Tunisia # 11 Desert Rose

A piece of Desert Rose

I carried this lump of mineral back from Tunisia.

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2008: Fun Monday-91 Jewellery
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Tunisia # 10 Sahara Desert (part 2)

We headed out into the desert, some riding camels and the rest of us in our horse drawn 'carriages'.

In the distance we could see ruined buildings and a few palm trees and that was where we were headed.


As we got closer to the palm trees we saw a herd of goats appearing out of the sand dunes.

I'm not quite sure what they find to eat but they looked in good condition.

I think I imagined that we would see sand dunes that were much higher, but that was to come later in the day when we visited Nefta and Ong Jemel.

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2008: Fun Monday-90 We must never forget
2007: PFriendship Award
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Tunisia # 9 Sahara Desert (part 1)

Douz,is the largest of the oases in western Tunisia and driving through it looked quite shabby. It was from here that we were going to get our experience of the Sahara Desert. It was all geared for the tourists and very contrived, however you could still imagine what it must have been like for the early camel trains crossing the desert.
When you go out into the desert you really do need to dress for the occasion.

It seemed a bit of fun but when the wind whipped up a bit of a dust storm we were very glad to be dressed appropriately!

I was very tempted to take in the view riding on a camel, but decided my back might not like the experience.

I know I've already shown you a close up, but camels really do have the sweetest faces and these were very well behaved-no spitting or kicking.

So this is how Anna and I got out into the desert.

In places it was quite a bumpy ride, but the driver stopped frequently to let us take pictures and I'll show you some of these tomorrow.

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2008: Whats happening today!
2007: Witty Wednesday-26
2006: Sams Toulouse Sausage, Bacon and Green Lentils

Tunisia # 8 A trip to a desert oasis (Chebika part 2)

Chebika is a small mountain oasis town surrounded by a dry and arid desert region, just north of the salt lakes or Chotts. It is said to the least famous of these oasis towns yet it's quite spectacular with its rugged rocks and steep-sided ravines. Having driven through houses we arrived below....

After walking through 'the obligatory shopping area' the visitor begins to get a view of the area.

There are two routes to reach the base of the ravine, the most difficult being up the terraces between the rock and then down, the easy route is a winding path down. Guess which route I took!!

The more difficult route (actually it wasn't too bad and you could climb at your own pace) gave some great views. Below parts of the ruined village.

Looking across to the mountains.

The Holyman's retreat.

Looking back...

Hmm will I squeeze through that gap and I wonder what's on the other side...

Looking down into the ravine, it is actually a deeper drop than it looks in this picture.

A closer look at the mountains.

At the bottom of the steep climb down (there were some steps).

This is where you find a pool of water.

In the mud at the edge of the pool were hundreds (well maybe dozens) of these little fellows.

Looking back up from where we came (what can you see carved in the rocks??). For some reason I didn't take a close up, silly me!

We followed the stream, and yes it was narrow in places and you had to negotiate stepping stones, but I managed it without getting my feet wet.

We passed a very pretty little waterfall.

Then it was back to where we started.

Archives:
2008: Meme-6 things about moi and awards
2007: Fungi Forage
2006: Echo Lake

Tunisia # 7 A trip into the desert (part1)

On day three of our holiday we headed out into the desert in a four-wheel drive vehicle. We were visiting the mountain oases of Tamerza and Chebika
Tamerza is the largest mountain oasis in Tunisia, known as Ad Turres by the Romans. It has a pleasant canyon and has an abandoned old town. The town was abandoned after the river flooded for 22 days in 1969. It is located north of the salt lakes and receives fresh water from the nearby hills. It is in the hill country near the border with Algeria.

The first couple of pictures are quite close to where we saw the camels crossing the road.

We passed a lot of derelict buildings along the road.
We then began to see the mountains.

Below you might be able to see how the road winds up into the mountains.

We then stopped to get the views back down into the valley.

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Surrounded by mountains.

Of course there were a few stalls where we stopped.

Oh and a toilet block! Do you wonder what I was looking at lurking behind the toilets, I'm always nosey!

I couldn't believe my eyes. It was the last thing one expected to see in a remote area of Tunisia!

I now rather regret not buying one of these scarves they were perfect for protecting you against the sun and more importantly the dust.

More to come in another post.

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2008: Fun Monday-89 Remind me why I blog!
2007: Kernewek Teapot
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Tunisia # 6 Tozeur an oasis

Tozeur is an oasis town on the edge of the Sahara, we only spent a couple of nights here, we arrived late afternoon and this is my first view of the pool at our hotel. I managed to fit in a swim the following afternoon. In fact one of the things that we found frustrating was there was never enough time to use all the facilities in the hotel, because of the planned visits.

Our first morning was spent taking a carriage ride into the oasis. It was interesting to see dates, bananas and pomegranates growing, but it was pretty obvious this was another money making venture for the locals. It was very small scale compared to the hugely productive business where most of countryside is covered in olive and palm trees. We drove for hours and that was all you could see on either side of the road.

The young lad gave a demonstration of how they climbed the trees bared footed.

The bananas grown here are much smaller than the ones from other parts of the world and they are not as sweet.

We did get pomegranate in the hotels.

I have never really been fond of dates but these small fresh dates are so delicious I was eating a few every day and I brought some home. We were told that in the fridge they would last until Christmas but I don't somehow think ours will be around that long. In fact there are only a few left!

Archives:
2008: Ben's Tune
2007: New Awards for Moi
2006: Window Repairs