It's been a while since I could be arsed to write and there's a fair bit to catch up on...
After the last entry we spent another two days in Bcharre – Djalma had a nasty case of the shits and so needed to rest up in close proximity to a toilet. We left on day 74 and hitched a lift on an enormous lorry, we had to climb 5 steps to get into the front. The guy picking us up spoke about five words of English, was devoutly Christian (read anti-Muslim), chain-smoked heavily and chatted to us in Arabic and, at times alarmingly, with his hands. It was Djalma's dream come true, riding high up, King of the Road, in a big lorry and I have to say I was loving it as well – it made getting from A to B so much fun despite bouncing all over the place every time we went over a dip or a bump no matter how minor. He was going to drop us off in Baalbek so we could see the ruins but told us it was rubbish and so we rashly decided to go with him to his final destination, Zahle. It turned out not to be the best decision ever – I got a headache and was feeling dizzy and out of breath, not the best conditions for a walk in the heat carrying a backpack. We got possibly the most deliciously tangy and chewy lemon sorbet ever – only a single scoop, but it was a massive serving and put a smile on our faces and a spring in our steps – while it lasted. We decided to head straight to Baalbek, find a hotel and get some rest. The first night we had the place to ourselves, the old man we woke up to show us the rooms disappeared around 9pm leaving us on our own, it was quite eerie and I asked Djalma to accompany me to the toilet at night, but the enormous hospital beds were good and we slept soundly.
We tackled Baalbek the following day having missed it the evening we got there – it closes at 5pm – good to know. Not ones for sites of 'significant historical interest' we spent most of the time sitting and talking – mainly about travelling together and the strains it was putting on us, we also talked about curtailing our trip to lessen some of the stress I was feeling. After the talk we wandered round a bit more, making the most of our admission fees and taking some pictures, we left as the attendants were starting to shoo everyone out and wandered round a bit more before heading back to our hotel room for films and sleep.
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