A Walk in the wild trail of Kornet Hamra and the Dog River (Nahr Kalb)
Posted on: November 8, 2025
November 6. A Thursday. The night experienced strong hot and dry winds. This morning is sunny and dry. We drove at 8:30 am Doudou and I. We parked the car at the lower church of the town of Kornet Hamara and descended the steep section to the main gate of the newer trail. There is already an iron gate that the proprietors might eventually decide to close, robbing the hikers their common right for the walk.
We met with two workers repairing the cascading land with stone walls. 300 meters down the trail, we met an older mason with a helper repairing sections of the walls. He is by the last name of Samaha from Jowar and the proprietor is from Khonshara.
We descended for about another mile where Doudou helped last Saturday clearing the path. with a dozen of volunteers. We mostly returned by another trail, the older one, kind of doing a loop and joined the church through stairs by houses. This is a much better entrance to the trail.
We drove to Nahr Kalb through Kornet Hamra, Mazraat Yachoou3, Zakreet… Doudou hate to drive on highways and prefers the inner streets. We saw many buses parked by the animal leisure facility. Actually, there are gees and two poneys that the girls rode to exhaustion.
We crossed the makeshift bridge to the right side of the river and visited a family and an older woman that Doudou knew from her previous guiding tours. her daughter living in Beit Kiko/Ain Aar was visiting and a retired General by last name of Kayrouz and living in Amchit was also visiting. He was polite and respectful. One of his sons is studying engineering in Germany.
Wonderful houses whose inhabitants suffer from mosquitos during the hot season on account of the dirty river that charry most of the waste upstream when it rains.
The neighboring garden ends with a vast glass room, a spacious well lighted comfortable business quarter with a kitchen. 4 employees were working on computers in a comfortable setting. I thought this was an ideal working environment.
We moved forward and met with 3 teams of workers (obviously Syrians) repairing a covered canal (tunnel) collecting water of the source in Jeita Grotto to the station of Nahr Kalb. This repair of this old canal is funded by Europe.
This canal was initially done by the French mandated power. It should be done by November 15. If there is a ceremony, I would like to join in and have a glass of champaign.
We went up to take the trail and walked another 600 meters and backtracked when we reached an unfinished bridge. We collected fallen oranges and filled our backpack.
On our drive back we stopped at a small market Hot Top in Mazraat Yashou3/Zakreet with a restaurant upstairs and an adjacent bakery. I bought a cheese mankoush in the form of saroukh (missile). I do not recommend cheese mankoush because tasteless.
I was home by 1:30 and refrained from eating until I get a long nap. When the trail is cleared till the monastery of Mar Abda Mshamar, we will walk it and have a car meet us at the end of the trail
Adonis Diaries 
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