Hi,
We spent our first day of our family summer vacation on Hula lake in the North of Israel.
The idea for this vacation in the first place was to fly with my side of the family to Bulgaria and spend a week on some rooms on the mountains. With the Coronavirus of course it is impossible, and we switched the flight with a week in almost the North most part of Israel.
We tried to enter once to the lake some years ago, but we were with Xuxa (our dog) which isn’t allowed to enter.
The lake is what left of the swamps that were on most of Hula valley area. After Israel indenpendence the project to drain the swamp had begun. The idea was to clean the area from mosqitues and to use the fartilie lands of the vallry for agriculture.
Only after the project had begun it had been realized the value of the swamps for nature around it. Now only a small lake is left and hosts the hundreds of thousands of birds on their way from Africa to Europe or the other way.
We got in just before they start to take money for enterance as A new visitor center is about to open 🙂
Except it we got not on the best time for a visit: First it is the moddle of the summer, and no birds are flying North or South and stop for a rest on the lake. Second we got in on 10:00 which is too late for the morning brirds show.
We move around on a golf cart, as the option of taking bicycle was rejected by Atzva (“I’m on vacation”). Walking around is not really an option as the trail is long and without no shadow. You can also join a tour on a cart pulled by a tractor.
There is also Hula lake Nature reserve which allow a better view and pedestrians expirence.
Take Care
Gad
The new visitor center at Hula lake
The cart for the per-ordered tours
A tractor packing the Hay, Behind it flew cattles egre that looked for grains The view up the hill
On the way we stopped to eat Agamon Market which was mostly closed due to the Coronvirus
At this time of the year it should have been packed with families
Our AirBnB Zimmer at Neve Ativ
Luna, the keeper of the Zimmer, that scratched Mindal and sent us for Rabies vaccine
The memorial for Egoz unit fallen soldiers. After 4 of them the settlement is named.
Fisherman on Hula lake fishing with a net called Giraffe , 1940 (Source: Upper Galilee Documentation Center, Pikiwiki)
Boats on Hula lake before drainage, with Golan Heights on the distance, 1939 (Source: Upper Galilee Documentation Center, Pikiwiki)
Buffalo soaking in a mud hole, 1946 (Source: Center for Digital Media, Haifa University Library, Pikiwiki)
The lake view from Al-Nabi Yusha’ 1930s (Source: Wikipedia)