The enemies are closer than you think....

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The first stop of Thursday was a nature reserve called Tel Dan. Tel Dan is actually a stream that comes from a massive spring, and is a tributary of the Jordan River. We hiked through the forest, seeing many interesting sites, including an old temple and the Syrian border. The vegetation was very thick, and we saw several lizards, and a venomous snake.

We then drove up to the Lebanese border, seeing the perimeter fence and an old tank, now broken down. When we were there, we saw a number of UN vehicles patrolling the Lebanese side of the border.

We went to tour an army base, though that was kind of a flop, as our guide got called away early in the tour, and we had to leave very soon. However, we did get to see a tank that was monumentally huge. We also got too see some of their ammo and a 5.56 M4 bullet.

We toured through the Golan Heights, seeing several old bunkers and getting way up on the mountains. We also saw many warning signs about old mines sitting out in the fields.

We saw a Druze village, and had lunch up in it. Unlike the Orthodox Jews, the Druze are very hard to identify. They are very, very secretive about their religion, and really will not share any of their practices with the outside world.

We traveled onwards, and saw the Valley of Tears, where a massive tank battle took place in the Yom Kippur war. 44 Israeli tanks stood against 500 Syrian tanks, that were supposedly more advanced, and yet, they still managed to beat back the Syrians. When the 3 day battle was over, 3 Israeli tanks still were functional.

We went down to the Jordan River, which is actually more like a huge stream. Apparently, the Jordan River is where Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. It is small and kind of muddy, but has massive historical significance.

We then went to a Kibbutz, and were given a tour of it by a woman called Mech (I think…). We were shown the stables, swimming pool, houses, dining hall, Childrens houses, and bomb shelters. We then had dinner with the family, and were able to hear about their views of Israel first hand. We were also able to hear about their concerns for Israel what they though the main issues were.

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