Nimrod and Katzrin: No Child Left Behind Up North

For a much needed break from the tensions of Jerusalem politics, conflicts, and cold, I bussed up north with six students for a special extended bonding-filled weekend in the Golan. We stayed at an agricultural school called Hermon, located, fittingly, near Mount Hermon, the tallest mountain in Israel. Not too close though.

Pictures of the Golan Heights


We got to know the receptionist, who was a religious Jerusalemite-turned atheist. He drove us around town to collect supplies for Shabbat, and got to enjoy the landscape, especially Nimrod Fortress, the reason were there in the first place.



Nimrod is a medieval fortress with an exceptionally beautiful view. After a cute and simple Shabbat meal, we got to sleep early, and woke up early for a long day of uphill hiking.

To get to the fortress, we left through the back fence of the agricultural school, where we joined a trail that took us to the powerful Banias waterfall. At one point, we had to creep through an exit to a national park because they wouldn't open the doors for us. Once we made it through, we got "caught" even though we all had membership cards. We essentially broke into a nature reserve we already had paid for, so it came off as very strange to the ranger, and he just shrugged it off.

Since this is basically Syrian territory, it's a different climate than the rest of Israel. There was lots of water rushing down the waterfall above it all, the temperature was considerably different.



The hike was pretty direct, and actually not as steep as Mount Tabor, but we split up along the way, and some got there sooner than others. Also, the trail was a little hard to follow, even though we could see the finish line the whole way. Once up top, we called out to the last straggling member of our group.



I made a convenient mistake in that I underestimated our ability to climb the mountain. We could have rushed all the way back before the park closed, but instead we decided to explore the remnants of the fortress and take the "highway" back.



We walked on the street through a Druze market place, a Kibbutz that opened it's doors for us, and lots of signs for land mines (well not through that part) back to our room. Then we bussed a couple times to Katzrin so we could enjoy a cheap and informative tour of the Golan Heights Winery Sunday morning, including wine tasting!