“On the wild trails of Mount Lebanon”: Toward Barouk. Part 7
Posted by: adonis49 on: March 11, 2010
Part 7. “On the wild trails of Mount Lebanon”: Toward Barouk; (Mar. 11, 2010)
Advancing toward Barouk, Pierre passes a kiosk manned by an old couple; the couple invites him and he observes many parsley patches arranged in Indian file. The ascent is relentless and Pierre reaches the village of Fraydis.
Pierre meets his friend Mazen, living on the first floor of a building. Pierre enjoys a hot shower and then dinner was ready; in the menu lentil “moujaddara”. Mazen’s garden is arranged with large heavy weight tires. The interior is well-kept and clean for a single man. Mazen drinks “matte” (a tea like drink appreciated in South America and Lebanese who lived there).
On the morning of day 18, Pierre is running out of cocoa and powder milk for breakfast. Next target town is Maaser El Chouf.
Pierre meets an old sheikh in traditional “cherwal” and long white beard. From Barouk the trail is a steady ascent. An hour later, Pierre reaches the top of the mountain; he sees a rusted trapper bait. Ahead is a virgin plain (no detritus, no quarries, and no cement).
At Maaser el Chouf an old man invites him for a drink of raspberry syrup; the grandsons are wearing no black cherwal, but new generation cherwal.
At 1 pm, it is time for lunch but the season of tourists is not yet in: the shops are closed. A snack bar prepares Pierre humus with sausages.
Jim, an intermediary of his friend Raja, is to bring Pierre the keys to the house. In the meantime, Pierre tries to take a nap under a nut-tree but flies prevent the resting pause. He walks to an ice cream parlor and talks with kids. Pierre and Jim spend the evening on the balcony.
In the morning, Pierre waits for 3 of his friends to join him for noon barbecue. Pierre’s walking companion calls to rejoin the trip. Next target town is Niha.
The two walkers start at 8 am and pass Khraybeh and then to Baadarane. The “moukhtar of the village asks questions: he is worried that Hezbollah is using various spying techniques. According to the moukhtar, the latest technique was using goats to take pictures by attaching cameras around their necks. The travelers eat mankouch at the only bakery in Baadarane. They pass a water reservoir.
Niha is renowned for its prophet Ayoub (Job); a Druze house cult is perched on a mountain. According to the gate-keeper, Ayoub was plagued by skin diseases for 40 years; his wife was the only person to ascend his isolated place to feed him. When Ayoub was healed he went to Yemen where he died.
Pierre had a nap under a pine tree; Chamoun talks to the man in the kiosk. Pierre is observing ants. He is thinking “nothing can obstruct humankind evolution; the ecosystem is degrading at an alarming rate. And if God was created by man? Better start studying animals seriously: they might have a better outlook to life purpose.”
An hour later, they head toward the town of Jezzine; they drink from a spring. A young cultivator on a tractor confirms the correctness of the trail. They face a panel warning of mines: they are at the “frontier” separating the Druze communities from “Hezbollah Land”.
Two armed civilians of the Druze “unofficial militias” arrive in a car: they explain how to circumvent the mined land by following metal pickets planted at the right side of the route that is closed by dirt barrages. Pierre leads; 500 meters later there are no pickets.
They decide to follow the path where plants have grown; then the passage becomes impracticable and they walk haphazardly. It was an awful one kilometer-stretch not to recount to your mother.
It is 7 pm and they reach another quarry; they descend to a dry river bed. Within 5 minutes, they are longing main road.
A lonely woman is having evening walk. Chamoun extracts his pamphlets and start to “dizzy” the lady. Jezzine is packed with coffee shops, walking people, cars, music: an urban sense of activities. Selim hollers to Pierre; Selim lives in Beirut and manages a coffee shop in Jezzine on week ends.
Pierre’s friend Raymond has called his aunt to arrange for Pierre’s night comfort. It turned out there are several persons with the exact name of Raymond’s aunt. Tony, the son of the lady is a priest in civilian cloths when not “on the job”. Tony is a modern new generation priest: he plays billiard, swims, and has a cellular; he leads a normal life contrary to the conservative life style of the Christian Maronite clergy.
The aun’st husband was badly hurt by one of the million cluster bombs that Israel dropped in the last three days of the 33 days war in July 2006. Pierre plays a card game “likha” before tuning in to sleep.
It was decided that the rest of the trip will be on regular roads to avoid being blown up by a mine.
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