We hired a taxi for the day to take us from Beirut to Baalbek and then on to Damascus for our final night, before flying back to the UK. Baalbek is in the Bekaa valley, the wine region of Lebanon. Passing through strip towns up the valley, the valley is a wide plain framed between two snow covered mountain ranges. It must be about 20 kilometers across and is clearly the agricultural heartland of Lebanon. The produce looks fantastic with all sorts of ...

From Bcharre we caught a micro bus and travelled through to Beirut. The drive down from the mountains was amazing, as snow fell deep into the valley. The road was icy and the views were in large part breath taking as we wended our way around to the south side of the QidishaValley and became interesting as we made our way from the mountains to the Mediterranean once again. Arriving in Beirut it was the 31 December, so a BIG night ahead! We checked into our ho...

We knew there were ski fields in Lebanon but as a country we know to be part of the Middle East, we never really expected that there would be THAT much snow! That just shows my ignorance and I am less ignorant for this experience now! Anni and I finished up in Syria by driving from Hamma to Homs to return the hire car. Anni has been very sick these last few days. At 1st it seemed to be just a soar throat, but by last night it is clear that with a fever that c...