Tunisia part II – our land expedition
Before taking you on our land expedition to the south of Tunisia part II, here a small introduction of why we’ve been in Tunisia all this time: The works for our teak deck took, as expected !, a little longer than planned : the craftsman couldn’t receive the deck sealing product (Sika) in due time in Tunisia. So we brought it ourselves from Switzerland and France in our suitcases and bags: 19 kgs… You can imagine that we were at the maximum weight possible. It looks as the works will be finished in a couple of days – we hope…
To visit the South of Tunisia, we weighed the options of renting a car or travelling with public transports. Knowing that our young guest was arriving on Sunday, we decided on the rent a car version and spent 4 days exploring the South by car. Once you get used to pushing your way through in the cities – if you dare – it’s quite ok, but you need to be on your guard all the time! Priority on the stronger one. Same rule for the pedestrians!
Off we go South
From Monastir airport we left with a stop in Sfax for lunch in an authentic hidden rooftop restaurant overlooking part of the medina (old town). Top stop! Then we headed more south, arriving at our first overnight stay in Ksar Halouf. The guest house Dar Sana is an extremely nice hide away in typical housing built into the hill. We got shown the old Ksour on the hill and had a very good meal made by the land lady.
The next morning, we drove south via Ksar Hadada, the Ksar where Star Wars was partially filmed. No more touristic activity since years, but anyway looking for a way in, we found a nice man who opened the doors of the old village and showed us around. Private visit: these old scenes of Star Wars seem to have been forgotten by group tourism in the last years, but there are hopes to find a new owner to revive the place as a guest house (which it was long time in the past).
More south on the way to the desert, we planned to have some lunch in Guermessa, where there was also an abandoned berber village poached on top of the hill to be seen. Not planned was, that we didn’t find any restaurant, but instead got invited to a berber wedding! Great experience. They are so generous and happy to show their culture. The Ksar was also impressive, but with 47°C very hot for walking too far!
the desert
We headed to the desert, to the Oasis Ksar Ghilane. Easily reachable by standard car. After a dip in the Oasis, and Alexander swallowing a large gulp of its water, we went on a 2 hour camel ride. Alexander started feeling bad with stomach cramps before arriving back at the camp… Then started a 5 hour horror “healthtrip” for him (and for me a little bit anyway as we landed in the middle of the night, in a military jeep driving us to the military medical center, me in a nighty!…) But the guys where extremely respectful and professional.
Over the dry salt lakes of Chott El Jerid to Tozeur, we found a cute Hotel with a pool – nice but unfortunately not extremely refreshing with the outside temperatures… On top of that, we had a little patient, so activities were kind of reduced.
In Tozeur the date palm plantation of the oasis could be visited and was full of interesting details about the sexes and shapes of palm trees and suchlike 😊.
Talked enough for now! We’ll tell you about starting to sail again with a friend on bord next time!
Bad luck, Alexander😦
But everything else great!