As the winter arrives, over 40,000 cranes pass through the Hula Valley each month, and now is a great opportunity to watch them. Here’s a day plan for Hula Park that starts with a sunrise wagon tour and ends with a steak and beer.
One of the unique experiences in the Galilee Panhandle during the winter is the Hula lake safari wagon tour. The wagon has exclusive access to the birds’ sanctuary. It gets really close to the cranes as this wagon is used to give them food to keep them away from the fields during seeding. This allows those in the cart to have an unobstructed view and get especially close to the cranes and other wildlife.
The most spectacular and interesting tours are the sunset and sunrise tours. We joined the sunrise tour, which is a particularly exciting experience. We got up before daylight and arrived at the visitors center in the darkness.
We settled on the wagon and got binoculars. We saw the cranes’ “bedroom” – in the shallow ponds – before sunrise. Thousands of cranes and other birds woke up at dawn and croaked loudly.
The particularly beautiful red sunrise was a perfect view for observing the appearance of the birds above our heads. As the lake slowly emptied from the flocks of birds we moved on to watch them in the field along with the animals that awoke at sunrise.
The tour ends at the visitors center with tea and cookies. Later in the day you can enjoy the center’s exhibits and the observation deck on the second floor of the ecological building. It has been greatly improved and is packed with multimedia exhibits.
The sunrise wagon tour is a unique experience that is worth the effort of waking up early. Don’t forget to bring warm clothes. For those interested in an independent tour – there are bikes and electric carts available for rent. Hula Lake, http://agamon-hula.co.il/, 04-6817137
AGAMON MARKET near the park is a good place to refresh after a trip. It has a variety of restaurants and cafes, and we stopped here for a meal at Brewhouse, a particularly fine meat and beer restaurant that specializes in meats, but also has fish, vegetable dishes and even a vegan burger. The spacious restaurant also features evening performances and entertainment.
We started the meal with a beer tasting tray, the beer coming from the Golan Heights brewery – which lets you to taste the types of their Bazelet beer to know what to choose for the meal.
Among the dishes we tasted were bread with dips, truffle-scented mushroom polenta, roasted eggplant on tahini, and fish ceviche. We highly recommend the fine main courses including entrecôte, fillet steak, beef burger and fish fillet.
All the dishes we ordered, without exception, were excellent, especially the mains where the meat is made precisely and perfectly. We finished with a chocolaty dessert. Overall, the prices are reasonable.
Brewhouse Agamon, Agamon Market, https://brewhouse-agmon.rest.co.il/, 053-8092992, not kosher.
The writer was a guest of the local businesses mentioned in the article.
