Monday 11^th May – Sahara:  Nefta - Monastir, Tunisia

35:46.823N 10:49.956E

It was an early start once again, and, once again, the locusts had arrived at the breakfast buffet before us.  They had woken us up at 3.30am with showers and flushing loos, and then again on their way down the corridor, chatting loudly and dragging cases – one of them was whistling cheerfully!  The noise eventually died down around 5am and we fell asleep, only to be awoken shortly after by our alarm.

We were ready in reception at 7am.  As Richard was handing our key in, reception phoned our guide to let him know that everyone had arrived.  Richard was handed the phone and our guide apologised profusely and said he would be half an hour – the call had awoken him as he had fallen back asleep.  It gave us time to discuss his tip J

Today we visited the mountain oasis of Chebika and Tamerza before starting the long haul back to Monastir.

On the road to the Atlas mountains

At Chebika we walked up the hill and through the old town that was flooded and then abandoned in 1969.  The route gave us fabulous view out over the oasis.  The path then led down to a pool which was very picturesque and had some unidentified green frogs in it.  The path back through the valley of the gorge was winding and cool out of the sun.

After our walk we treated ourselves to some freshly squeezed orange juice.  The man doing the squeezing was working very hard and quite a queue developed.

The mountain oasis of Chebika;  climbing up through the abandoned town flooded in 1969

Chebika:  At the pool in the oasis

Chebika:  The walk back along the river

Travelling to Tamerza we were only a few kilometres from the border with Algeria.  Once at Tamerza, there was a path leading down through the oasis to a sizeable waterfall; though we didn't think it was as pretty as Chebika.

Tamerza:  Mountain oasis

After Tamerza we headed to Gafsa, a town located in central Tunisia and developed where there are large phosphate deposits being mined; Tunisia is the fourth largest exporter of phosphates we were told.  As we approached the town, the road was lined with rubbish and it seemed that the whole approach road was a land fill site.  The centre of town was a traffic jam, the first we have seen in Tunisia.  On the way out of town on the other, and cleaner, side, we stopped at a restaurant for lunch.

We were half way through the starter when, you've guessed it, the coach load of locusts arrived.  As they were getting seated, Barb decided that enough was enough and she bolted to the buffet to select her main course to make sure she got something to eat.  As the locusts were getting seated, we all followed suit and went to grab plates and some food.  We even grabbed some cookies ready for dessert!  We joked that we were now fully trained in the art of coach touring.

After Gafsa we took a long drive up to Kairouan, which became the first city of Islam in North Africa when it was founded.  Nowadays it is the fourth holiest city in the Muslim religion after Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem.  We stopped beside the Great Mosque of Sidi-Uqba, the most important mosque in the city.  The President of Tunisia, has visited recently and the city was still festooned with bunting.  Sadly the mosque was closed to visitors so we could only look at it from the outside and from the roof of an adjacent carpet store (reminiscent of our visit to Tunis but without the hassle of the hard sell).

Kairouan:  Views of the Great Mosque of Sidi-Uqba

From there we covered the remaining miles back to the marina at Monastir.  We finished our long day by having a small dinner and then collapsing into bed around 9pm.

It has been a fascinating tour that we have all thoroughly enjoyed.

© Pyxis 2009