Tunisia

I have to say from the off that I loved Tunisia. It’s not off the beaten track like some of the other places I’m going to but it’s not hard to be the only tourist in a site that could accommodate thousands and the real gem is the people, particularly those in the south who always smile and treat you well. Despite the customs debacle you’ll read about below, if the rest of my trip is a fraction of the fun Pat and me had here I will be over the moon.

Customs Debacles

I’ve always been weary of two things in Africa. One is the general level of driving and the second is anyone in a uniform. The former you can do something about perhaps 80% of the time. The latter is far more unpredictable. Border officials love their uniforms and unfortunately, the power they feel they instil on them. So when we arrived at our first customs port, despite much optimism to the contrary, I did expect something to go wrong. And boy did it. It was all going smoothly (if not time consuming) until they asked me what electrical equipment I was carrying. I was honest about everything and told them what I had, including my emergency Satellite phone. The inspector on duty decided there was a problem with this and four hours of negotiation began. Despite it just being a phone and despite its intention being for getting us out of trouble, the chief inspector of Tunisian port customs disagreed and said it would be confiscated. I tried bribes, emphasising the charity element of the trip and genuinely tried to understand why they felt they needed to, in essence, steal my phone that cost me a small fortune and was brand new. I even tried comedy but despite all my efforts that was it. They said I could have it back if I left the port again from the same port and left for Europe. I told them my story and they stood firm with their ludicrous decision. There was no compassion behind the chief inspector’s aviator sunglasses. He probably nicked them too.

Dougga

Himba my Landy with Dougga in the background

Luckily, after a cracking night at a deserted service station in the middle of nowhere, we came across Dougga, an ancient Roman city in the hill tops a few hours south West of the Tunisian capital of Tunis. This place was awesome.

The ancient Roman city of Dougga, Northern Tunisia

Amazingly preserved streets and streets of Roman buildings, tunnels, theatres, temples and carvings. As a UNESCO World Heritage site we expected it to be impressive but this place blew our socks off. And we had the place to ourselves (a pattern that was set to continue).

The main temple at Dougga - almost fully formed!

No barriers pretty much anywhere meant you could literally sit on Roman toilets (if you so wished…), walk on Roman streets, walk into perfectly formed Roman homes. You could even stage Dougga’s Got Talent in one of the theatres (we did, Pat won).

Toilet humour: No joke, these were communal Roman toilet seats..

Jebel Chaanbi National Park

Himba looks tiny amongst the peaks of Jebel Chaanbi

We camped at the base of this national park and drove up to the peak the following morning. We were pretty lucky to see a peregrine falcon but otherwise it was the view that was the real draw here. You could see for tens of miles from this, the highest peak in Tunisia.

Looking out on the plains at Jebel Chaanbi National Park, Tunisia

It was also a chance to take Himba off the beaten track a bit and test it’s 4×4 credentials..

A water break during a drive through the park

Tozeur and beyond: The Star Wars Circuit!

For those Star Wars lovers out there it will be no surprise to know that the newer Star Wars films (Phantom Menace, A New Hope and Revenge of the Sith) were all filmed here in Tunisia. The place names in the film (e.g. Tatouine) etc. are all Tunisian locations.

Star Wars Canyon

The entrance to Sidi Bouhlel, Star Wars Canyon!

When we were planning our travels through Tunisia, let’s be honest, Pat and my key priority was to fit in as many Star Wars film set locations as we could (we’re kids like that) so when we heard about the canyon where a young Luke Skywalker passed through (and subsequently broke down in) and was attacked by the Jawaa, only to be rescued by Obi Wan we licked our lips and put our foot down.

Cool place to climb!

The setting is spectacular. On the edge of the Chott El Jarid, a large salt flat lookalike in the desert, the canyon is a cheeky little labyrinth.

We camped near it in the desert and walked through the canyon from the bottom.

Spectacular canyon even without the Star Wars influence

Here we probably took the best jump picture that could arguably ever be taken in a canyon setting. It took over 15 minutes to get the right shot (a lifetime in travelling terms!) but we were pretty damn pleased with the outcome..

Take 1 – Pat warms up

Dry run en route to perfection

Take 2 – Almost perfect but not quite there..

Almost there but not quite perfection!

Take 3 and it’s a wrap! – The end result left a tear in both our eyes.

One of the best jump pictures we've ever done!

Cedric the Desert Rat

We also made a video of a desert gerbil / guinea pig lookalike called Cedric which I would vehemently argue would rival some of Sir David Attenborough’s greatest work (I don’t say that lightly; Attenborough is one of my all time heroes). It’s even in HD for goodness sake.

Chott El Jarid

The Chott is Tunisia’s answer to the great Salt flats of South America. While not on the same scale or as striking in colour, the Chott El Jedir makes up for it by being in the middle of the desert.

The few cars around looked like they were melting away into the road!

The roads looked like they were melting away into lakes, the sand sculptures made and left by locals are striking and the opportunity for perspective photos were rife.

Fans are a big thing out here!

The 60km we made across the northern edge of the Chott gave us a good flavour of the expanse of this ancient desert lake.

Mattmata

As we were driving between the Chott and a place called Mattmata we suddenly came across an area of raised hills that the road weaved in between. Suddenly we began noticing small openings in the rocks, then door mats and even the occasional light. We slowly began to realize these were the Troglodyte homes we had read about. In essence these are homes carved into the rocks by the indigenous Berber desert communities in order to stay cool out of the sun, which two weeks previously had been measured at 48 degrees Celsius.

A traditional Berber home, dug into the hillside and cool as a cucumber inside!

While we were there it was a cool mid 30s (!?).Many of the traditional homes have now been turned into tourist hotels and one such newly built one we decided to visit. The second you step inside you are amazed by the seemingly endless network of tunnels and cavernous rooms that meet you.

Just one of many tunneled walkways. Beautifully serene.

And the best bit, it’s a constant cool temperature year round. Old school air conditioning (a bit like the windows on my Land Rover!). We were shown round the complex which included a traditional olive press, weaving room and a cool well which mules would have been used to pump water from. There was an outside camel operated model too!

Derek the camel gets water from a well

Mattmata was also a Star Wars site as a young Luke Skywalker lived in one of the buildings there (now a hotel) with his foster uncle and aunt. A mandatory look around and we were off to Medenine and some market shenanigans.

A traditional Berber home as seen in Star Wars!

Medenine: How much fun you can have in a market

Medenine was supposed to be a quick fuel stop but we were drawn by a large market that was happening and I needed a hat so we popped in.

Spices at the Tunisian carnage market

There began the fun. Firstly I was attracted to a little wheel barrow selling mint (well, it was a man not the actual wheel barrow doing the selling..) and so decided to buy a few sprigs to make some Tunisian mint tea that evening. This is how much we left with.

We wanted a few stems, we left with this!

My Arabic had let me down slightly and we ended up with over a kilo of it (for 35p mind). Then we saw a debacle unfold in front of us involving two men, a big bag of rotting vegetables and a horse drawn cart. Watch the video but basically the tall man had bought a bag of vegetables from the smaller man which was subsequently run over by the horse (although I can vouch for the horse and say it wasn’t his fault – he couldn’t even see anything with those patches on his eyes and he’d had a pretty rough day in any case). Thereafter followed a lot of finger pointing, shouting and the quickest accumulation of spectators I think I’ve ever seen. Very funny though and no one was hurt in the filming of the debacle you’ll be pleased to know but the horse has handed in his notice.

We entered wanting to buy a hat and left with over a kilo of mint, about fifteen tomatoes, one clove of garlic, 2 peppers, a bag of fruit, 2 bags of nuts, a hat and a cracking video.

The marketing director of this blanket company deserves a medal for comedy genius in my eyes!

Ksar Heddada

A non descript mountain village but with one incredibly redeeming feature. It was here in 1997 that George Lucas filmed a lot of village scenes for Star Wars: Phantom Menace including Anakin Skywalker’s childhood home and village, which we duly saw.

The old granary at Ksar Heddada

The village was filmed in an old Ksar, a place where local Berber people used to store grain and olive oil for security and preservation.

The actual home of a young Luke Skywalker!

And the really cool thing? It was here that a young Luke Skywalker grew up. This (we think) is the house he lived in. Well the outside of it anyhow.. There were some old socks and a jerry can inside..

Berber villages of Southern Sudan

In times past (don’t worry this isn’t an intro to a Star Wars film) people in Southern Tunisia lived in villages constructed entirely of stone and cut deep into mountain sides.

Mountain villages of southern Tunisia

Naturally when Pat and I heard about the prospect of climbing, tunnelling and jump photographing such scenery, of course we couldn’t resist. And the series of villages we visited did not disappoint.