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Last updated Monday August 25, 2008

Tunisia

November - December 2007

My Trip to Tunisia consisted of six trips including:

The Beach at my resort.

The first stop on the "Sahara Explorer" was the Roman Coliseum at El Jem.... the largest in North Africa and the inspiration for the hit movie Gladiator.  The areas where the animals were kept under the arena floor and the Gladiators would prepare were still intact and you could also go up into the seating area also.  The town around it, was like everywhere else in this country only half built with families taking upto ten years to build a house due to lack of money.  Many people used donkey's ad carts to get about with upto ten people on the cart pulled by one donkey.

We now go 230 km in the air conditioned bus to our next stop where we see a Berber house and have lunch.  Then onto Douz where we enter the desert.  In Douz we have a camel ride, then onto the hotel for the night.

Tomorrow we take a ride by horse and cart the two (this and the camel ride) being 20d so about £8, but tips are always nice to give so build that into any excursion that is taken if and when you go.

Unemployment is at about 17%.  Pensions are received at the age of 60 normally but in some jobs at 55 or 50, by men and women alike.  The country, which charges VAT, income tax and also national insurance via the employer also has a free health service and education system including through university.  Cars are expensive as depending on the size an importation tax of either 50%, 80% or 100% is charged.  However all taxi's, coaches or 4x4's used for tourism are imported without a tax.  If someone does not pay there tax then nothing happens.  However when they next need to get something from the government e.g. a wedding certificate or divorce or anything then they need to pay fully anything outstanding before they will receive it.

Sfax is the industrial capital.  It has the only commercial harbour in the south of Tunisia.  The country exports salt to Europe and in this area, just further south, are the salt lakes, which we visit on our trip.  In Tunisia there is thermal electricity production with petrol production and exportation another element in the countries economy.  Natural gas however has to be imported from Algeria.

The country has more than 55 million olive trees and they export their olives to Europe.  The current winter season is the time when they are gathered.  One tree produces about 30 litres of oil.  Olive trees live a long time with 20% being owned by the government here and the other 80% by private enterprise.

Another export to Europe that goes through Sfax via the railway system is petrol as previously mentioned.  The petrol fields are mainly in the south of the country.  Petrol is also exported via the harbour at Essahara.

Further south on the road between Sfax and Gables we pass an army barracks.  About 15km from Gables.  The country has national service for one year which can be done by citizens anytime between the ages of 20 and 35, however you can pay a monthly sum to the government to opt out if you wish.  Gables has the only current factory in the south of the country with the majority of industry being in the north of the country.  There are three main industries in Tunisia.  Agriculture being the biggest, then tourism and industrial.

Next was Matmata, where the Berbers live under the ground, but also have now left to build new cities and new Matmata looks like any other Tunisian city or town, and is 15km away from the first city.

one of the houses of the Berbers, in the are where Star Wars was filmed, and its owner.

The surrounding Sahara

The had lunch in the Sar Amazigh Hotel at Matmata, which means hotel of the Berbers.  It was a soup starter with a main course of chicken, potatoes, cuscus followed by pears.

Our stop over hotel on the two day trip to the Sahara was at kebili, with a 15d surcharge for single persons.  The Yardis Oasis Hotel was very nice and I would recommend it.  There are two pools here with a small stream with a walkway over it and a small waterfall into the second swimming pool, which is really pleasant to look at even if you do not wish to have a dip.  After the camel ride, which was about half an hour to forty five minutes I collected some sand from the Sahara.

As we leave the comfort of the hotel at 6am and make our way out of the city and back into the desert life has already begun.  Further out the sand slowly gives way to salt until we are on the salt plains.  Here we stop, there is always a little roadside shop and salt has been put into small piles and coloured blue, red and green.  The salt flats reach as far as the eyes can see.  This is the largest salt lake reaching 100km by 70km.

We then changed from the coach to Toyota Land Cruisers.  When we stopped we were at a small village by the Atlas mountains.  We took a hike into them to find a natural spring and pool that had a temperature of about 24 degrees.

The local stalls at the hot water springs and the route to them.

The view from half way up the hillside to the natural hot water spring and pool.

I purchased a piece of purple quartz for 1.5d, gave another 1d to the guide and back into the 4x4's to continue.

The Grand Waterfall was, well small.... but it is a desert.  After taking a couple of quick photos it was back into the 4x4's.

The stop at the Sahara's Grand Waterfall.

Tunisia has lost many of its natural springs and now wells plunge to a thousand meters deep in some areas to draw up water.

The next stop that we made was for the horse and cart ride through orchards and along a small stream.  This was splendid with a sometimes quick but normally steady trot through palm trees and into an orchard with further palms producing dates and orange trees, lime groves and banana trees.  We stopped off for a demonstration of how they climb trees and then use the branches to literally drop down from them by a young boy of about 15.

After our return we met up again with the coaches.  We stopped for lunch at the Galfsa Palace at 1300.

We were informed as we passed one of the mosques that since 1999/2000 mosques in Tunisia are only open at the five times a day that Muslims are called to prey.  Previously they were open all of the time, however this was stopped by the government to stop extremists meeting in them as a prevention against the growth of terrorism.  We were also informed that another export to Europe is cactus fruits, and that cactus is used as the base for many perfumes by large well named brands.

Our journey continued through the wasteland that makes up so much of this country.  It is inspiring to think that though they build slowly, a house taking upto ten years due to a lack in finance rather than resources, a future.  At the cafe stop there is yet another shop.  Here Shell oil is building a new petrol station.  Here the main petrol station company owners is Agil.

One of the streets in the town.

On the side of the road there is a hen and her six chicks peck away, like most things in such an environment, scavenging for anything and everything it can get.

At the "Grand Mosque" I took a couple more photo's.  The norm was true of the area surrounding this most religious building though.  There were one or two really nice houses and buildings with the rest, and the majority looking like a war zone.  Then it was back onto the coach for the trip back to the hotels.

and that was my trip to Tunisia.