The Golan Heights

Earlier this afternoon at an Israeli bunker / memorial in the Golan Heights, with no-one else in sight:

Me: where do you think the Syrian border is from here?

Guide: I'm not sure - close I think.  (pause... points to a ditch no more than 50-75 metres away) I think it's at that ditch.

We spent the day in the Golan Heights - which was absolutely fascinating and a region I strongly recommend for a visit.  We've now spent large parts of the past couple of days on or very near the Lebanese border, Syrian border and Lebanese border.  Actually, the kibbutz hotel at which we're staying is pretty near both the Syrian border and the Jordanian border.  My mobile phone switched over to a Jordanian network before and I got various welcome messages in English and Arabic. 

The Golan is beautiful and the land is very productive.  Apart from the land not yet cleared of land mines, much of the land is given over to impressive-looking production of fruit, vegetables and cows.  We visited a couple of kibbutzes and numerous monuments to the bravery of Israeli soldiers in the 1973 war.  And lunch at a tiny falafel shop in a Druze village right up in the far north of the country (the village where, famously, residents have yelled conversations with relatives in villages on the Syrian side of the border).

This afternoon we wound down a road with lots of twists and turns near the Jordanian border (Israel's land stops at the bottom of a gorge and Jordan has the opposite side of the gorge).  Jordanian villages so close it felt you could touch them.  The scenery was just incredibly beautiful.

Now back at the Kibbutz hotel on the Sea of Galilee.  Tomorrow we make our way to Jerusalem.

More later.....