THE BARADA VALLEY

THE BARADA VALLEY AND BAPTISM BY ......


The time had come.  It could be postponed no longer.  I simply had to take the plunge and drive round the Ommeyad Square, which is not a square at all but a fearsome roundabout where about seven roads converge in an apocalyptic melée with no apparent rules and regulations.  In fact they do exist.  The traffic on the roundabout should give way to the traffic coming on to the roundabout, but, if the cars coming on to the roundabout show the slightest hesitation, then the vehicles lined up diagonally around the roundabout like athletes waiting for the starter’s gun in the 100m. race surge forward and you are doomed.  Going round the “square” and getting out at the desired road requires jostling and jockeying for position like the athletes in the 10,000m.  The one thing which cannot be allowed to intrude in this exercise is fear.  You must go for it!

The main street from our house is the Mezzeh Autostrade which is the main route to Beirut and Jordan. Officially it has five lanes, but in practice there are seven or eight, depending on the amount of traffic and the degree of aggression on any particular day. Nearer town the five lanes divide with one branch heading off for the Customs and three lanes continuing with a filter from the right where the same rules of “chicken” apply.  These three lanes flow to the Ommeyad Square where there is a set of traffic lights to regulate the flow of traffic onto the roundabout.  

On Fridays the amount of traffic is much reduced as most people stay at home with their families, at least until evening when they go out for a spin or for dinner or a walk,  so the  ordeal could be postponed no longer.  The plan was to practise going round the roundabout and getting off at the roads where I am most likely to want to go should the need arise.  The first route was to the Meridien Hotel where there is the remote possibility of finding some parking with some shade, if need be, and from there the centre of town can be reached on foot.  This meant getting on to the roundabout, staying as far to the right as possible, crossing the flow of traffic coming from the first road on the right and getting off again at the second road on the right.  Made it! Then the road continues on past the Meridien on the left towards the centre when it is important to get into the right-hand lane so as to be able to go under the flyover and turn back towards the Meridien which is then on the right.  At a pinch the streets behind the Meridien  may afford come parking space.

Back to the Ommeyyad Square.  This time the objective is to take the road on the right of the Meridien road which goes through the Abou Roummanah district where most of the embassies are located, turning left at a small roundabout into a relatively quiet, tree-lined street where it might be possible to find parking during week days.  After that, back to the Ommeyyad Square again.  This time to take the road which leaves the Sheraton Hotel on the left and leads into the Barada Valley.

Looking at the general barrenness of the countryside around Damascus, one might be forgiven for asking how people came to settle in such an unlikely looking place from earliest antiquity.  The Barada River is the answer.  This little river rises in the Ante-Lebanon Hills to the west of Damascus and flows down, watering the land, and through the heart of the city just outside the walls of the medina.  Orchards sprang up along its course which supplied the population of the city.  Unfortunately, today land speculation is covering the once verdant orchards with blocks of high rise apartment blocks.

The road winds its way alongside the river which is now straddled by hundreds of restaurants providing food and entertainment for the Damascenes on Fridays and in the summer evenings when they escape from the heat of the city to the shady cool of the riverside.  The railway also crisscrosses the river and the road on its way up to Zabadani and the hill stations in the Ante-Lebanon.  As we drove along we heard a sound I had not heard for many years - clickety-clack, clickety-clack - a steam train!  A small train takes passengers, mostly tourists, from the Hijaz Station just beside the Hamadiyye Souq into the Barada Valley.  The hiss of the steam and the cadences of the wheels reminded me of the train journeys we made as children on our way to the seaside when Peter and I would spend our time counting the number of cows we could see in the fields, or the number of sheep or the high tension pylons, or anything else we could think of.


Driving with Robert as a navigator is something of a nerve-wracking exercise because, in typical Piscean fashion, he says “Now, here you turn left - or you could go right if you like”.  As he has a virtually unerring sense of orientation, he does not care which turning he takes because he will always be able to find his way back, sooner or later and somehow or another.  “Now, what does that sign say?”.  If my reading age in Arabic is about five years when in the navigator’s position, it is quickly reduced to minus five when in the driver’s seat, so I had to stop the car by the side of the road to decipher the sign.  It was a revelation.  We were on our way to Zabadani which we had visited some weeks earlier but approached it from the Lebanon side.  So, we decided to keep on going until we came to the junction and then turn back.  The road did indeed come to a point we recognized from our previous trip so, gratified, I turned around and headed back to Damascus.  

As we drove through a heavily militarized  area with a great deal of construction work going on, Robert suggested that we should take a right fork which would also take us to Damascus.  However, I had hardly gone two hundred metres when he said, “Well, maybe we should just take the other road because this goes to .....”  I stopped and prepared to make a U-turn.  Just then a police car which had been stationary outside the military barracks came up the road behind me and passed.  When they saw me preparing to turn back, they turned back too and caught up with me just as we reached the junction and prepared to turn right.  Whatever their intentions, when they saw me - a woman - driving the car with a man in the passenger seat and a dog in the back they looked in amazement and decided to proceed no further.  A lot of women do drive here, but I have never yet seen one driving accompanied by a man.  They usually drive when alone or accompanied by other women but, when there is a man in the group, he is the one to drive.

Having had my baptism by water on Friday, on Saturday afternoon, when there is considerably more traffic than on Fridays, Robert thought I was ready for my baptism by fire, so we set off once again around the Ommeyyad Square  and up the Barada Valley, as that is the last  road off the roundabout and, therefore, involves facing up to the traffic right the way round the roundabout.  We managed it safe and sound, so I think I am now in a position to face the next challenge which is doing it on my own!

April 25th 1998