Read about Ron & Viv's journey so far through Africa - TUNISIA - Ksar Soltane, Chenini, El Jem, Ras Ben Sekka, Tunis & Carthage - Sept 2007.
Libya
The Isle de Djerba and the harbour of the Port of Houmt Souk.
The village of Chenini , where the old hilltop village spills across the barren hills.
A small roadside café on the way to Douz, run by the very friendly Jedlili Hamadi and his wife.
The causeway across the large salt lake of Chott Djer, the largest salt lake in Tunisia.
AFRICA TRIPMid - late September – TUNISIA
Terrific Tunisia
To Isle de Djerba
We crossed into Tunisia and filled out a ‘Visitors' Card', got our passport stamped and a form filled out for the vehicle, then we were waved thru – no visa, customs or anything, “You can go – Welcome!” We'll see how easy it is to get out of the country and if we have done everything right.
Headed via Ben Gardane and then the coastal tourist resort of Zarzis and then crossed the cause way to the Isle de Djerba on a 2km long causeway, which was originally built by the Romans.
Turned off into Aghir and almost immediately found a camping spot (GPS 33°45'28”N 11°00'54”E). The camping area is part of a small basic resort complex where you could pull in with your van or camper, pitch a tent or take a small bungalow. For campers it was pretty basic with a spot down close to the beach, basic showers and toilets a 100 metre walk away, but at least with hot & cold water. The restaurant and internet café the place boasts was closed, as the season was winding down.
The resort and our camp are hemmed in by a resort on each side that was crowded with white plastic deck chairs, straw beach umbrellas and sun-baking, bikini clad women (some of whom shouldn't be in them and others who looked pretty good) and skimpy-bather clad men. Most were on a week's packaged holiday from Europe and getting their fair share of sun, as you could tell from the shade of red they all were!
Went to the Port of Houmt Souk and wandered around there for an hour. This port dates back to Roman times while the fort just along the coast dates back to the 1500's, albeit standing on the site of an early 13 th century fort.
There were quite a few small fishing boats in the well protected harbour with most of the crews resting or mending nets. Stored along the breakwater were thousands of small earthern pots, each pile of a hundred or more from the one boat going by the number painted on the pot. What are they used to catch? Octopus? Whatever, it is only a seasonal thing by the looks.
A couple of days later we headed off across the island to the ferry point at Adjim , where we had to wait for about an hour to get on board. The ferry takes quite a few vehicles and there was at least three running, maybe four. The short trip across the gap costs just 0.5Dn or there-abouts and takes about 15 minutes. We rolled off the other side and took the route along the coast of the near land-locked Gulf Bou Grara to the large city of Medenine . For most of the way the road passes through large groves of olive trees – they obviously grow something amongst the widely spaced trees, as the area is lightly ploughed.
One of the things we have quickly noticed is that there is a lot less rubbish around. We even saw on a number of occasions blokes walking along the road with a big plastic bag picking up rubbish! There was even rubbish bins around. No it wasn't as clean as Oz … and in places some villages looked pretty untidy … in fact, the smaller villages we saw later in the trip had bloody rubbish everywhere - but compared to the last few countries we have been in, this was Keep Tunisia Beautiful!
Star War Sets and Hilltop Villages
We continued south along a good bitumen road deeper into the desert and slowly left the olive groves behind and got into sparsely vegetated saltbush country (what we'd call ‘saltbush country' anyway), except that it was dotted with farms and houses and curved-roof, earth and stone grain storage sheds, along with occasional date palms.
In Foum Tatahouine we wound our way into the heart of the town and through the narrow streets of the souk, before finding our way back on to the main thru' road. This town was only established in 1912 as a penal settlement, which it still feels a bit like..
Got to Ksar Debbab , one of the towns that have the walled graineries, and while we could see them on top of the nearby hill we were really trying to get to Ksar Soltane so we pushed on. We back-tracked to Tatahouine, finding the right road (we had missed the sign post) and headed out the 24km to the small hilltop town of Soltane. In the heart of the ‘new' village was the fortified old town. These stacked domed-roof, fortified granaries known as Ghorfa s, create a weird and wonderful architecture and on the hilltop at Soltane they are four storey's high. If you reckon you've seen them before then you have probably seen the Star Wars trilogy, which starred these and others, helping make Tunisia and this desert area in particular a world wide tourist attraction.
Some of the graineries, which are quite small in side but cool, have steep narrow stairs leading to them, while others, most in fact, have a hand hold or two, and a couple of small ledges or steps that give climbing access to the higher storeys. By what our guide – yes, I had won one who really wanted to sell us one of his water colours – told us that the ones that formed a high walled fort behind a locked gate were around 500 years old while the ones on the outer and formed a street leading to the gate of the fort, were only 300 or so years old. They are no longer used – and were last in regular use about 30 years ago. We did buy a painting!
Headed off to Chenini , where the old hilltop village spills across the barren hills and looks to be a part of it. The mosque up the ridge from the village has some 5-metre long graves; legend has it that the Christians hid from the Romans and sleeping they grew to be very tall, only to die when they awoke 400 years later … so the story goes.
Out in this desert country the farmers utilize nearly every wadi (or creek), by putting a low dam, or a dike across the valley every few hundred metres. Then behind the dam wall, where the water collects as well as the silt, they plough and grow crops; some of these small plots (many less than 0.5 hectare) are also planted with a few trees – olives or fig being the main ones. From the high ridge near the mosque we had a good view of one wadi that was heavily utilized in such a way.
We had a quick look around and then headed off on the bitumen roads to Beni Khedache , where we got lost for a short while before finding the right road over the ridge and west. Stopped at a road junction where there was a major water-point and a road headed north to an oil rig; we continued west for a short while and then checked out a couple of spots for a camp before picking a spot behind a dam wall (GPS 33°15'36”N 10°2'07”E), the surrounding country very saltbush like.
Desert Oasis
Got to the main road between Matmata and Douz and there was a number of tourist buses whistling along it as well as a few tourist loaded Cruisers.
A small café was located here and we stopped to inflate tyres – the owner, Jedlili Hamadi, who is also a guide to the local area, did not miss the chance and brought out mint tea and biscuits, which was very good. Coffee followed, but that wasn't as good as the tea. Jelili turned out to be a nice bloke and his wife had just had a young baby who Jelili wanted to show off. Just 18 days old (or 8?) Helen was in seventh heaven and we took a few pics while the girls handed over some knitted jumpers and caps to the young wife. Jelili then gave us a few rock crystals, one very phallic like, which he had for sale as well as a key ring (which he didn't have to do) and we promised to send a photo of the baby back to him! With that ‘feel good' experience behind us we headed off on the tourist route to Douz.
The country we travelled through was like our dry saltbush country with the occasional mob of sheep normally tended by a Berber nomad, whose rough canvas sheet camp would be nearby. Along the way there were a few waterpoints and these were obviously popular with the nomadic herdsmen. As we got closer to Douz the country became drier while a tongue of sand from the vast sand sea to the south reached north towards the road we were traveling on.
Got to Douz, which is located on the edge of the vast sand sea – the Grand Erg Oriental and is the ‘tourist capital' of this southern region of Tunisia, promoting itself as the ‘Gateway to the Sahara' . It's a bit of a long call and as one guidebook says, ‘possessing some lack luster heaps of sand, which, as easily accessible ‘instant desert' have made the town a fortune.
This oasis centred town though is surrounded by sandy desert, albeit with no really big dunes and lies amongst a vast sea of date palms of which there are 400,000 or so, by all accounts. They even pay homage to the date palm with one of the monuments in a traffic circle being a large date palm with a human bringing a plate of dates down from it.
Wandered around the town before stopping in the market square where we got out and went looking for curios – well the girls did, Neil tagged along and I wandered around taking a few pics. It was pleasant enough and we got some goodies to take home.
Headed north to Kebili which was only 25km or so away but for the whole distance we drove thru a vast sea of well tended date palms – many had plastic bags over the bunch of dates – the first time we had seen that but it proved to be common in this region. From Kebili we headed west through more oasis town and palms before coming onto the causeway that crosses the large salt lake of Chott Djer. This lake is the largest salt lake in Tunisia and as we got closer to the centre of it, it became ever more white as the thick bed of salt became less tainted with dirt. Once upon a time – up till 1984 - vehicles would drive across the salt and while that would have been a lot more fun, it was fraught with danger as the occasional rusted out bodies of trucks and cars, that became bogged on the salt far from any recovery point, testified. Now it is a doddle with a café located every km or so in the centre section of the crossing, while rough statues and even a boat have been put on the salt to entice you to stop and take a pic of this surreal scene.
On the western side the road skirts the lake and heads south to Tozeur . This town, close to the Algerian border once again has Roman origins and was, during the 5 th Century occupied by the Vandals, then fortified by the Byzantines and later destroyed by the Arabs. It became rich on the desert caravans crossing the Sahara and quite a big slave trading centre which continued at least until the early 1800's. Now it is tourism (and dates) that keep it alive.
Who in the hell were the Vandals anyway? I had never heard of them until we got to North Africa. Well, doing a bit of reading they came out of Spain in the 5 th Century and took Cathage from the Romans in about 439AD when they gained control of the whole of the north coast. They added little to the culture apart from a few genes and destroyed many of the monuments, hacking off the noses of the marble statues, amongst others. But their reign was short; in 533AD the Byzantines under Emperor Justinian beat the Vandals and reclaimed Tunisia (and the north coast of Africa?) for the Eastern Roman Empire.
We arrived in Tozeur and at the main circle in the centre of town they staged a fisty cuffs for us – good one it was too - the third punch up we've seen since coming into Tunisia – it must be Ramadan!
Once the traffic jam had cleared at the traffic circle and we could move again we wound our way through the town, passed all the tourist shops and found our way to the Les Beaux Reves camping ground (GPS 35°54'51”N 8°7'27”E). This very pleasant camping ground offers plenty of shade on the very edge of a large date palm plantation, close to the centre of town and the ‘tourist district'. The showers and toilets are basic but clean with hot and cold water.
To El Jem's Amphitheatre
Next morning we fuelled up; ‘super' diesel A$0.90C/litre; standard diesel, A$.079C/litre – expensive by Libyan and Egyptian prices but cheap by our price. Headed out of town towards Metlaoui, the date palm groves continuing for the whole way. Around most of the oasis in this area they have erected long lines of rough brush fencing along the crest of all the invading dunes – to try and stem their advance, no doubt. It seems to work!
East of Gafsa, which was quite a big town and we took some time to wind our way through, the road parallels a mountain range, the country looking so much like the drive north of Hawker in South Oz, it was uncanny. As we got closer to Mezzouna the countryside improved and there were a lot more villages and increasing groves of olive trees, which seemed to dominate the whole landscape. In fact, for the last 300km or so of the day's travel we passed through a vast sea of olive trees that darn near stretched from horizon to horizon for the whole time. It was amazing – I wonder how they harvest them all?
Took a short-cut west of Sfax , so we didn't have to go into this second largest of Tunisia's cities but the maps were wrong and we ended up getting a bit misplaced before finding our way north to Menzel Chaker and then onto El Jem .
The reason for coming to this town is immediately obvious as the ruins of the 2AD Roman Amphitheatre tower over the town and dominate its skyline. This imposing building, which once hosted fights between wild animals and gladiators, armed gladiators as well as executions of poor unlucky Christians, is in remarkable condition. Certainly it's in better condition than the famous Colosseum in Rome and is one of seven colosseums still standing. Being one of the last ones built it supposedly offers better viewing and acoustics than many of the others – all the better to hear and see the screams of the mortally wounded people or the dying animals, I guess! We wandered around it for an hour or more, taking in the top storey as well as the underground dens and walkways (which were only discovered in 1904) where animals and people were kept before being moved up onto the arena.
We were on the tourist circuit here though and there were a few people around as well as a ring of shops and stalls around the whole amphitheatre. They weren't too pushy though.
From El Jem, we headed north and then east to the coast, it now getting pretty late. Got lost in the industrial and port town of Mahdia and it was starting to look like we were going to be in a hotel when we crossed the railway line just south of Bekalta and found our way through a series of quarries to the coast just south of the town. It looked pretty good so we stopped and set up camp (GPS 35°35'26”N 11°02'09”E) on a 2-3km stretch of beach that didn't have any buildings on it. And, apart from a couple of visits by the local police patrol, at mid-night and again at 1.00am, we had a quiet night!
The Northern Most Cape
We didn't want to go to Tunis on our way north, so we wound our way through the hills and dales to the south and west of the city. For most of the way we drove thru areas taken up by large farms and with hundreds, if not thousands of acres ploughed. We passed thru Zaghouan, then passed under a large aqueduct to Tebourba and onto Matfeur.
Just north of Matfuer we took the turn off to the entrance to Lake Ichkeul NP , which is one of just a few small national parks the country has. The large lake of the same name takes up 99% of the park and as we found there are a few animal herders living within the park and grazing their cattle in the park area. However, a new fence which cuts across the edge of the lake seems to keep the villages and most of the cattle and goats out of the central more permanent watered section of the lake. There are a few buffalo, about a dozen or so (not sure if they are a distinct specie) grazing the park and were under ranger protection – or at least they seemed to be. At the entrance there were a couple of statues of these animals, so they seem important but trying to get any info, in English especially, was impossible. Paid our 2Dn each entry fee and headed to the carpark, 3km within the park for lunch. There were a lot of water birds on the lake, which is quite big and very shallow as there were great rafts of flamingoes standing out in the lake kilometres from shore. It's hardly a Serengeti or Navasha, but if you were a keen birdo you'd enjoy the place.
Headed on after our brief stay and got to Bizerte , which is a big and busy town on the sea and beside the canal that opens into the large and ship friendly Lake Bizerte. Wound our way through the centre of town and then out onto the coast, which we tried to stay beside as we headed north and west. Nothing was named as our maps showed, so when we came to a lighthouse on a low hill we could only guess to it being Cape Bizerte .
The coast was quite crowded with houses and these continued beyond Cape Bizerte. Finally found our way to Cape Blanc Light House (GPS 37°19'43”N 9°50'11”E), which has a lofty prominence on top of its limestone white mount it is very aptly named as we noted when the afternoon sun lit up the white rock of the cape. The peak towers over the surrounding country and after you have driven up the rough rocky road there are some great views in all directions.
Just where the track enters the pine plantation there is a reasonable spot to camp. There are, in fact a few spots to camp in the area between Cape Blanc and the northern most point of Africa, but most are marred with rubbish everywhere. Still, Pine Tree camp (GPS 37°19'18”N 9°50'30”E), is better than most.
From the top of Cape Blanc we could see our objective but to get there was still a bit of a mystery. We went back into town and at the Bizerte R/J (GPS 37°16'42”N 9°51'20”E), just north of the town's centre, is the road west to Marnissa and the one you need to get onto to get to the northern most cape.
At the village of Marnissa (or was it, we are never too sure) we took a dirt road which headed north east and then picked up a worn old cobblestone road - which I reckoned was the original Roman road to Cathage – and headed west. Got to a bitumen road and then another village – Ksar Archer I think - right on the coast and west of our northen most point, which we could again see.
Backtracked and picked up a track leading to the lighthouse of Ras Ben Sekka , the northern most cape on the African continent and a few km west of Cape Blanc but nowhere near as grand or having a fine a view. It is graced with a lighthouse on it (GPS 37°20'38”N 9°44'22”E), while a lower point is a little further north (GPS 37°20'47”N 9°44'33”E). We found our way there along a rough and often soft sandy track but there was too much rubbish to really enjoy a camp although the small inlets and bays make it a very pleasant spot for fishing, snorkeling or swimming.
Headed back towards Cape Blanc and a few camping spots we wanted to check out. A few people fishing at easily accessible spots and at one we had to help a family in the Jeep Grand Cherokee get out off a bog. They had no idea but with a lot of straps and Neil's winch we managed to get them out.
We checked out a few more spots to camp but they were either filthy with rubbish or very soft sandy access tracks so we backtracked to where we had rescued our Italian family and set up camp (GPS 37°19'51”N 9°46'06”E). There are no facilities here, although it is marked ‘parking' and later the owner came down and for the two vehicles for two nights camping we paid 10Dn (approx A$10), which he seemed pretty happy with.
Tunis and Ancient Roman Carthage
The drive to Tunis was easy along a tollway that made short work of the 80 or so kilometers. We couldn't find anywhere in town to park so headed out to La Goulette which is the city's port and found where our ferry leaves from and there is quite a choice. Still we couldn't find anyone who spoke too much English so decided to find a hotel nearby and sort the ferry out later. With that we found a hotel nearby – the Lido Hotel with good facilities and right on the beach – just 80Dn (A$80) a night. Parking was on the street but there is a security guard, so we moved in!
We booked our ferry to Palermo on Sicily with Carthage Tours. The Grimaldi Ferries boat runs twice a week to Palermo ( a 10-hour trip) and they also run a regular service to Marseille in France. Cost for our 6-metre Patrol with a cabin for the two of us was TDn558 (A$560).
With a couple of days to kill in and around Tunis we headed for the city of Carthage just a few km up the coast from where we were staying.
Carthage was once one of the great cities of the ancient world and traces its history back to 1100BC when the Phoenicians arrived carving out an empire in the western Mediterranean. The wars with Rome over the next few centuries are more well known thru the battle tactics of Hannibal who with his famous war elephants crossed the alps and nearly took Rome in 216BC. In 149BC the Romans sacked Carthage, wiping out more than 650,000 people and destroying every building before ploughing the land and sowing it with salt so that it could never be inhabited again.
But in 46BC the Roman emperor, Caesar, rebuilt the city and it is these ruins – or the few that remain – that you see. Why so few? Well, the Vandals came in 435AD and sacked the place, only for it to be re-opened again under Byzantine rule less than a 100 years later. The Arabs arrived in 650AD and sacked the place and with that the town became just a quarry for future building contractors to use and tourists to take a rock or two. By 1835 there was hardly a stone left as poignantly told by Grenville Temple in his book, Excursions in the Mediterranean.
Over the last 100 years the archeologists and UNESCO have worked hard on excavating and displaying the ruins of this once great city and the area is now a World Heritage Site. It is also basically an outer suburb of Tunis … and an upmarket one at that! The ruins that can be seen, lay scattered amongst the million dollar villas, the sprawling grounds of the Presidential Palace and the very large and fancy mosque. Still they were better than we had come to expect and while they were no Leptis Magna they were still pretty good.
The National Museum of Le Bardo on the outskirts of Tunis is another of the ‘must sees' in Tunisia. Housing one of the greatest collections of ancient mosaics anywhere and North Africa's best Roman collection. It was amazing!
All in all we enjoyed Tunis and Tunisia, with Tunis being by far the best city we had been in across North Africa. We'd come back given a chance!
But our time in Africa was drawing to a close. With a 4-hour time frame to get through customs, passport control and onto the boat we were down at the ferry point at 5pm readying ourselves for our 9pm departure. Civilized Europe was waiting!
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MORE PICS - SEE PICTURE GALLERY PAGE ON TUNISIA
Ksar Soltane and its stacked domed-roof, fortified granaries known as Ghorfas.
The oasis town of Douz and the market square where we got out and went looking for curios.
El Jem and the ruins of the 2AD Roman Amphitheatre which towers over the town and dominates its skyline.
The northernmost point of Africa is Ras Ben Sekka.
Carthage was once one of the great cities of the ancient world and while there isn't much left there are a few sites worth visiting, such as the ruins of the baths.
