Spring in Niha Chouf

Niha town is a hidden treasure in Chouf. It's located towards the end of Chouf, at the border with Jezzine. Petals & Flutter and Vinca Libanotica organized this group hike, and approached me to help in organizing and taking photos.

Most of my hikes involve a friend or two, while this one was packed with more than 30 persons.

The first few kilometers went uphill, and it was impressive to see everyone complete the climb - albeit some complaints.

Soon after we approached a beautiful field of cherry blossoms.

Bright green grass covered the ground, and white pink blossoms colored the sky.

Everyone took their time to enjoy the wonderful scene.

Including myself!

That's us, the organizers. Tania owns a flower shop, and she came up with this initiative to market her shop. What a fun way to do branding! Daniel owns Vinca Libanotica, which professionally organizes weekly hikes.

After all the uphill hiking, a narrow path went down into a valley.

The winding road with so many people presented new opportunities.

As our guide passed through the valley, he informed us how most hikers bypass it, although it's the prettiest. Indeed, the green valley is so enchanting.

Niha's cascade of hills provide infinite shades of green.

The group of hikers wonderfully delineated another winding road.

A strategic spot along the trail overlooks Jezzine, Bekassine and the rest of Chouf.

Bekassine's pine forest partly shows below. It's the biggest pine forest in the Middle East.

We descended further down. At this point, everyone was hungry.

But before lunch, we had to stop by Niha's unique fortress.

Although the fortresss is mostly destroyed, rooms carved in the rocks remain.

The foretress guide explained the history of Niha fortress in detail.

The location of the fortress is incredible. In fact, it was unreachable by the enemies.

After the fortress visit, hangry hikers just wanted to eat. We headed to a delicious Lebanese restaurant in Chouf to top off our beautiful trail.