Adventures in Israel: Hula Nature Reserve

My parents are big fans of national parks. They always have been. We used to spend time camping in the Great Smokey Mountains and visited quite a few of the others on road trips over the years. In Israel, a lot of the ruins are national parks as well. My parents bought themselves an annual pass and, as they joked while we were there, it more than earned itself during our visit. Most of the places we went either they or I had been before--however, there was one place none of us had been: the Hula Nature Reserve.

In part, this is because the security situation in Israel for the better part of the last decade has involved flying objects coming from the north (ie Lebanon) and the Hula is within range of that. Although we weren't there during the right time of year, the reserve was still really lovely and reminded me a lot of some of the marsh areas of the Everglades. I spent way too much time looking for alligators.

The Hula Nature Reserve is a bird santuary. See, the migratory patterns of most European and West Asian birds takes them south to Africa for the winter. The layover destination of all these guys is Hula...over 200 different species. So in the high season there are tens of thousands of birdies hanging out with the muscrats and water buffalos (click the photos below).

There was also a video that went with the tour. You sit down in what looks like a really small and very old movie theater and put on 3D glasses...which work suprisingly well over real glasses... Soon, the music starts and you realize that not only is this a 3D movie, this little adventure also has other effects...the chairs move as the birds fly...when they fly past you there is a whoosh of air in your face. Unfortunately, the birds went through a rain storm at some point during the movie, which meant we went through a rainstorm, got shot in the face with water, and some strange little contraptions binked me in the backs of my calves. I say bink because they reminded me of the little mallets used to play that persian instrument called a santour (hammered dulcimer)...anyways, it was all very sensory and really pretty dope. There aren't usually things like that in the parks here and it was a really neat experience.

So, back to my alligator thing. I absolutely expected to find them...and go figure there weren't any, BUT i did find something else that was undoubtedly grateful for the lack of animals with chompingly big teeth: world's most enormous catfish.

Yes, more catfish--about the same size as the ones that live right by the Baptismal area on the River Jordan....These bad boys were ALL over the place and would jump out of the water.

It was a beautiful and super calm place. I can imagine it gets crazy with people during bird season---but the quiet (between large groups of American tourists) was really calming.

And just for good measure...here's A and I on the boardwalk.