This post sees me a drive from Zefta back to Batroun to drop off my hire car and be picked up by Paul for one more night at his holiday rental in Kfar Abeida.
I was up at 6am to make sure I dropped off the car by 10am some 110km away. The drive was very smooth with one stop to photograph a huge mosque in Sidon and Spinneys Supermarket outside Byblos to pick up some wine for Paul and his friends tonight. The drive was great and I made it back to the hire car place at 0930. Paul picked me up at 10am and once at his rental, I headed straight for the Mediterranean – it was super clear and calm and terrific 25C. I swam 2.4km averaging 3km/h – a good swim and my last until Cyprus in one month. After my swim, Paul’s sister Pascale, her son Oliver and I all headed to Spinneys Supermarket in Byblos so I could buy food for a big BBQ tonight as a farewell to me and Paul who is returning to Australia on Wednesday. There were 8 of us at the BBQ. What an evening. Kebabs, hummus, chips, tabouli to die for and plenty of wine and Rakia (like Ouzo). We discussed everything under the sun and especially the future of Lebanon. Everyone agreed that the old government needed to be replaced with younger, new generation candidates that could end corruption and put the country back on the first world map. A great night of fun, food, conversation and company.
The following morning I struggled to run my 10km but did it, albeit much slower than usual. It was sad leaving this place by the Mediterranean and I farewelled Paul’s sister, nephew and friends for my drive into Beirut where I would overnight and meet my tour group the next morning for our 8-day tour of Syria starting with a drive to the Capital of Damascus. The drive to Beirut took only 45min and as we drove through the city, Paul showed me all the construction occurring around the harbour since the massive fuel explosion some 2 years earlier. The city council has fenced off some demolished buildings it owned as an epitaph to the 218 people that died. The explosion was the result of a fire that spread to a storage facility of 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate (explosives). The blast could be heard in Israel and caused USD 15 billion in damages. I thanked and farewelled Paul and settled into my hotel in the downtown “Hamra” area which is very touristy and old. I spent the rest of the day preparing for and researching our Syria Tour that would start at 0845 from a hotel just 400m from mine. My excitement of Syria was cut short in the car coming over to Beirut when I realised that my GOPRO was missing. I probably left it in the hire car or at Paul’s rental so my thanks to Paul who would check both and hopefully find it and drop it off to my Beirut hotel on his way to the airport to fly home. I will be returning to the same hotel in Beirut after Syria.
So enjoy just a few pics of the end of my first visit to Lebanon and get set for Syria from tomorrow, which is a driving tour from, and back to Beirut. I will return to Beirut to visit the city and some surrounding sites in the 5 days I have here before flying to Baghdad in Iraq. Get set…
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