We began our day with some
volunteering at Kibbutz Ayelet Hashachar – one of the larger fruit producers in
Israel. Here we ran stalls and activities for the Ethiopian children that live
on the kibbutz. Some of the activities included making bracelets as well as
baking and decorating biscuits.We were then back on the coach to drive to the beautiful Banias Nature Reserve. The Banias hike consists of a walk through shallow water from the springs to the waterfall, where there is a stunning pool to swim in. The trek through the water was so refreshing in the Israeli sun.
There was hardly any point drying ourselves off, since our next stop was back in the river for some water sports! This time we were rafting down the Jordan River, which was a lot of fun and the group had a good laugh splashing each other with their paddles.
We continued the day at the Mount Bental observation point, where we had amazing views of Mount Hermon and the Golan region, and we learnt about the history of this area. Because it’s extremely high and close to Syria, it is a place of major military strategic importance to Israel. It is also known as the Valley of Tears because during the Yom Kippur War, Mount Bental was the site of one of the largest battles in history with many casualties suffered. It was there that 100 Israeli tanks were reduced to just seven, whilst Israel managed to take down 600 Syrian tanks and force the retreat of the Syrians.
To end off a great day we had a
birthday party and cake for Nathalie who turned 16 today and after the
celebrations we then headed to the local park for a concert by Israeli musician
Moshe Ben Ami. It was great to hear the contrast between Israeli and English
pop music and dance along with our Israeli counterparts.More to come tomorrow,
The Tribe Team
“Volunteering was very interesting and it was impressing to see people brought up differently to me. The water hike was good and fun, I enjoyed it a lot. Rafting was incredible and brilliant one of the best things I’ve done on tour so far. The concert was very different and very fun I’ve never heard Israeli music before.” Joseph Gilmore
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