If you're planning to visit Walid Jumblatt, it's best to make sure you're not in too much of a hurry. And if you're not in a hurry, wait until the weekend and arrange to call on the Lebanese Druze leader in his ancestral home at Mukhtara, deep in the Shouf mountains south of Beirut.Jumblatt is one of the great survivors of Lebanon's turbulent and political life, a traditional "za'im" or hereditary chieftain of perhaps the most colourful of the country's 18 sects. Now aged 58, he is a key member of the western-backed, Sunni-Christian-Druze government headed by Fouad Siniora. He is also an unrelenting critic of Syria, whose humiliating withdrawal from Lebanon he applauded after the cedar revolution three years ago - and who he continues to attack at every opportunity.
Taken that no less than 21 Lebanese politicians, journalists and soldiers who were considered enemies of Damascus have been murdered since the best-known victim - the former prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri in February 2005 - Jumblatt risks his life whenever he opens his mouth on the matter, which is most days.
The security arrangements at Mukhtara, a honey-coloured 18th century mansion with a mountain spring gushing pastorally beneath it, are a sobering reminder of the dangers he faces. Visitors must pass machine gun-toting guards, metal detectors and body searches before ascending a stone stairway to a huge front door.