Lebanon is so small (you can drive the length of the country in ½ a day) that it makes sense to base yourself somewhere central like Beirut then travel out from there. This is basically what we did for the last four days but left with some reluctance to travel to Tripoli for a few nights before heading back into Syria. We flagged down a minibus on the main drag out of Beirut and the 85km trip to Tripoli turned out to be the cheapest journey yet - the equivalent of £1.50 pp for the entire trip. A bargain and the entertainment of listening to the banter in Arabic and watching the body language en route is worth ten times that. Tripoli is more like some of the Syrian cities in that it has retained more of the Middle Eastern culture that Beirut seems to have lost and is also visibly less war-torn. There are still souqs galore to look around and some very old family-run businesses that are still thriving well. We visited one of them, a soap maker, whose family had been making soap since 1803 (and some of the equipment is just as old!). Once again, we were the only two visiting and we were welcomed warmly and given a tour of the factory (albeit tiny!) and shown exactly how the soap was made. Its beautiful soap and no whales at risk here as the soap is made from olive and coconut oil.
The main workshop of the Sharkass soap factory
Mr Sharkass at work. The towers are soaps that he has shaped, polished and finished by hand
The entrance to the soap factory
These soaps were slightly larger than snooker balls but much prettier!
We did not see anyone else who wasn’t obviously from Lebanon for well over a day and everywhere we went we people saying to us with this lovely accent “wellcaam to Lebanon …. welllcaam” – a fantastic phrase that comes across as very heart-felt. We were given cherries to sample, handfuls of peas in the pod and other bits and pieces as we walked the streets and the souqs and generally made to feel very welcome.
This tiny lady made the best falafel sandwiches. They were so good we went back for more and when I asked if I could take her photo, she spent a few seconds preening, tucking her hair out of the way, making sure her scarf was straight etc (but no smile at the end of it).
Every single one of these taxis was a Mercedes. Many were more beaten up than those in Syria – no doubt a reflection on the manic driving here. These were parked around one side of the Town Square in the old part of Tripoli.
On our second day in Tripoli here we visited Bcharre, high up in the Qadisha Valley (the Holy Valley), again by minibus with a load of local soldiers. The valleys in the mountains above the coast are amazing and Bcharre is a small town perched high on a cliff top at an altitude of just under 2000m, surrounded by these beautiful rolling mountains. We’d gone there mainly to see the last remaining forest (patch really) of Cedars, some of which are 3000 years old. We objected to the taxi fare of 20,000 Lebanese pounds (equivalent to about US$12) and decided to walk/hitch up the mountain. We’d gone about 10mins and a car pulled up beside us and this chap said “hey guys, where are you going?”. We told him and he said “Get in!”. Then he said “You’re not from Australia are you?” and I SO thought they were both Lebanese putting on Aussie accents but when I told them I was from NZ, one of them said “No way!! A bloody Kiwi!!” and then I knew they really were from Australia. It turned out that their father and grandfather was Lebanese and had left them property here, so they were visiting from Sydney. They couldn’t quite believe that we were really walking all the way up the mountain (6km so not that far) to the cedars and happily gave us a mini tour of the immediate area and invited us to stay with them for a few days. They took us to a natural spring that continuously bubbled up out of the depths, took us to a lookout with a great view of the Qadisha Valley then drove us up to the pass to the Bekaar Valley over the other side of the mountain.
Bcharre is the mass of houses on the right hand side
The pass is at over 3000m and the day was so clear that we could see the Bekaar Valley stretching out on one side and the Qadisha Valley heading steeply downwards on the other but man, was it cold! There was snow still on the ground and the gusty wind nearly blew us over.
The valley behind us is the Bekaar Valley and Baalbec (where the temple ruins are) is the dark patch right by Euans right ear. The white patch at the bottom of the picture is snow (and no, we weren’t dressed for the conditions but, to be fair, we’d not expected to meet folk who would drop us off at the summit!).
They were going to leave us there to walk/hitch back down but, as it’s a very remote area and bordering the Hezbollah territory, thought better of it as its not that safe and waited until someone else came along to give us a ride back down to the Cedars which we’d passed on our way up. The ‘someone else’ were a couple of chaps in a transport truck and Euan and I happily scrambled up into the cab and got a lift back down the mountain to the Cedars.
I had the best seat in the truck and had a straight down view of the hairpin bends and of the driver who was not really paying attention to where he was going! Euan and the other chap in the truck had moved into the back of the cab and were trying to understand each other enough to hold a conversation.
Oi!! Eyes on the road please!!
We were just so glad that we didn’t have to walk though as there were very few cars around, it was freezing plus we couldn’t cut the corners of the hairpin bends due to unexploded mines and tank shells so it would have been a long old walk back down the mountain.
This is the view down the valley. I took this about ½ way down and the patch of green is the Cedars (this is all that’s left of them) where we needed to get to. The road winds back and forth all the way down so it would have taken us hours.
There used to be huge Cedar forests covering the mountains but they were used 1000s of years ago and have been reduced to the patch you can see in the photo above. Allegedly many were sent to King Solomon to build a temple in Jerusalem and obviously no-one had the foresight to replant. It is an incredibly holy place (mentioned in the Bible), is very peaceful and some of the trees are huge but these are few and far between.
The wall is to stop the goats getting in. The dip in the horizon above the Cedars is where we were dropped off at the pass.
We walked from the Cedars back to Bcharre (about 9km but downhill) and got some amazing views down the valley. We took the old road, built by the French but it did mean zero traffic so no chance of a lift. You can see the deep rift of the valley in the centre of the picture. The scenery is very dramatic and stunning in early morning/evening.
The main workshop of the Sharkass soap factory
Mr Sharkass at work. The towers are soaps that he has shaped, polished and finished by hand
The entrance to the soap factory
These soaps were slightly larger than snooker balls but much prettier!
We did not see anyone else who wasn’t obviously from Lebanon for well over a day and everywhere we went we people saying to us with this lovely accent “wellcaam to Lebanon …. welllcaam” – a fantastic phrase that comes across as very heart-felt. We were given cherries to sample, handfuls of peas in the pod and other bits and pieces as we walked the streets and the souqs and generally made to feel very welcome.
This tiny lady made the best falafel sandwiches. They were so good we went back for more and when I asked if I could take her photo, she spent a few seconds preening, tucking her hair out of the way, making sure her scarf was straight etc (but no smile at the end of it).
Every single one of these taxis was a Mercedes. Many were more beaten up than those in Syria – no doubt a reflection on the manic driving here. These were parked around one side of the Town Square in the old part of Tripoli.
On our second day in Tripoli here we visited Bcharre, high up in the Qadisha Valley (the Holy Valley), again by minibus with a load of local soldiers. The valleys in the mountains above the coast are amazing and Bcharre is a small town perched high on a cliff top at an altitude of just under 2000m, surrounded by these beautiful rolling mountains. We’d gone there mainly to see the last remaining forest (patch really) of Cedars, some of which are 3000 years old. We objected to the taxi fare of 20,000 Lebanese pounds (equivalent to about US$12) and decided to walk/hitch up the mountain. We’d gone about 10mins and a car pulled up beside us and this chap said “hey guys, where are you going?”. We told him and he said “Get in!”. Then he said “You’re not from Australia are you?” and I SO thought they were both Lebanese putting on Aussie accents but when I told them I was from NZ, one of them said “No way!! A bloody Kiwi!!” and then I knew they really were from Australia. It turned out that their father and grandfather was Lebanese and had left them property here, so they were visiting from Sydney. They couldn’t quite believe that we were really walking all the way up the mountain (6km so not that far) to the cedars and happily gave us a mini tour of the immediate area and invited us to stay with them for a few days. They took us to a natural spring that continuously bubbled up out of the depths, took us to a lookout with a great view of the Qadisha Valley then drove us up to the pass to the Bekaar Valley over the other side of the mountain.
Bcharre is the mass of houses on the right hand side
The pass is at over 3000m and the day was so clear that we could see the Bekaar Valley stretching out on one side and the Qadisha Valley heading steeply downwards on the other but man, was it cold! There was snow still on the ground and the gusty wind nearly blew us over.
The valley behind us is the Bekaar Valley and Baalbec (where the temple ruins are) is the dark patch right by Euans right ear. The white patch at the bottom of the picture is snow (and no, we weren’t dressed for the conditions but, to be fair, we’d not expected to meet folk who would drop us off at the summit!).
They were going to leave us there to walk/hitch back down but, as it’s a very remote area and bordering the Hezbollah territory, thought better of it as its not that safe and waited until someone else came along to give us a ride back down to the Cedars which we’d passed on our way up. The ‘someone else’ were a couple of chaps in a transport truck and Euan and I happily scrambled up into the cab and got a lift back down the mountain to the Cedars.
I had the best seat in the truck and had a straight down view of the hairpin bends and of the driver who was not really paying attention to where he was going! Euan and the other chap in the truck had moved into the back of the cab and were trying to understand each other enough to hold a conversation.
Oi!! Eyes on the road please!!
We were just so glad that we didn’t have to walk though as there were very few cars around, it was freezing plus we couldn’t cut the corners of the hairpin bends due to unexploded mines and tank shells so it would have been a long old walk back down the mountain.
This is the view down the valley. I took this about ½ way down and the patch of green is the Cedars (this is all that’s left of them) where we needed to get to. The road winds back and forth all the way down so it would have taken us hours.
There used to be huge Cedar forests covering the mountains but they were used 1000s of years ago and have been reduced to the patch you can see in the photo above. Allegedly many were sent to King Solomon to build a temple in Jerusalem and obviously no-one had the foresight to replant. It is an incredibly holy place (mentioned in the Bible), is very peaceful and some of the trees are huge but these are few and far between.
The wall is to stop the goats getting in. The dip in the horizon above the Cedars is where we were dropped off at the pass.
We walked from the Cedars back to Bcharre (about 9km but downhill) and got some amazing views down the valley. We took the old road, built by the French but it did mean zero traffic so no chance of a lift. You can see the deep rift of the valley in the centre of the picture. The scenery is very dramatic and stunning in early morning/evening.
Bcharre. You can see the massive church dominating the cliff line. In Jerusalem, there was the ongoing seemingly never-ending call to prayer. Here in Bcharre, its the church bells from the many many churches echoing up and down the valley
We headed back to Tripoli late afternoon as we’d already committed to another night there and had left all our gear there. We decided that the kind offer of accommodation, trekking and sight-seeing in Bcharre was too good to pass up and we're not really following any set plan so decided to head back here the next day.
We headed back to Tripoli late afternoon as we’d already committed to another night there and had left all our gear there. We decided that the kind offer of accommodation, trekking and sight-seeing in Bcharre was too good to pass up and we're not really following any set plan so decided to head back here the next day.
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