Tunisia

Saturday 15th September

We woke up and bade Jeff, Brendan and Han farewell – it will be strange to not have the ‘yellow truck’ with us anymore. They are heading straight for Tunis and we are exploring Tunisia a little bit. We have really enjoyed our time with the Oasis overlanders and their leaders and drivers all seem great as we heard from Ingrid and Will that they also met some Oasis guys in Kenya and they were also lovely people! Their address is www.oasisoverland.com
We traveled NW towards Medenine and then Toujene where we saw ‘ksour’ dwellings – mud and stone houses built around a courtyard used for grain storage. Then on to Matmata to see the ‘troglodyte’ houses that were featured in the opening sequence of the original Star Wars movie – these are 4th century cave dwellings with a storage room above and the living accommodation below.
We then headed W into the interior of Tunisia through flat desert until we reached the oasis area where we drove through 1 000’s of date palm groves. These oasis are scattered all around Chott El Jerid which is a large salt lake – we drove on the edge of Chott El Jerid through a massive salt pan until we reached Tozeur, an oasis town watered by 200 springs, in the north. Here we found a pleasant campsite and have stopped to catch up with laundry etc.
N 33 54.833 E 8 07.464


Sunday 16th September

After visiting the old town district of Tozeur where we saw the buildings with distinctive pale yellow geometric brickwork designs, we headed N towards Tunis. We drove through 100’s of kilometres of olive trees, prickly pears, chillis and fruit orchards – the cultivated land stretched as far as the eye could see. We stopped in Gafsa to draw money at the ATM and that was a unique experience as the only language options were French or Arabic! Luckily it is 6 months down the line with me drawing money at ATM’s and so I know the prompts! Here in Tunisia they speak French and the written word is French but written in Arabic letters – so that is backwards!
Petrol in Tunisia is R6.82 per litre so our money is once more going mainly on petrol. It also explains why we have seen so many petrol vendors on the side of the road selling petrol out of containers – they go to Libya and bring it over the border to sell here in Tunisia.
The last 100kms into Tunis was on a double highway – a luxury we had all but forgotten about. We drove into Tunis at about 5pm and headed straight for a hotel on the GPS and then tried to find something for dinner.
At home, although there are lots of Muslims, we are hardly aware of Ramadan, but here and in Libya, it is a different story. Basically, during the day when everyone is fasting, there is little to no activity and business going on, most shops are closed. If you manage to buy something to eat or drink (especially later in the day when everyone else is very hungry and thirsty), you have to be discreet when drinking it or else you get shouted at! Then at about 5pm there is a frenzy of activity when all the locals go out to buy fresh bread. As the sun sets at around 7pm, everything halts (even border posts close), for the locals to break their fast – literally ‘breakfast’ – they eat dates and milk and then go to mosque. Between 8 and 9pm all the shops, patisseries and restaurants open up and the general festivities begin – men visit the Sheesha Cafes where they smoke and drink tea and lots of people are out and about, shopping, playing soccer in parks, doing business etc. This carries on until midnight or after – we are in bed so are not sure what time but in Tripoli it was after 2am!
Also, since Sudan, we have had Muslim working days, that is, Sunday till Thursday, and then Friday and Saturday are the weekend. It is quite weird to have a Sunday as the first working day of the week.


Monday 17th September

We spent the morning in the city centre of Tunis looking around and booking out ferry ticket to Palermo in Sicily. Then we headed NW to enjoy our last few days in Tunisia. We drove as far as Bizerte and then set up a ‘bush camp’ just off a beach on the outskirts of town. It is amazing how relaxed we have become being in countries where crime is not a major problem. No one bothers you and it seems quite acceptable to just camp out wherever you want to.
N 37 19.894 E 9 50.763



Tuesday 18th September

We carried on our relaxed meandering of the NW corner of Tunisia. The people are all happy and wave at us as we go along our way. We kept to the coastal road and went all the way to Tabarka which is a town right on the Algerian border. This corner of Tunisia is very green with lots of pine forests and cork oak trees. We then turned S to go inland and from a view point, we could actually look into Algeria. We are now camped in a cork oak and pine forest near a picturesque red-roofed village called Ain Draham.
N 36 46.566 E 8 42.072



Wednesday 19th September

We headed back towards Tunis. Tunisia is definitely more Mediterranean than African – the people are olive skinned and live in flat roofed houses, the women wear colourful head scarves and the men wide brimmed straw hats. They are all very friendly and we have really enjoyed our stay. The only problem has been Ramadan! Tunisia is normally very liberal, but because it is Ramadan, there is no alcohol available and all the street cafes are closed during the day. I think the whole atmosphere would be really festive and social if it were not Ramadan.
We parked Garfield and then went to wander around the Medina of Tunis – a colourful labyrinth of narrow alleys and dead ends filled with stalls and shops ranging from perfumes, nut & fruit, jewelry, lingerie, silverware, curios, leather goods etc and of course heaps of sweet patisseries! None of the restaurants were open due to Ramadan, but we still had fun wandering around the souk and taking in all the sights and smells around us.
By evening we were exhausted and headed back to Garfield and drove out to near the hotel we had stayed in the first night in Tunis a few days ago. But this time we had decided to just camp out on the beach front.



Thursday 20th September

This morning we had a complete clean out of Garfield and did laundry and car maintenance. The rest of the day we relaxed on the beach and had our last swim off the top of Africa.
Tonight we bid Africa farewell after a journey of 6 ½ months along the eastern coastal regions and over the top of our fair continent. It was a dream of ours and we feel elated that we have managed to live out our dream. Triumphant and yet sad, that a big goal that we worked towards for 10 years, is now over. It has not always been easy, but for the most part we have really enjoyed our journey. We feel perhaps like a Comrades runner feels on completing the marathon – we had doubts about whether Garfield, and in fact us would manage the long journey - physically, emotionally and politically with visas etc – but we have done it! For Dave and me, it has been a very special 6 months – we have been together 24 / 7 – I don’t think we will ever have such an intense time together again in our lives. Luckily, working together as a team, we have come through it, and at the end of our journey we love each other more than ever before.
Tonight we catch the ferry to Palermo in Sicily, where we continue on the last leg of our journey through Europe and then back home to South Africa and our precious family.