Riders on (and after) the storm

I actually think these titles up myself, you know. No flicking through a punning website for me...

Ahem. Anyway. Another update beckons from Beirut. Ramadan has finished - the Eid holiday passed peacefully and Dom and I took advantage of the 2 day holiday to head for the Cedars. We stopped off at Tannourine – the largest Cedar forest in Lebanon. The more famous Cedar reserve, at Becharre, is little more than a copse in my opinion – but at Tannourine you really get an idea of how vast the cedar forests would have been until about 150 years ago. We also found it incredibly quiet and relaxing – until we heard the sound of gunshots! Thankfully this was not the start of the insurgency everyone seems to be predicting at the moment (which has still not happened you will all be pleased to hear) but merely a few local hunters shooting migratory birds. This happens twice a year without fail, despite the best efforts of local conservation groups to try to stop, or at least reduce, the practice.

After a night in the mountains we set off to take the mountain pass into the Bekaa valley. It is stunning. You drive over the pass at around 10,000 feet – and you are still 3 hours walk from Lebanon’s highest peak. And it is freezing. In a week or so the pass will be closed as the snows will start falling – although there is no sign of snow yet. As we crossed over the pass and headed down to the Bekaa we saw more sobering signs of what had happened over the summer. There was a small crater and scorch marks in the road. Clearly some truck was being aimed at by the Israeli air force. We also passed the bombed Liban Lait (milk) factory in the Bekaa – completely destroyed. It’s still really hard to find milk in Beirut – and you can see why – things don’t get rebuilt overnight.

So what else is new? Well, thankfully, not much. The country is regrouping – buildings are being repaired and rebuilt. Although it seems that if your home is damaged you get aid from Hezbollah/the government/another Arab country/a charity a lot quicker than if your home was damaged. My Arabic teacher’s home was badly damaged by one of the phosphorus bombs dropped during the final few days of the war. She has not yet had any compensation/assistance as the priority is to get those who have lost their homes into accommodation. Which is right; but now those who have unsafe and damaged homes also need assistance. The weather is incredibly changeable and although the thunderstorms are spectacular, it’s no fun for those in tents.

The training for the 10K continues apace (literally! I have improved!).