Day 17

Our last day on the Jordan/Israel tour started with a bus drive up to the Golan Heights, territory belonging to Syria but which has been occupied by Israel since the Six Day War in 1967. We travelled to a pretty national park called Tel Dan, the place where the tribe of Dan settled after they left their original home on the coastal plain. It eventually became the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel at the time when the country was split into north and south. We then travelled to Banias, the site where Jesus asked Peter who he thought Jesus was . There are other interesting ruins of a temple to the pagan god Pan. A little further on we walked to a very beautiful waterfall, which is part of the same national park. It’s hard to imagine that much of the country is struggling for water when you see this raging torrent. A quick lunch was followed by a drive right up to the Syrian/Lebanon borders, where we saw a United Nations compound, there to (try to) keep the peace between Israel/Syria and Lebanon and also the very high tech Israeli surveillance station, listening constantly to communications within Syria and Lebanon. As you might imagine, Israel has a significant military presence in this part of the country with a number of bases with elite troops, tanks & artillery.

This is the end of our Jordan/Israel leg. Now we travel to Anzac Cove, Gallipoli and Istanbul before heading home. Stand by for more updates on Monday next week.