In their tracks
Filed under: Entertainment, Environment, General, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life, Travel
This photo, of which there was a similar one in today’s Ha’aretz, shows deer walking around in the Odem or Red Forest, the largest nature reserve in the Golan Heights. I love the photo because it doesn’t seem like it could have been taken in Israel, as deer with antlers, romping in the snow, look so foreign to these parts. But Odem is a fairly magical forest, with deer, ibex and gazelles wandering around, overlooking views of the Golan mountains and Mount Hermon.
The forest and the moshav of Odem are located on Mount Odem, which is 3,580 feet above sea level, making it the second-highest town in Israel, after Neve Ativ, which sits on Mount Hermon. Odem, the moshav, has a few business concerns, but most interesting, perhaps, is its winery, Har Odem Winery, which is worth checking out, especially if the snow has melted by the time you get up there.
Why? It was a rainy weekend over here, and that rain translated into snow up there, where a meter of snow fell on the Hermon, Israel’s ski resort mountain, and nearly as much in other northern towns, including Tzfat and other peaks in the Golan Heights.
Of course, once there’s news of snow, the whole country heads up north to see it for themselves, as snow days are few and far between in these parts. The deer, however, get to revel in it as soon as it starts falling.
Lucky. I’m gonna try and join them this week.
Storm sports
Filed under: Environment, General, History and Culture, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life, Sports
You heard it from David, winter has arrived, albeit with a raging sandstorm in Jerusalem, although my sister in the mercaz, the country’s center, says it’s been pouring all day long.
So while I’m keeping my windows closed to keep out the sand, the Gush Dan folks are celebrating water and those in the Golan Heights are hoping for snow. And that’s good news for surfers and skiers. As I learned while reporting a surfing story a few weeks ago, it’s wintertime surfing that’s the best in Israel, when the waves are higher during and following heavy rainstorms. Fall and winter swells can reach from six to 10 feet, which is the time for the more experienced Israeli surfers to hit the waves.
If you want to check it out for yourself, head to the Topsea surfing website, which has webcams stationed at the best beaches. This is the link to the cam at Maravi or Western Beach, which is Tel Aviv’s southernmost beach, situated between Tel Aviv and Jaffa.
If you’re hoping for snow, you’re in luck, as the Hermon received 10 centimeters of snow and is expecting to open the site later this week. That’s early for our little ski mountain, but it’s a good omen considering that the ski season doesn’t usually happen until January or even February.
Here’s to some solid water or snow schussing in our futures.
Vacation tips for the Passover holiday – Part 1
It’s vacation time in Israel – the week of hol ha mod Pesach (the days in-between the Seder and the the seventh day of the chag) is a time when schools and many businesses close down and half the country seemingly takes to the parks and general great outdoors.
Our family traditionally heads north to the Galilee and Golan Heights regions. Here are some tips for trips that we’ve done in the past:
Ein Tina. Off of Highway 918 in the Golan, this hike comprises a 15-minute walk through water up to your belly in spots, then a short climb to what is known as a “waterfall” but actually consists of several draining pipes spewing water. Nevertheless, it’s a great place to cool off if the weather is forecast to be hot (which it is this coming weekend).
Kayaking. Along Highway 99, there are a number of kibbutzim offering kayaking; all of the go down the Hatzbani river. The starting point at Kibbutz HaGoshrim has the longest route, lasting about an hour and a half. We had bought discount tickets at the field school we were staying at, which brought down the per person fee from NIS 75 to NIS 60 ($17.50).
There are two types of kayaks, neither of which are actually kayaks in the traditional sense. Both are made of inflated rubber and can hold from two to six people. The rafting can be leisurely but during hol ha moed it’s more like bumper cars with kayaks constantly crashing into each other. There is a “challenge” route and a “family” one – we chose the latter which included a few mild rapids. It was enormous fun with enough splashing to keep us cool.
Dag al ha Dan. It’s always fun to eat at this iconic outdoor restaurant that is situated next to the Dan stream. Order the house specialty – Forel (a type of trout) – in different combinations – fried, grilled, filleted. Appetizers included smoked whitefish, pickled herring and creamy cucumber salad. The bill for 4, including soft drinks and dessert, came to just over NIS 300 ($87).
Apples in the Golan. At kibbutz Marom HaGolan is the Breshit apple packing factory. The establishment (which is mostly indoors, shaded from the hot sun) demonstrates how the apples make their way via conveyor belts through a sudsy cleansing bath, are sorted by size and eventually are placed into the boxes and palettes that end up in the local grocery store. The price for the tour is very reasonable – NIS 20 ($6) an adult, NIS 15 ($4) for kids.
Sky coffee. From apple packing, you can ascend to one of the highest (and coolest) points in the Golan –the Ben Tal mountain where there’s room to picnic and explore the Israeli bunkers that were used to repel the Syrian attack on the Heights in the 1973 Yom Kippur war. Ben Tal also sports a restaurant with the amusing name of Kofee Anan which means “coffee house in the clouds” in Hebrew but is also a play on words referring to the former head of the U.N.
We’ll have part two of this list on the Israelity blog tomorrow.
Contact info:
HaGoshrim Kayaking
http://www.zimmer.co.il/galil_lang.asp?Site_ID=338&lang=4&addstat=0
+972-4=681-6034
Unplugged on the Golan Heights
This past weekend the family and I took a jaunt to the north to stay with our friends on Moshav Yonaton, a small national religious village of approximately eighty families on the Golan Heights. Yonatan was founded by Didi Yadin, brother of Yonatan Rosenman who was killed in the Yom Kippur war. The founders of the moshav, a collective agricultural community, included members of Yonatan’s army unit and today is a bustling community whose industry includes a large dairy farm, massive chicken coops, a vineyard which is one of the numerous places that supplies grapes to the Golan Heights winery and a healthy mango and apple industry. You can actually find a variety of apples in all Israeli supermarkets called the “Yonatan.” My friends moved there a couple of years ago to truly live Zionism. The anglo bubble of Jerusalem just wasn’t doing it for them. I can see the appeal. The air is clean, their tap water comes directly from the same spring as Mei Eden bottled water, their kids run freely and in our short time there I couldn’t help but feel the overwhelming feeling of vibrant community (something that is lacking in every place I’ve ever lived). I’m not the shomer shabbat type, but felt pretty refreshed after an unplugged weekend.
The Golan will always have a special place in my personal history. I spent months upon months there during my military service and had the opportunity to explore many of the nooks that are off limits to normal residents (i.e. closed military zones for tank training and the like). It’s always nostalgic for me to visit, much to my wife’s chagrin. God bless her but the poor woman is endlessly subjected to my silly army stories.
Part of me yearns for a more rural existence. I can really use the quiet. And the people who live on the Golan are certainly a different breed. They are just so chill. So relaxed. We’ve spoken about it a lot and in our ten year plan we have plans to move north but I’m not sure I’m quite ready for such a gargantuan life change…yet.
The one where Harry chats with Shaul Mofaz
Well Shaul Mofaz lost the Kadima primary to Tzipi Livni who is now lined up to be our next prime minister. It’s not clear how long her tenure will be since its most likely new elections are just around the corner. It all depends on the strength of the coalition she can muster up. But that is not what I am here to talk about. I was hoping that Mofaz would win. Not because I support his agenda or anything like that but because you see, Mofaz and I go way back….
1998. My advanced tank training was held on the southern Golan Heights. We spent about 90 percent of our time out in the shetach (field). Upon returning to the base on Sunday we would drive our tanks through military only areas of the Golan, passing decimated and rusted Syrian tanks that are now used as target practice. Advanced tank training consists of obstacle courses spread over several kilometers. Each week, we would ship out to a different part of the Golan, training on different types of terrain. This week we happened to be near the city of Katzrin, the only city on the Golan Heights, sitting about 12 kilometers northeast of the Sea of Galilee. It was a good place to be, because we knew the chances of receiving an “after,” (free time) in the city was fairly high. Now, Katrzin isn’t a city per se, but it had a couple of cafes, mini-markets and shwarma joints. More than we had on the volcanic rock of the Golan where we spent most of our time.
On Wednesday morning we woke up shivering as usual, anxiously waiting for the sun to rise to rewarm our bodies. Our morning rituals of cold water shaving, eating crappy food, putting away our sleeping gear and preparing the tank for the days activities was done in silence. Everyone too tired from the previous night’s events. After breakfast we were told by our commanders that we’ll be having a special guest today – the new IDF Chief of Staff, Shaul Mofaz. It was his first week in his position and he was going around to random units to meet with the troops. He would be arriving at 11:30, so we’ll need to straighten up the area, put up some new flags and choose a representative to tell him about our unit.
Mofaz and his entourage of advisers, security and photographer arrived promptly. Eitan, a born leader who we chose earlier to speak about our unit spoke eloquently and intelligently about who we were and what we were doing. Mofaz then spoke briefly to our unit about the importance of the armored corp and upon completing his short speech asked if there were any questions. A few of the guys had some questions – though nothing too serious. Mofaz then said “Anyone else?”
I happen to be sitting dead center in the group and foolishly looked to my right and my left to see if anyone had their hands up. No one did. And that was my downfall.
Mofaz looks directly at me and says, “You there! The one looking around, please stand up.” I was so nervous that I thought my heart was going to explode through my chest and I immediately broke out in a heavy sweat.
There was a collective “Oh sh*t” among my commanders and the officers. The guys in my unit all tried to mask their smirks because they knew this conversation was going to be awesome.
I was a good soldier, but as you can imagine, a bit of a jokester. Now, this is the chief of staff of the IDF, so I wasn’t planning on messing around. But sometimes, things just happen. My Hebrew wasn’t all that great. Good enough to understand orders and converse with the boys but I couldn’t have a intellectual conversation about Kant’s categorical imperative. all my answers below are translated in English directly from the Hebrew I used.
I stood up and saluted the highest ranking officer in Israel.
“What is your name?” Mofaz asked.
“Harry Rubenstein” I answered with an intentionally strong accent.
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