steep mountain that looked like the hump of a camel.  It was very easy defend and held off all attackers until the entire Roman Army destroyed it.

Gamla (the camel).  The town was built on
terraces (the black streak down the side)

The Nature Reserve is also home to several different types of large birds.  We saw several vultures soaring in the canyon with wing spans up to 7 feet.

Watching the vultures soar on the thermals

As we headed further north we paralleled the ‘cease fire’ line between Israel and Syria.  At one point we were within a half-mile.  The United Nations patrols that line.  It this picture you can see the UN base on the right in white buildings, with the ‘boarder’ extending to the left.  In the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the Israeli Army advanced well past this point and got within 20 miles of Damascus but fell back to here under the cease-fire agreement.

Not far away, we stopped at the Kibbutz El Rom.  It’s the second largest kibbutz in the ‘occupied territories’.  In the 1973 Yom Kippur War , Syria and Egypt unexpectedly attacked at several different points.  Here at El Rom, over 1,300 tanks advanced.  The Israeli army is mostly made up of ‘reserves’ and the active army is actually very small.  There were only 150 Israeli Tanks available to stop the Syrian advance.  They held the Syrians for 3 days but had heavy casualties.  When the reserves arrived the Syrians were destroyed in 9 days.  It’s called the “Valley of Tears”.

Memorial to the "Valley of the Tears"

Tank Commanders

You may be able to see a town in the distance of the photos.  While we were there, we heard dozens of ‘mortar fire’ and many bursts of very heavy machine gun fire.  It’s part of the Syrian civil war between the rebels and government.

For lunch a Druze family hosted us.  The Druze separated from Islam 1,000 years ago.  They don’t identify with any country or nation.  They believe in equality and separation of church and state.   We did follow their custom of removing our shoes before entering the home.  The food was good!

After returning to our cottage, Ellen and I took a walk south along the rim of the Golan Heights.  We came upon an old Syrian bunker and artillery piece.

The sun setting over Mount Tabor, site of Jesus' transfiguration.

Tomorrow we’re going quickly run down through the West Bank and end up in Jerusalem.