September 2009

September 2009

Wow, am I behind or what… Right so according to the photo I have done a fair bit of travelling this month.

So I have done the Tour of Egypt, that covered Cairo, Aswan and Luxor. Then I went on my own to Alexandria where I met a dude called Matt that lives in Melbourne.

The tour of Egypt was amazing, it was great that we had a good group of people.

So after we said our goodbyes of the tour, like I said I headed over to Alexandria where I met Matt. I stayed there a few nights, and then headed back to Dahab to meet up with the rest of the tour that were continuing to Dahab.

From Dahab I was going to continue travelling with Greg and Anna from Sydney, Australia where we would hopefully visit Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

The border crossing from Egypt to Jordan went without no problem at all. We were able to visit Wadi Rum, Petra, float around in the Dead Sea, visit the capital of Jordan which is Amman and then try our luck at entering crossing the Syrian border.

After 12 hours of piss farting around we made it through the border. We had to hitch hike a few times to get through, but at the end of the day we made it through, very, very cheaply.

Our first port of call was Damascus, and it was an amazing city. The people are so friendly and beautiful that we stayed in Damascus for 1 week. Most of the days in Damascus were spent exploring and visiting museums and there was one night that we got on the beers and planned to visit Bosra the next day.

Well we woke up with a ripping hangover and visit Bosra was a huge struggle, but we made it and almost missed the final bus home.

After spending a week in Damascus it was time for us to get a move on, so we again tried out luck in visiting Lebanon.

The border crossing went very smooth for us, but it took ages because it was a public holiday and we were on a bus full of Syrian blokes.

We stayed in Beirut a few nights, got ripped off but visiting Beirut was like visiting London. It was so westernized.

We did a day trip from Beirut to Bosra where we met our Bearded American friend Preston, who we were fortunate enough to meet up with again in Bcharre.

Also from Beirut, we did a day trip to the Jeita Grotto caves which are nothing more than amazing. They are so amazing that this cave is in the running to be a part of the Natural Wonders of the World.

I actually forgot the write about this in my blog so ill fill in the information so here goes.

Whist in the cave we spoke to one of the workers down there and asked him a few questions about the cave this is what I have:

· 10,000BC is the first recording of stalagmite in the caves, which is from the last ice age.

· Every 100 years there is 1cm of growth.

· The temperature throughout the cave stays the same at 21degrees, but the pressure and humidity change as you go deeper into the cave.

· In 1958 was the discovery of the upper cave

· It took 11 years to make the artificial tunnel that we use to enter the cave

· The stalagmite are caused by the calcium water that drips down, the water evaporates leaving the calcium to crystallize.

· In 1836 an American hunter discovered the lower cave, apparently he heard an echo.

· The lowest to highest point of the cave is measured at 108 metres.

· Bats live in the cave at night.

· No movies have been filmed in the cave, only some musicals.

· You can vote for the Jeita Grotto cave to be in the new 7 wonders by visiting www.new7wonders.com

So that’s just some of the info I have on the cave, unfortunately we were unable to take photos of the cave, which I presume is one of the reasons I forgot to write something on it.

It was a remarkable experience, and looking up at the stalagmites felt like you were looking at something the aliens made, it was beyond this world.

Once we had had enough of Beirut we made our way to Bcharre.

Bcharre is a beautiful little town in the forests of Lebanon. Bcharre is where the cedar forests are, and in fact, one of the oldest Cedars there is used on the Lebanese flag. Whilst in Bcharre the clocked ticked over to the 1-10-09, which is not only my fathers birthday but also the time when this post ends!

So see you next month! Which will be very soon!