Tiberias trip - Day 2

Morning of Blunders

We had vowed to get out early, spend the morning in the Zaki lagoon (where a creek joins the north end of the Kineret), return home to rest, and then spend a couple of hours on the beach here in Tiberias before the kids' bedtime.  Well, we almost got the first part right.

Binyamin and I got up at the crack of dawn, and went off to prayer at the synagogue up the hill from us.  I occurred to me that the stained glass in the center of the synagogue ceiling rather reminded me of a light fixture from some pool bar in the States.

Where does the line between gaudiness and splendor pass?

After we got back to the apartment, I was exhausted and went back to sleep for about half an hour, while the children jumped around and gradually got dressed.  At some point I was awoken and begain to aid in the disconcerted effort to leave the house.  Change this one's diaper... Make sure we packed sunscreen... Check the bus schedule... Oy! The last bus that will easily get us to our destination leaves in half an hour from the central bus station!  Ok, there's a bus right here across the street that will take us there in less than twenty minutes, and it's coming in... 4 minutes!  Ok, everybody downstairs, across the street!

We watched from our side of the street as the bus pulled away from the station.  We'd missed it by about 15 seconds.  So we tried to keep calm and assess our current options.  In the end we decided to take a different bus to the destination we'd planned for tomorrow, the Zavitan stream, which was in a slightly different direction.  Since the day before we'd originally planned to spend some time in the Kineret, and in the end canceled, now Amiel refused to hear anything of it.  We promised that the next day we would indeed go to the Kineret.  He sounded like he was ready to start a rebellion.  "You're just going to say the same thing tomorrow!"  Binyamin, for his part, had no shortage of "should have, could have, would have" nuggets of advice to impart upon us.  In the end everyone calmed down and waited calmly in the searing heat for the journey to begin.

That next bus left at 10 o'clock, which gave us plenty of time after missing the 8:45 bus we had intended to take.  The next city bus that would take us to the central station came twenty minutes later.  About 17 minutes later, we remembered something important that we'd forgotten in the apartment.  I dashed back across the street and up three flights of stairs.  Again I watched the bus depart from my side of the street.  By this time the little ones were getting crankier, and Binyamin burst into a second barrage of useless advice.  We didn't miss the bus the third time.

At 10 o'clock sharp we boarded the bus and expected to be on the near edge of the Golan Heights within an hour.

At the central bus stop

Our original plan was to take the bus that goes around the Kineret clockwise, which would mean
 going only a quarter of the way around the lake.  Our new route went the opposite direction,
taking us three quarters of the way around, with change.

The trip was pleasant, as it skirted the edge of the Kineret, with mountains on one side and water on the other.  Around 11 o'clock a whole bunch of teenage girls got off the bus with us at the entrance to the nature reserve.  While we tarried in the bus stop with putting everyone's hats on and other necessary adjustments, they made their way toward the front gate.  We arrived two minutes later, to hear them arguing and blaming each other for their bad fortune.  Some seemed ready to cry.  What had happened?  The very nice woman at the gate was explaining to everyone who arrived that the best part of the reserve - the water - was off limits.  Due to a very dry winter, the springs that fed the pools and waterfalls on the trails had all but dried up.  The water had become stagnant, and tests had revealed potentially harmful bacterial colonies in the water (after returning home, we discovered that the next day they reopened the water trails, since there was no longer evidence of bacterial infestation).  Not only were the Zavitan and the Yehudiya streams closed (the other popular water trail in the reserve), but also the Zaki lagoon, where we'd meant to be at that very moment!

We were disappointed, but we had a secret weapon up our sleeves: a family membership to the national parks association.  This was one of the best decisions I made this year to improve the state of outdoor affairs in our family.  There are about 60 national parks and nature reserves throughout the country that are run by the national parks association, and you have to pay to get in.  They are, of course, the most interesting and worthwhile nature spots in the country (with the notable exception of the Baron Rothschild's burial plot and surrounding reserve, which are free and maintained by an endowment he set up before he passed away).  But we tended to shy away from them, since paying for all the kids got pretty pricey.  But they have a great deal: if you buy a family membership, you get free entrance for the whole, regardless of the number of children.  For us, going to three national parks already would make it worthwhile.  So, while the group of girls sadly turned away, since there was no way they were going to pay admission if there were no water hikes to be offered, we waltzed in and enjoyed the shaded picnic benches, used the facilities, got sound advice from the staff about which sites are still open, at no extra charge!  So the kids were able to calmly eat lunch, and we eventually decided our best bet was to hit the Jordan river.  On the bus in the morning, I had caught a glimpse of the Jordan where it just exits the south end of the Kineret, which looked particularly inviting.  We marched back to the bus stop.

The view from the entrance to the nature reserve

Leaving the nature reserve

Wet at Last

A few minutes before the bus was to arrive, a small van pulled up.  It belonged to a private enterprise that basically sucks up some of the bus lines' passengers in order to make a few bucks.  The driver seemed desperate to get us in his vehicle, and I wasn't too interested in waiting for the bus, which would make more and lengthier stops than this van.  After prolonged negotations, he offered to take us to our destination for 70 ILS for the whole family, only about 20 ILS more than the bus would have costed us.  We were on our way.  In about half an hour we got off.  The water was right below us.  Elisheva got excited.  Strapped onto my back, she cooed into my ear, "Abba, I want to go to the water!" repeatedly for about half an hour it took us to wander back and forth until eventually deciding to return to the exact spot we'd alighted from the van, almost interrupting a baptismal ceremony along the way.  

We find a place to stash our gear, and started preparing for the water -- bathing suits, sunscreen, inflating the rubber raft.  The rubber raft was another brilliant decision of mine in the department of outdoor quality of living.  On a whim I ordered the raft off the internet about two months ago, only recalling having similar rubber raft as a kid while I was finalizing the order on the website.  Four days later we take it the beach in Tel Aviv for its maiden voyage.  It was an instant hit.  Three medium size children could comfortably sit in it simultaneously.  Here in the river it was multi-purpose: it served as a ferry, a nursing chair, a resting space for unhappy children, and for paddling practice.  Unfortunately, I tried to row a little too vigorously and ended up snapping one of the plastic paddles in half.

For over three hours we basked in the river, swimming, playing and drifting.  The water was warm, very slow moving, shallow enough at the edges for the little ones, and deep enough towards the middle to swim easily.  The only drawback was that shade was scarce.  By the time we started to head home, after 5 o'clock, everyone was sunburnt in one form or another.

River selfie

Even the baby got to tool around on her own

All tired out

Trouble in Paradise

Right on the other side of the river from where we entered the water was a campgrounds, and a small group of kids with their parents were also enjoying the water, about 50 meters downstream from us.  Binyamin refused to join us in the water, since the girls were wearing bikinis, and he didn't feel comfortable being in such close proximity to that kind of situation.  We tried to reason with him, argue with him, dissuade him from his (in our opinion) extremist views, but he would have none of it.  He stayed up on the shore, behind the brush and trees that were there, moping.  I was painfully reminded of myself as a teenager, so many times upset by some situation I was put in by my family, angry and moping off to the side.  So it went for about an hour.  Then, one by one, the folks from the campground got out of the water and went back to their camp.  I quickly called Binyamin to come and join us.  He looked out from his safe spot, saw that cost was clear, and immediately inquired as to the whereabouts of the sunscreen.  Cha-ching!  Some time after that, the kids returned to their spot, but Binyamin pretended he didn't notice them this time.  And so, as they say, a good time was had by all.

Fine

We caught a bus that took us quickly the last quarter of the way around the Kineret, back to Tiberias.  Once in the city, we hit awful traffic, but eventually we made it home.  After putting the kids to bed we deliberated what the best plan would be for the next day, and decided that would we do everything in our power to make the 8:45 bus, which would take us to what looked like a nice beach, and a short hike to the part of the Jordan that was just North of the Kineret, exactly opposite the place we'd been today.