Monday, August 18, 2008

Tel Dan burnt down

This past Shabbos was very nice. My in-laws are in from anada and my bro-in-law came up with his wife and 2 kids. Everyone got along very nicely.

Sunday I took off for the day and we all went to Tel Dan, which is on the border of the upper galilee and the Golan Heights. It is a beautiful nature reserve and had a nice wooden path that is available for strollers, wheel chairs and people who have trouble walking. Unfortunately, there was a forest fire in Tel Dan a month ago and it destroyed, among other things the wooden path. They hastily formed a new trail that allows visitors to see most of the attractions in the nature reserve. It was nice, but not exactly what we expected. I explained to my children in my best Smokey the Bear voice that "Only you can prevent forest fires."

We hit Pizza Meter in Kiryat Shmona for a late lunch - delicious pizza. A half meter is about the size of a normal pizza, for 44 shek and it comes with a bottle of pop.

Tonight we are heading to the mystical city of Tzfat to hear the klezmerim play their music. You can see more information about the klezmerfest on their website.

3 comments:

Leora said...

We were in Tel Dan in early summer, before the fire. It is indeed a beautiful spot.

I just want to comment on the Smokey the Bear thing...first of all, my understanding was the Tel Dan fire was arson. So Smokey the Bear wouldn't have helped. And Smokey the Bear caused problems in California; if small fires are allowed to burn, we don't get the big ones. Smokey the Bear was wrong. In Boy Scouts, they now teach the kids it's good to have some forest fires, so the woods won't be full of flammable tinder that can create huge, difficult to stop problems.

Bet you weren't expected such a long comment on your post.

rockofgalilee said...

I actually did tell the kids that forest fires were not all bad for the forest, because they get rid of the old bad stuff and allow new good stuff to grow.

I disagree with you on the Smokey the Bear, however. In the boy scouts they teach them that not all forest fires are bad, but they do not teach them to leave their fires burning unattended so that they can cause a "good" forest fire. People have to be very careful about how they use fire around the forest. If the forest is maintained, they can decide to have a "good" forest fire and do it under close supervision.

Leora said...

Yes, you are right, it doesn't mean set fires left and right! Our boy scout troop likes to be melodramatic and stress how one was taught one thing, but now it's not quite like that. And Israel is very different than CA. But on my last trip with the Boy Scouts (my son is a scout), the leaders did stress how it's OK to have small fires and even good for the forest, and the thinking is different than it used to be.

Thanks for reporting on the Galil. My cousins live up there, so every time I've been to Israel I visit them.