A couple of months ago I took a friend from Norway on a patrol into an area we do not often get a chance to patrol. It was one of those hot days after a hard rain from the day before. The ground was still fairly hard and the grass had not had time to green up. We packed a lunch, a GPS and a lot of water and took off into the boonies for a look at areas that needed to be looked at once in a while.
The ground is quite rugged and the terrain is not trully the best to be driving in a small Toyota with no one else along to help pull you out of as tight jam - or in this case - a couple of deep water holes.
As my friend had never been in this area before I let him do the driving and I took a few photos to put in this blog. I was a long time doing that because for some reason the memory card did not seem to want to allow me to download the pics. However a computer geek friend came to my rescue yesterday.
We started out on the easy run across the flat lands.
So, after a short drive we come to this. We have to cross this little canyon or coulee or wadi - take your pick.
We started down the dirt track that was in pretty good shape. Little did we know what we were going to find!
We made it to the bottom with no trouble. We rounded the corner and ........
Well, I had a new guy with me and I was not going to get wet! And we did not have a hope in heck of recovery for a long time if we got stuck - so ........ How deep is it?
My good friend from Norway was a bit over heated from the high temperatures so he gladly volunteered to keep this old guy from getting too wet. His decision was that we could get through the water but not the mud under the water. So, discretion being the better part of valour we turned around to find another way!
We took a side trip to the Jordan River Vally last week. The river was running very high due to snow melt and water runoff from Mount Hermon. There has been a lot of rain fall over the winter and the snow is rapidly melting. This has caused the river to rise to a very high level and flow over the concrete bridge.
I met a few people from the United States who were there to see the river. There were also some media people who showed up to take pictures of the water level. It is a big deal to have this much water coming down from the mountain and ending up in the Sea of Galilee. So we stayed out of the way of the media and left after a short time.
This is a very popular place for the local citizens and various bus tours to come and see the river. The scenery is quite spectacular in this region.
I received this in an email from a friend. It is a knock off of an original. If I could give the originator a kudu for it, I would. Be that as it may I decided to put it up on the blog if only because I liked it. If the person who actually started this wants to contact me I am easy to find. I would then be quite happy to provide credit to him / her for the work.
As I am a pilot on a ground job in the middle east I can relate. I have never been so impressed with Canadian military men and women until I got to work with them out of country.
Bez ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Canadian soldier is profane and irreverent, living as he does in a world of capriciousness, frustration and disillusionment.
He is perhaps the best-educated of his kind in history, but rarely accords respect on the basis of mere degrees or titles.
He speaks his own dialect, often incomprehensible to the layman. He can be cold, cruel, even brutal and is frequently insensitive. Killing is his profession and he strives to become even more skilled at it.
His model is the grey, muddy, hard-eyed comrade who took the untakeable at Vimy Ridge, endured the unendurable in the Scheldt and held the unholdable at Kapyong.
He is a superlative practical diplomat; his efforts have brought peace to many around the world. He is capable of astonishing acts of kindness, warmth and generosity. He will give you his last sip of water on a parched day and his last food to a hungry child; he will give his life for the society he loves.
Danger and horror are his familiars and his sense of humour is, accordingly, sardonic. What the unknowing take as callousness is his defence against the unimaginable; he whistles through a career filled with graveyards.
His ethos is one of self-sacrifice and duty. He is sinfully proud of himself, of his unit, of his country. He is unique in that his commitment is total. No other trade or profession demands such of its members, and none could successfully try.
He loves his family dearly, sees them all too rarely and often as not loses them to the demands of his profession. Loneliness is the price he accepts for the privilege of serving.
He regards discomfort as routine; the search for personal gain is beneath him; he has neither understanding of, nor patience with, those motivated by self-interest, politics or money.
His loyalty can be absolute, but must be earned. Paradoxically, payment for his loyalty, is also loyalty.
He devours life in big bites, knowing that each bite might be his last; his manners suffer thereby. He would rather die regretting the things he did than the ones he dared not try.
He earns a good wage by most standards and, given the demands on him, is woefully underpaid. He can be arrogant, thoughtless and conceited, but will spend himself, sacrifice everything for total strangers in places he cannot pronounce.
He considers political correctness a podium for self-righteous fools, but will die fighting for the rights of anyone he respects or pities
He is a philosopher and a drudge, an assassin and a philanthropist, a servant and a leader, a disputer and a mediator, a Nobel Laureate peacekeeper and the Queen’s hitman, a brawler and a healer, best friend and worst enemy.
He is a rock, a goat, a fool, a sage, a drunk, a provider, a cynic. You, pale stranger, sleep well at night only because he exists for you — the citizen who has never met him, has perhaps never thought of him and may even despise him.
He is both your child and your guardian. His devotion to you is unwavering. He is The Canadian Soldier.
Today ICRC started transferring apples through the Kuneitra crossing point between the Israeli Occupied Golan and Syria.
This is a good news story for all sides. People from the Israeli Occupied Golan can ship their apples to Syria.
The Israeli Defence Force gain some excellent points for their fair, friendly and agreeable assistance.
The Syrian people get this fruit for their use.
The Syrian military gain some excellent points for their fair, friendly and agreeable assistance.
I was actually encouraged to take photos today - by all sides. This is an extremely rare happening.
However, despite the careful overseeing of this transfer and obvious close attention to security by all parties, there was a bit of an air of festiival.
Making it a good news story for all parties concerned.
I was quite pleased to play a small part. I might add it was quite cold but the temperature did not seem to be able to spoil the mood.
Essentially the apples show up at the A-Gate in large delivery vans on the Israeli Occupied Golan side. They are then transferred to ICRC (Red Cross) vehicles. I admit to sampling a couple - but out of thousands of tonnes of apples I am sure they will not begrudge me on or two apples!
Now it must be remembered that Israel and Syria are still officially at war - although the A/B lines between the two parties is and has been reasonably quiet for some years. I attribute a great deal of this peace to the quiet and determined professionalism of the UNTSO military observers and the UNDOF soldiers.
So to make this transfer happen and maintain complete neutrality, the Red Cross arranged to actually truck the apples from Israeli Occupied Golan, through the Israeli Crossing (Alpha-Gate), past the United Nations Check Point (Charlie-Gate) and finally through the Syrain Gate (Bravo-Gate).
Once through the A / C / B gates the apples are transferred to waiting Syrian trucks for transportation and delivery. It went very well today.
This operation will continue for another few weeks until all apples are transferred into Syria.
Below is a selection of pictures I took today with short descriptions.
1. The apple delivery trucks arrived on the Israeli Occupied Golan side of the crossing point and lined up to transfer their loads into Red Cross trucks. I managed to beg an apple from one of the men from Buqata and it was pretty good. Mind you anytime I can get fresh fruit I am a happy camper - it was good!
2. Using two forklifts, each truck was loaded with apples in a matter of a few minutes.
3. This is a view of the A Gate where the apple trucks will come from Israeli Occupied Golan into the neutral area at the United Nations C Gate.
4. This is a view of the United Nations crossing point. We call it the C Gate. It sits in the middle between the A & B Gates. The trucks will be stopped and checked here to ensure a neutral party inspects the trucks after leaving the Israeli Occupied Golan and entering Syrian territory.
5. This is a view of the Syrian gate or the B Gate from the UN checkpoint at the C Gate. Once the trucks have been released by the United Nations military police, they will travel down this road and enter Syria.
6. From the Syrian side you can see the very first apple truck coming!
7. Dignitaries, citizens and media gather around the first truck as it enters to be unloaded.
8. A lot of people wanted to take part - especially the reporters and the photographers.
9. The trucks started coming steady after the initial ceremonies were over.
10. Loading the Syrian trucks for distribution.
11. Inside the Syrian gate looking back at the A / C Gates.
