With the lockdown nearing its end, we decided to take another trip up north. It was another short trip – two nights/three days. We rented a car in Tel Aviv and an Airbnb in the northern Galilee, which we used as our base.

We drove north along the coastline and made a quick stop at an ancient aqueduct near Bet Henaniya.   

It was a long-ass aqueduct and worth the brief stop. 

There were some nearby trails, but they weren’t the most scenic at that point, so we checked out the aqueduct and continued on our way toward the Carmel Mountains, as originally planned. 

We stopped in the mountains and did a short in-and-out trail (about an hour each way).  

After that, we continued on our way to the Northern Galilee, through Kiryat Shmonah, stopped at a supermarket, and headed toward our Airbnb. 

The next day, we set out for the Golan Slopes Nature Reserve – Gilbon (Dvora) Stream for a hike.  It was a really pretty hike.

It was a super-pretty hike, with ancient ruins (a pretty big-ass city or whatever it was) and tons of nature. The trail to the ruins branched off of the stream trail – we took it and walked around the ruins (ptobably about 30 minutes or so), and then returned back to the stream trail. 

After the detour to see the ruins, we returned to the trail along the stream and walked along it for about an hour and a half. 

The trail along the stream can be done as a loop, but the way back didn’t seem as pretty as the way in, so we ended it up just backtracking (about an hour and a half into the trail). 

After the hike, we drove around the Golan Heights and northern Galilee for a bit, and then headed over to Metulla (where Israel, Lebanon, and Syria meet).  The view from the observation point is incredible. 

From there, we returned to our Airbnb, made some dinner (restaurants still weren’t open, and it’s not like there was a lot of stuff where we were staying anyway). 

The next day, we set out for the Naftali Mountains Forest for a hike to a castle.  The hike was via the Kziv Stream Nature Reserve. 

It was a pretty sweek hike, and a pretty sweek castle… Or so I’m told… I smashed a couple of my toes the night before and had to turn around pretty early on. But, from what I was told, it was well worth the trek to see the castle. It was a pretty easy path, and it took Connie less than 2 hours back and forth (although she was hurrying).

From there, we decided to drive up to Rosh Hanikra, the northernmost point of the country along the coast. The site has some impressive water caves (grattos), but we got there too late in the afternoon and, due to that and the fact that the country wasn’t fully operational still, we weren’t able to go see them (you have to take the cable car). But we walked along the beach for a bit, which was pretty cool.