Hiking fail in Bcharre

Breakfast

I had been keeping to roughly Malaysian or Chinese time for much of the trip, but the extra hour time change in Lebanon saw me wake at 0300.  I dozed a little before heading out at 0700 to get breakfast at a place that came highly recommended because I’m Malaysian.

It’s a fatta shop that does a dish they’ve called “Malaisie” (Malaysian) which is a creamy mix (similar to their fatta) but with more chickpeas and no shredded bread.  A side of pickles and herbs was given.  It was very filling and no doubt will be sustaining for my excursion.

My breakfast of Malaisie.

The plan for the day was to make an trip to Bcharre (Bsharri) in the Qadisha and take a hike.  The hike is only possible now because the trip would see me return to Tripoli since I have an extra night there tonight.

If it hadn’t been for that, the visit would be as a detour on the way to Beirut, meaning that I would have my pack with me, making it too cumbersome for a hike.

Bus to Bcharre

I turned up at the bus stop, dressed in shorts again, for the 0800 bus to Bcharre (as per the timetable I had found online) but was told to return at 0900.  The bus wasn’t too full but we made lots of pick-ups and drop-offs on 90 min journey.

It was noticeably cooler up in the 1400m elevation of Bcharre. I explored the town centre a little but had little recollection of the details of previous visits.  Both the Jibran Khalil Jibran museum and his place of birth were closed.

Bcharre and many villages en route were tidy and litter-free compared to where I was staying.

After about an hour of exploring and I made my way downhill slightly to the trail head for one of the hikes I had in mind. There were some serious earthworks in progress which blocked off access.

I was starting to lose interest, seeing how deep the valley was.  But I kept my chin up taking a hot and sweaty, unsheltered walk to get to another trail head on the other side of the valley.

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Not too far from where I should have been able to start, I saw the bus coming, heading back for Tripoli.  It was midday by now.  I flagged it down and hopped on, getting back to Tripoli at 1330.

Covering old ground

I chilled for most of the remainder of the day, apart from taking a short walk in the old area.  I found the building that housed the Pension Haddad where I stayed last time in 2010.  It was tidier than the last time when it was a complete assault on the eyes.

Then I found, across the alley, the building that house the Pension al Koura where I stayed in 2002.

Life in the old city is a bit rough.  The area is very rundown and dirty.  Most of the rooftops are now taken by solar panels as power supply can be as little as just 2h per day.

Some of the Christians who have more means have moved away to more comfortable areas.

The sun set around 1630 and I returned to my lunch spot for another simple meal.