It was a perfect time to get away from the hot city and go explore a nearby nature reserve with an ACS tour guide. This trip was to the Al Shouf Cedar Reserve to see the famous cedars of Lebanon. Our incredible tour guide, Andre, is the outdoor recreation teacher at the school. He lives in a valley near the reserve so he took us on a little hike to show us around and give us a taste of what the kids get to be out in during the rec classes.
First stop was breakfast. On the way up to the nature preserve we stopped for breakfast at a total hole-in-the-wall place in a town way up in the mountains. Thank goodness for our tour guide who did all the ordering for us! He got us manakish (the pita bread) with cheese and also one with za'atar. Za'atar is the spread on the bread. It is made up of olive oil, sesame seeds, oregano, thyme and salt. It's exact ingredients vary from area to area- every town thinks their za'atar is the best. The drink in the pictures is a salty yogurt drink called Ayran. Not really something I could get down but I could see it being really refreshing in this heat (if you weren't me). Ryan seemed to like it.
Andre, explaining the history of the forest and all about the cedars life cycle.
Then we started to go off trail. Andre knew this hike like the back of his very tan hand. Ryan had the camera so be prepared for goofy me pictures.
Pictures of the cedars on the way up. Notice the way the cones grow on the top of the trees here unlike the Washington cedars that have them growing throughout and underneath.
Me and our British friend, Nicola. Her husband teaches at the American University and she teaches at the American Community school like Ryan.
I had to see if they smelled like cedars I'm used to. Close, but a little more lemony.
We found a snake in this old tree but it slithered away before we could take a picture. Here is Nicola again, looking cute in her hat.
At some point in the 70's there was some replanting of the cedars and they planted them in rows. This apparently was a bad idea because a cedar needs the shade of another cedar to grow well. So they tried planting by helicopter and planting in clusters and the trees grew much happier.
Shade! Actually, it was a ton cooler up here than I thought it would be. Cute picture of us looking extra happy.
A picture of new cones. They start out like this all light green and sappy and then when the times comes they apparently explode all their little seeds that have feathery wings (a bit like those helicopter seeds that Maples drop) and they float to the ground.
A man made reservoir we came across. Notice it's all roped off- to the left there is another reservoir that was created just for the animals to drink from.
After the hike we headed to a beautiful town down the hill from us called Deir El Qamar meaning "monastery of the moon". If you get the chance, look it up on Wikipedia. It has a really interesting history and way better pictures than I can take!
We ate a traditional mezze lunch right across from a mosque and a wax museum.
Inside the restaurant- a meeting area? Me with our tour guide.
This is where things got fuzzy. Between our tour guides thick French accent and his Lebanese accent we totally misunderstood what building we were in. Both Ryan and I understood that it was the home of a prince but couldn't find a darn thing about it on the internet.
Really cool puzzle tiles in the archway.
This is arabic writing around a room that says things for the prince like, "you are wonderful", "you will be amazing", etc.
Then back on the nice air conditioned bus to the school's recreation center. They do biology lessons, camp outs and even service projects out here. It looked like I imagine Africa to be like. I somehow didn't take any pictures of the building itself but it was a really newly built stone building with tons of room for equipment, a huge picnic area, a campfire, and great bathrooms with showers.
This is Ryan saying, "we love Lebanon thisssss much!" :-)
First stop was breakfast. On the way up to the nature preserve we stopped for breakfast at a total hole-in-the-wall place in a town way up in the mountains. Thank goodness for our tour guide who did all the ordering for us! He got us manakish (the pita bread) with cheese and also one with za'atar. Za'atar is the spread on the bread. It is made up of olive oil, sesame seeds, oregano, thyme and salt. It's exact ingredients vary from area to area- every town thinks their za'atar is the best. The drink in the pictures is a salty yogurt drink called Ayran. Not really something I could get down but I could see it being really refreshing in this heat (if you weren't me). Ryan seemed to like it.
And on to the forest. Up and up we went until I didn't think that we could go any higher and then we were there. It's on the slopes of the Barouk mountain and takes up over 550 square kilometers (about 350 square miles?) The elevation is about 6,375 feet (1,943 meters) so it's pretty high up! We first walked around a little well marked trail to tell us all about the animals up there. Wish we would have seen a wild boar, a caracal or an ibex but I just saw a whole bunch of skinks and some pheasants.
Andre, explaining the history of the forest and all about the cedars life cycle.
Pictures of the cedars on the way up. Notice the way the cones grow on the top of the trees here unlike the Washington cedars that have them growing throughout and underneath.
I had to see if they smelled like cedars I'm used to. Close, but a little more lemony.
We found a snake in this old tree but it slithered away before we could take a picture. Here is Nicola again, looking cute in her hat.
After the hike we headed to a beautiful town down the hill from us called Deir El Qamar meaning "monastery of the moon". If you get the chance, look it up on Wikipedia. It has a really interesting history and way better pictures than I can take!
We ate a traditional mezze lunch right across from a mosque and a wax museum.
Inside the restaurant- a meeting area? Me with our tour guide.
We knew that taking a picture of the napkin would be the only way we'd remember the name of the city! Fruit is served at the end of every meal. A fellow teacher, Tom, poses with our dessert.
This is where things got fuzzy. Between our tour guides thick French accent and his Lebanese accent we totally misunderstood what building we were in. Both Ryan and I understood that it was the home of a prince but couldn't find a darn thing about it on the internet.
Really cool puzzle tiles in the archway.
This is arabic writing around a room that says things for the prince like, "you are wonderful", "you will be amazing", etc.
Then back on the nice air conditioned bus to the school's recreation center. They do biology lessons, camp outs and even service projects out here. It looked like I imagine Africa to be like. I somehow didn't take any pictures of the building itself but it was a really newly built stone building with tons of room for equipment, a huge picnic area, a campfire, and great bathrooms with showers.
This is Ryan saying, "we love Lebanon thisssss much!" :-)
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