I went to the Golan Heights after an adventurous three days stay in beautiful Clil, in the midst of the Galilee. The bus drive is kind of long, but I enjoyed every second of it. The landscape is amazing and when I saw the Sea of Galilee for the first time I almost fell off my seat. It’s beauty in perfection.
Odem
Kiryat Shmona – meaning the Town of Eight – is Israel’s northernmost city. I was happy that Liad, the owner of the Golan Heights Hostel, came to pick me up there, because the hostel is in a really small town called Odem almost one hour from Kiryat Shmona. There is a bus but I already had had to change it twice.
Birkat Ram
But he didn’t just pick me up. The first thing he did was showing me the “Blue Bus” – the best Humus place of the country. That’s at least what he said. In fact it was more than just good…
We arrived right in time to see the sun going down over the mountains. It was a freezing cold evening and Odem was snowy white, but luckily in the hostel there is a shelf with scarfs, hats and thick ponchos that will keep you warm if you don’t have any in your backpack.
In the morning the Golan Heights Hostel staff prepares fresh and yummy pancakes to strengthen you for the hike of the day. There are so many nature parks and trails (like the Nimrodem or the Golan Trail which leads you from Mount Hermon directly to the Sea of Galilee) that you can easily spend a whole week there.
Rolling with the hommies!
Because of the cold Liad suggested doing a Jeep tour. We went together to a place up high in the mountains where we could see the two neighbor countries: Syria on the right hand side and the Lebanon on the left. I could hear the bombs or missiles exploding to my right and it was a really awkward moment to take photos of. My intuition told me to sit down and just reflect.
Watching the beautiful Golan Heights
Reflect on why I just had pancakes for breakfast and over there men are dying.
Reflect on why I had a hot shower in the morning while children over there are dying.
Reflect on why I am standing on the safe side while whole families over there are dying.
The only answer I could find was: Life is a big lottery. And I won it. At least for now.
Reflecting on Syria
With a bad feeling in my heart we went on. We passed a beautiful crater lake called Birket Ram and went to a town called Mas’ade, one of the four remaining Druze villages in the Israeli Golan Heights and on Mount Hermon. In the village they have a really nice market where you can wander around and enjoy the atmosphere. After an exhausting morning you can have an abundant lunch at a Druze place where you actually have all you can eat for only 40 Shekels if you tell them that you are staying in the Golan Heights Hostel.
Birkat Ram and Lebanon
On the next day we went to some hot springs close to the Sea of Galilee. This place has been a Spa in former times that got the hot spring water from a dormant volcano but after some time it was used for the army. When the army left the Golan Heights they didn’t need the Spa anymore so it got abandoned. Today it has no roof anymore and looks like a perfect spot for abandoned places photography. But the hot water from the springs is still running free, so people use it during their leisure time.
A hidden stream in the Golan Heights
We went there after sunset. Some people had brought candles to light the room, but sometimes we were lying in the hot water in absolute darkness. I could watch the million stars over my head. It was magical!
Our small waterfall
On my last day Liad showed me the end point of one of the best trails in the area at the Nimrod Fortress, a place with a gorgeous waterfall and a hidden place at a stream that seemed to still be somehow in Israel, but actually from a fairy tail…
A Crusader Fortress in the Golan Heights
Barbara Riedel is a half-german half-Italian “Digital Nomad”: Working independently, she doesn’t need anything else than her laptop & internet, preferably – at the beach. “It’s making me more creative to hear, listen and smell the sea while I’m working”. Passionate for travel, her blog “Barbaralicious“, alongside her two published books – made her just the kind of a rising new blogger & writer ILH loved to host… While in Israel, she stayed connected using a data & cellular package provided by Deal-Sim (available at ILH Hostels).
