Galilee

Shelley, Marcia and I drove our little rented Hyndai Gets north to the Kfar Blum sports center and took this white bus up to Bet Hillel, where we got into our orange raft and floated down the Chatsbani River. When it was joined by the Dan and the Jordan, we encounted about 10 seconds of exciting whitewater turbulence (which is why I didn't bring a camera) and then we were back to easy living. About driving in Israel: yes, it's scary. But when you learn to ignore the large trucks breathing down your neck, it's a lot of fun and a great way to get around.
	The Jordan River gets very narrow in places and crosses the road frequently. Every time it crossed the road, we stopped to take a picture. Here's one of me, and one of Marcia taking a picture. The Gesher Arik (Arik Bridge) is named in memory of a fallen soldier, Arieh Shamir.

	Our group of teachers is leaning against a Syrian tank in front of Kibbutz Degania Aleph. The first kibbutz in Israel, it was founded in 1910. During the 1948 War of Independence, Syrian tanks from just across the border attempted to storm the kibbutz. The assault was stopped by a single soldier throwing a home-made grenade into the tank. He lost his life but saved the kibbutz.
At a moshav near Arbel, the proprieter explains the finer points of making olive oil. After the oil-making lesson, we ate lunch among the olive trees. Click here for some really good recipes. Two items that I was offered in nearly every Israeli household I visited - home-cured olives of varying recipes, and "nana," a mild mint tea grown in the garden or in a pot on the porch.	Looking north from the hills of Arbel above Lake Kinneret, we can see in the distance the Golan Heights, Mt. Hermon, a ski resort which even now is partially snow-covered, and the Horns of Hittin, an extinct volcano where Sallah Al-Din (Saladin) conquered the Crusader armies in 1187.