A day in the park - with a machine gunner!

(Dom reporting) We had a great but decidedly odd day on Saturday. A lovely day but a bit sweaty and humid in Beirut so what better plan than to head for the hills and specifically the Chouf Cedar Reserve. This place is truly beautiful - the largest nature reserve in Lebanon and home to 3 separate Cedar forests, up to around 2000 metres altitude. You enter the park in a car and gradually climb with a few off-road sections, going through Umbrella Pine belts, then the Cedars at around 1600 metres, then a few normal pines planted as a reforestation project, then finally to the snow line where it is scrubby grass and rocks. The temperature at the height of summer in the day drops to around 10 degrees up here and there is a cool wind - but the views over the Bekaa valley are great, and the air is clean. All in all I thoroughly recommend it.
But this day was slightly different. We went to a different entrance to the park from our normal one - the Ain Zhalta rather than the Barouk one. Noticeably less popular, Ain Zhalta lacks the shop selling the local produce such as cherry jam or the pomegranate paste which you baste your meat in before grilling on the barbie (well worth a try if you swing by Lebanon).
There was a Saudi registered car in front of us with a Lebanese guy and a couple of young kids - maybe around 8 years old. We asked to pass him and I popped into the 'office' to chat to the gate-keeper. 'Have you got permission to enter'? 'No'. 'Well OK you can go in then. About 2 hours - leaving at 6 pm? No problem - let yourselves out'. And he lifted the bar and off we went into the wilderness.
I was vaguely aware that the Saudi-registered car was following behind. At the top we turned right (at Hilly Pond - an oasis of green and water and great for birdwatching just before the summit), and they turned left. We abandoned the car and set off walking along the ridge. The Bekaa is laid out below like a completely flat carpet of agriculture about 1000 metres beneath us - distant vineyards and groves of trees and the famous wetlands - one of the most important migratory routes for birdlife.
But what is that noise on the breeze? Oh its only someone firing an AK-47 just round the hill. Then single-shots. Crikey! For a few minutes we thought we had stumbled across Fatah al-Islam training to take over Lebanon and make it an Islamic Caliphate - whatever their plan is these days. Then we realise that it must be the Saudi car! Probably taking pot shots at a water-melon or something. In a nature reserve!
Anyway we walk for around 40 minutes, with the idyllic scene ruined by this damn machine-gun. Then we decide to roll back down the hill in the car to check out the cedars. This is a beautiful tree and what a great symbol for a country! Steadfast, strong, lasts for thousands of years, etc. We walked amongst the cedars for half an hour - and then headed back for the exit. When we got there at 5.45 it was locked and we were locked in. Right. So we are at 1500 metres with the sun setting in an hour, it is going to get cold and we are stuck. So I call the mobile of the Assistant Park Manager. He is great and his name is Walid. What are you doing there? Nobody knew you were there?! But the gatekeeper let us in - he raised the sodding barrier! Oh well we'll send you a guy to let you out. Thank the Lord for mobiles and that we had the guy's number. After 10 minutes of mooching about the Saudi car materialises behind us. The shooters. Do we raise it with them? Well we are stuck most of the way up a mountain and he has a machine-gun. Maybe we shouldn't. Then out of the car emerges the gate-keeper!! Well you said you would be leaving at 6, he says. Oh well sorry but we didn't realise you would abandon your post (the park officially closes at sunset), lock the gate and head off with your shooting colleague to fire off machine-guns?! Somehow I don't think it is in his job description. Anyway he lets us out just as another guy, sent by Walid, rides to the rescue. We decide that discretion is the better part of valour and head off down the hill to the lovely little town of Deir al-Qamar for ice-cream and to buy some old 50's era Lebanese bank-notes in my case (sad!).
Then with darkness falling it is onto the roller coaster ride which is the southern motorway back to Beirut.
Just another slightly crazy but great day in this amazing country - not an experience you'd get on Dartmoor! Photos to follow tomorrow - insha'allah.