Backpacking: Māâsser L Choûf-Batloun-Botmé-Mokhtara-Ain Qani-Aamatour-Mazraat L Shouf(Imad's rock)-Haret Jandal-Baadaran-Khraibé

A 2 days backpacking journey alongside 4 great backpacker partners which made the trip even better. The loop took us deep into trails that are stunning, wild and raw within the Chouf biosphere reserve. The lovely Chouf district is expansive with limitless sights, impressively diverse and very well preserved due to the well appreciated endeavor the Chouf biosphere reserve organisation is consistently making. In this loop, i combined multiple famous trails to form a bigger loop thats worth for a 2 days backpacking and therefore have the chance to deeply immerge ourselves with the beauty of this area and intimately connect with its environment.
The trail traverses through 10 villages: from Maaser El Chouf to Batloun, Botmé, Mokhtara, Ain Qani, Aammatour, our camping spot was at the peripherals of Mazraat El Shouf, then up to Haret Jandal, Baadaran, Khraibeh and back to Maaser.
We started our journey with a fancy breakfast at the famous El Cheikha bakery at Maaser, then we parked at the center square of Maaser, where we had the pleasure to meet Mr. Nizar Hani, the general manager of the reserve, at the Shouf Biosphere reserve park house who invited us for a cup of coffee and introduced us to their latest astonishing, creative projects..
All the trails are relatively clear and well maintained, with no technical difficulties. THE ONLY confused part was when reaching Botmé, where the trail goes along an old aquaduct: stay attentive at the point where i turned my way back to descend a steep descent and continue trekking just underneath the aquaduct.
A journey with Non-stop views and panoramas. From wandering in the narrow immemorial village's streets, trekking tiny passages alongside the ancient aquaduct, enjoying spectacular walk alongside the Barouk river, a prudent walk right underneath a lofty cliff, hopping on dateless Ottoman bridges, mounting up on Roman stairs to camp on top of an impressive cliff with a terrifying altitude, overlooking the Bisri Marj and the Barouk river.
Bear in mind that in each village u cross, u can refill food and water, we got our dinner and breakfast ingredients from Mokhtara, where was our last stop before trekking in the valley towards the camping site.