Sailing Stories » EMYR Updates » Ko-Ko 16th June
Beirut was fascinating -what a city! Since the civil war that ended in 1990 they have been rebuilding their city, taking two years to get rid of the mines in “the green line” and now parts of the city look new and modern.
There is a lot of work left to be done and it will be exciting to come back in a few years to see the progress.
We had a day in Byblos where the syllabic writing, the precursor our alphabet, was developed about 1000 BC. It is the source of the Greek word “biblia” meaning “book” and our word “Bible”. Then we went to the Jeita Grotto.
It's a dramatic subterranean cavern formation of over 6 km of river and fantastic limestone deposits, of grottoes, stalactites and stalagmites on two levels. Lebanon was a fascinating country and we will love to come back there.
We left for Israel at 8 o´clock in the evening and there was no wind at all so we where motoring through the whole night. In the morning we passed the Israel boarder and warships started to arrive.
They were polite and we where asked all sorts of questions on the VHF radio. After five checkpoints we where allowed into Carmel Yacht Club and what a welcome!
We got caps, t-shirts, tea and biscuits and they had arranged a big welcome party for us in the evening. The next day we went to see the land of the Bible which was absolutely fascinating - and then in the evening we were invited to private homes in small groups.
