Welcome to Issue 7. This has been a long time in ... - HaRakevet

wonders of the day faded away and everything became dark. We stretched
ourselves on the seats, and in about half a minute were dreaming of
the day's wonders, unconsciously speeding towards Damascus,
A lad in the train gave Jock and me a call, and we got up in time
to see the lights of Damascus in the distance. It was 10.30 when we
arrived, so we went and spent the night in the rest camp at the end of
the station. Some of the wandering Bedouins tired shots at the train
before entering the station. 1 can't quite make out their reason, as
it is a practice that has caused some anxiety for some time, but
apparently they still indulge in the pastime. We slept like tops again
all night, although we were rather cold. Jock and 1 had to sleep
together, so as to use both our blankets and keep each other warm. It
is awful how we feel the cold now. I quite dread the winter at home,
but there, I suppose 1 shall get climatised to it, in the same way I
got climatised to the heat.
We had to make an early start next morning, as our train left at a
station at the other end of the town at f. 45. We had a wash in a
stream running through the street, and then went into the town for
breakfast. We had a Jolly tine meal, and paid a Jolly tine price, but
that latter is usual out here!!!
Our next journey was the last stage, and by the end of the day we
were to be in Beirut. The scenery as one leaves Damascus is simply
exquisite. Water gushing out of tne rocks everywhere, not in streams
here and there, but a continuous trickle everywhere, with every now
and again a little water-fall. This line is very similar to the others
for the incessant winding along valleys on the mountain side, Out it
is not so cliff-like and precipitous. It is certainly a land of
wealth. Beautiful clear water in abundance, orchards everywhere with
every class of fruit, and in fact the whole place seems overflowing
with life for the vegetable world, and of course the ground is
cultivated everywhere. After one has been slowly but steadily climbing
from Damascus, one comes to a decline after about one hour. There is a
steep descent through mountain crags into a fertile plain below, where
fruit and vegetation is abundant again. After crossing this plain, one
climbs over a small set of mountains or hills this time, all rocky and
volcanic in nature, with great boulders everywhere, and then again one
descends into an enormous fertile plain, surrounded with enormous
mountains. Rayak is the most important station one stops at in this
plain, and then you go on about a quarter of an hour to Molakka, where
the engine is taken off and changed for a lovely little mountainclimbing
rack engine. The hills are so steep that you see an engine
could not hold on to the rails without slipping, so underneath the
engine is another powerful engine driving a cog wheel which engages on
a rack or a centre rail with teeth in it like this:
Molakka is a station rather remarkable for its inhabitants, and
a more cosmopolitan set it would be hard to find! It is rather
renowned for the beauty of its women folk, a claim it is more than
justified In being proud of.
By this time we have left Molakka a few miles behind and are
beginning to wander at the toot of an enormous range of mountains of
10,000 feet high, whose peaks are continually being enshrouded by
passing white clouds. Looking across that wonderful plain lying in a
flat fertile valley surrounded by most majestic ranges of mountains,
we see Mt. Hermon, the highest peak in the Lebanon Mountains, with its
crest and sides all covered with snow, whilst we are slowly melting
and glad of any stray breeze that comes along. Our train is now upon
an incline that would make one feel tired to walk up, and although the
engine is moving along on full power, yet our progress is only about
walking pace and one can alight to pick flowers and then run after to
catch the train !