The Jordon Valley, Sea of Galilee and the borders of Lebanon and Syria.

Today we had a 13 hour day of touring. We began at our hotel and headed north through the Judean Desert and then onto the Jordon Valley. As we got deeper into the valley the land became a lot more fertile and we saw bananas, dates, grapes and figs growing. Israel exports all of these products with their neighbours and our guide told us that they just don't mark it as 'grown in Israel' so their hostile neighbours buy it. Today was the only day of the trip that we had armed soldiers come through our bus and check us but they did so with a smile. I have experienced nothing but friendly and kind people in this country.

We began our tour by travelling up a mountain known as 'The Star of Jordan' where we visited a 12th century Crusader Castle called Belvoir. The background of this photo is the view from all directions at the top of these ruins.

We then headed down past the Sea of Galilee toward our lunch destination, the Kubbutz Ein Gev fish restaurant. The meal was delicious and was really very much like the kind of food we eat back home. They eat well in this country.

Lunch started with pita, hummus, pickled cauliflower, a chunky garlic, onion and capsicum dip and a cucumber and tomato salad.

Then lentil soup.

Then a whole baked fish with lemon. Delicious!!!!

After lunch we went to the border of Jordon and Israel. Jordan and Israel share a very good relationship and the high volt electrified fence that runs along the entire border is not to stop Jordanians from entering so much as Hezbollah and ISIS.

The small yellow fort that you can see on the hill in the next photo is also the same fort in the first of these photos. A Jordanian soldier is in this fort at all times and his job is to identify and stop anybody who is trying to cross into Israel.

The following two photos show how lush the landscape is throughout the Jordan Valley.

My favourite part of the whole day was heading up to the Israeli border with Syria and Lebanon. It looked peaceful but my friend had a really good camera that could zoom right in on the landscape and sadly it is just decimated. I'll have these photos when I get back to Australia. As you get closer to Syria you start to see ruined buildings.

The landscape becomes a lot more desolate as well.

This photo is Syria.

 This is Lebanon.

This is the Israel active military position overlooking the borders. It's hard to see the tanks in the photo but they are all lined up across the mountain range.

As we got closer to the borders there was also a greater UN presence. I've never seen a UN car except for on the news.

Tomorrow it is back to the classroom and then tomorrow night we are having our farewell dinner at a South American restaurant.