We began the last leg of our Tunisian journey. We had a long drive and the landscape changed dramatically as we headed north. The desert slowly disappeared as more and more orchards and farms appeared. After a few hours we were in (relatively) lush farming country.
The traffic grew heavier. It wasn't crazy but it was heading there. People almost never use blinkers and will drive short distances on the wrong side of the road if it suits them. John had to keep his wits about him. It was a long and tiring drive.
We arrived in Kairouan to find that the hotel I booked was a large tourist hotel. Somehow I had no idea that this is what I booked! Even though it's not what we usually stay in, it was absolutely lovely and we were thrilled with our comfortable room. It was just what we needed after the last place.
We had a small enclosed balcony and the windows had traditional lattice shutters. Muslim women can look out of these without being seen. They were also good for giving some shade while still allowing a bit of a view.
The hotel is built int the space that was occupied by old barracks that back onto the medina. It's a walled enclosure. It's a lovely spot that's really handy to everything. There was a large pool too. Heaven!
Our first job was to find some lunch so we headed out to the really busy street nearby. At the first roundabout, John looked for traffic then stepped onto the road, just as a motorbike came along the road from the wrong direction. It missed him by inches!
We only walked about 200 metres but we realised all the eating places were open-air and we were feeling really hot. I was surprised as I thought we had been adjusting to the heat quite well. I assumed that we were feeling the heat because there was no breeze here, however we found out a bit later that it was 41 degrees! Ugghh!
We stayed in our lovely airconditioned room til the evening then headed out to find a place for dinner once it cooled down a few degrees.
We found a restaurant which was out on a balcony but was still pretty hot. It had lovely views of some surrounding buildings though. I have no idea what these domed buildings were but they were beautifully painted.
We walked along the walkway on the ramparts to get to the restaurant!
We wandered through the medina afterwards and it was lovely. It was cleaner than most medinas we've visited.
We headed back into the medina early the next morning to avoid the heat. I love the old gates into medinas.
A market was located just inside the gate selling everything from clothes to shoes to colourful pottery like this.
I love finding strange-looking mannequins in our travels!
We found an entire souk of shoemakers and another area had tinsmiths. They all worked out of tiny shops. This weaver was hand-weaving a huge cloth.
There were plenty of lovely doors, both renovated and falling into disrepair.
Some of the architecture was lovely.
There aren't many sites as such here, but the big one is the Grand Mosque. It's huge!
The mosque has one of the largest courtyards in the country.
The arches were beautiful.
We were fortunate that they allow visitors to view the prayer hall. There must be many hundreds of columns used in the mosque and they were all pillaged from old Roman and Byzantine buildings. It's bizarre how mismatched the columns were. Because they were taken from different constructions the columns were made of different coloured marble and the capitals were in completely different styles. They just seemed to throw any column and any capital anywhere.
Apparently, the mats wrapped around the bases of the columns are so worshippers don't get cold backs!
Further on in the medina we found a gorgeous traditional wooden balcony.
Dinner one night was in a lavishly restored house. The wall decorations are all tiles.
When we first arrived at our room in the hotel, a plumber was there fixing the toilet. It worked ok the rest of that day, but it the morning it stopped working properly. We asked for it to get fixed while we were out exploring but it wasn't done so we asked again. A plumber duly turned up. I don't know what he was thinking but the first thing he did was try to add more water. He soon came rushing out of the toilet saying "Sorry! Sorry!" At first we didn't know what he meant but then we realised with horror that he was being followed by a flood of dirty toilet water. We're talking the whole kit and caboodle of toilet contents here...... As it spilled out of the toilet room into the bathroom, then out of the bathroom and into our bedroom towards the bed and our things on the floor, the plumber wanted to have a chat about what the problem was. We threw towels, sheets, anything we could find to stop the flood from spreading right across the room. It just kept coming and coming! To cut a long story short, we changed rooms. It took half an hour to get another room cleaned then we went back into our room to get our gear only to find they had put clean sheets on the bed but the septic overflow was still all over the floor! It was now drying there in the heat. We had to be athletic acrobats to get our gear out without standing in it. It was all so gross!
The next day we left the hotel and headed out into what was now crazy traffic. The rubbish problem seemed to have got worse the further we went into this trip. At first we thought it wasn't as bad as Jordan (maybe because we like Tunisia a lot more than we liked Jordan!) but in the end we had to admit it's probably the worst country we've ever travelled in for having rubbish everywhere. It was so sad.
Along the country roads, the melon harvest was in full swing. Watermelons and rockmelons were being loaded on the sides of the roads.
Battered utes and trucks laden to the brim with melons crawled along the roads. The first hour or so wasn't easy driving as utes laden with so many melons that they were sunk down on their rear springs held up traffic. People sold melons beside the roads everywhere and we passed paddocks of them as we drove.
In between the loads of melons were loads of hay, piled up as high as they could physically go. Some had scary leans on them!
I think only luck and a bit of blue strapping was holding this load together!
It had to happen. We finally came across a truck that lost part of its load all over the road.
Even the donkeys were loaded to the hilt.
We climbed up to nearly 1,000 metres and the land continued to grow more fertile as we drove until, for the first time since we've been in Tunisia, we saw land completely covered with crops. There was no bare earth between olive trees and no bare paddocks. I think it might even be green here in winter and spring!
Over the next couple of hours we stopped at four sites.
Our first stop was the ancient Roman city of Maktar (or Mactaris). Originally a Numidian settlement, it slowly became Roman as more Romans moved south. By the middle of the 2nd century, it was an official Roman settlement.
Today it's located just near a small town and we pulled up into an easy small car park. There was a museum that had some of the best pieces in it, including this huge mosaic.
We then entered the site and were gobsmacked. There we were, surrounded by the ruins of a great Roman city, and we had it all to ourselves!
We walked along ancient Roman roads, still with every stone slab in place.
The forum, the main plaza, was massive and was still completely paved.
One of the city gates. Can you imagine being a peasant at the time arriving here for the first time and walking through this? It must have been mind-blowing.
It was often hard to know what the buildings were but they were still fascinating.
The city was beautifully set in what is now a farm. A huge oat crop surrounded the ruins. The golden crop was a gorgeous setting for the stunning buildings.
The oat crop appeared to have not been harvested and had seeded. We were puzzled by this until we realised that thousands, if not millions, of white snails were eating the crop.
The building that floored me was the baths. Not only was it clearly a very grand building but every floor, except one that was paved, was covered in mosaics! And guess what? Yep, they were completely unprotected! There was room after room of mosaics in various stages of decay. They were dirty of course, and it was sometimes hard to see the patterns. They would look amazing if they were cleaned up! We had no choice but to walk over them if we wanted to see the building. It was absolutely incredible.
These simple curved lines were entirely made with mosaics.
It was unclear what purpose some of the buildings served, especially as the functions often changed over time, but they were beautiful nonetheless. These look like temples to me.
There were troughs between each of these windows. We have no idea what purpose they served.
Wild fig trees laden with fruit tempted us but they were just not quite ripe yet. Damn!
Again, we feel privileged to be able to explore a place like this all on our own.
Our next destination, about 15 minutes away, was Elles, where buildings of a completely different era awaited us. 71 ancient dolmens about 4,500 years old were scattered across the rolling hills! Yes, you read that right - 4,500 years old. These tombs were built at around the same time as the first of the pyramids were being built in Egypt. These tombs had already been standing for more than 2,000 years before the Romans started building gates and baths at Maktar.
There was an information centre but nobody was there so we just wandered over people's farms dolmen-hunting, as you do.
The dolmens were groups of rooms built of slabs of stone to contain bodies. There were often about six or eight rooms in one dolmen. What amazed me was the size of some of these slabs. Most were around 2 x 2 metres, however some were 5 metres long and about 1 metre wide and others were easily 3 x 3 metres. How did people quarry and move these huge slabs 4,500 years ago? We did see a couple of modern rock quarries nearby where they were cutting out blocks so the material was clearly available. Each dolmen needed about 18 to 24 stone slabs. The fact that the people who built these dolmens could even consider the logistics of cutting and transporting the blocks and manoeuvring them into place, let alone successfully complete the task, is incredible. And they did it at least 71 times!
Some of the dolmens were scenically located in a wheat crop.
A friendly donkey was tied up nearby.
Our next stop were the ruins of Kbor-Klib. Nobody really knows what these are for. They was located in a paddock of freshly headed wheat, so we just admired them from the road.
Our last stop was Ksour Toual, a solitary pre-Roman mausoleum sitting in another crop. It's weird how these ancient buildings just stand there in the middle of nowhere.
The rolling hills and cropped paddocks around here looked nothing like the rest of Tunisia.
We picked up a kid who was hitchhiking, as so many Tunisians do. He was only about 10 and spoke no French or English. Nobody at home would let their 10-year-old child hitchhike but it's normal around here.
We were a bit concerned about our next accommodation as it had very mixed reviews but it was the only accommodation near where we wanted to be. It turned out to be fine, if you're not too fussed about thin sheets placed directly on mattresses and mouldy showers!
The reason we wanted to be here was because it was close to the huge ruined Roman city of Dougga. This UNESCO heritage listed town was originally Numidian until it was annexed by Julius Caesar.
We were keen to get there when the gates opened at 8am to beat the crowds but we ended up at the wrong entrance and it was well after 8.30 by the time we found the right one. We needn't have been concerned - we were the only tourists there! I keep expecting crowds but we are well out of season now as it's just too hot for most people. It's bloody hot for us too, but we'd rather cope with the heat than busloads of tourists.
The view over the town from the wrong entrance was stunning!
Dougga is one of the best preserved Roman towns in north Africa and it was incredible! We really didn't expect it to be this amazing. Building after building still stood tall. The whole city seemed to still be preserved.
The theatre was sensational! It can seat 3,500 people and still gets used for music concerts today. How awesome would it be to attend one! Note the grey clouds - these are the first clouds we saw in three weeks!
The theatre used to have a back wall but that has been lost. This means that from the top levels we can see the whole valley behind it.
The capitol towered over everything. It was spectacular!
The columns were huge!
I saw plenty of these grooves from old door posts and maybe supports of some kind.
There were a few Caesars but I'm going with this one referring to Julius. Or maybe someone was having childbirth problems, haha.
A temple.
Olive trees were scattered through the lower part of the ruins, adding to the atmosphere.
There were so many buildings that we ended up just wandering, following our noses.
A few poppies added splashes of colour.
By now we were getting used to the fact that mosaics weren't protected. I added a splash of water to this one to see how much colour it brought out. It helped, but there was so much dirt that the improvement wasn't dramatic. They really just needed a good clean. I don't think I've ever said this before but I would love to get down on my knees with a scrubbing brush and clean these!
The mosaic in one room had been protected but I can't see why that one was more important than the others.
The best mosaics had been pulled up and put in the Bardot museum. I went back through my photos and found this one. I'm surprised it came from Dougga as we were quite a way from the sea.
The largest house in the town had a new garden planted in its courtyard. It looked great and added some colour to the stony scenery. It also helped us to understand what the house might have looked like.
There was nothing private about these public toilets! You and all your friends could sit and have a chat while you all did your business!
Apart from birds, this is the first wild animal we've seen!
An old Numidian mausoleum stood scenically below the town.
I'm not sure if the Numidians had chariots or if these were added later!
We headed back to our hotel to pack up and leave. Google maps took us right through a market on the street! There were no other cars trying to get through so the locals clearly knew not to drive along this road on a Thursday.
The garden of our hotel was decorated with what we're sure are original pieces from ancient Dougga!
We headed off and found a group of stalls beside the road selling figs. I was immediately handed one to taste. It was delicious! They were disappointed I only wanted two figs though, not two kilos, but judging by the price, they made up for it anyway :/
I was looking forward to our last stop - another ruined town called Ain Tounga. It was supposed to be a great place that was little-visited. After Dougga though, it was a bit disappointing. Most of what we saw was an old Byzantine fortress.
We pulled up at a town for lunch. We found a restaurant that looked pretty good but realised the menu was all in Arabic. It's the first time we've come across a menu that wasn't written in French. We asked the guy what he had. He had the usual stuff so we ordered couscous with chicken, trying to get the message across that we didn't want a large serve. What we received was:
- Two plates of salad - both delicious. (The place looked very clean so we ate the salads. This isn't something we can do everywhere.)
- A large dinner plate each of chicken, fresh tomato salad, lettuce, rice, chips and mayonnaise. We were a bit confused about the rice as we had ordered couscous but we went with the flow. When we were half way through eating it, out came:
- A large bowl of couscous each with vegetables on top.
- Oh and there was a large basket containing an entire breadstick as well!
We realised there was an opportunity to get overcharged here as we could see prices on the menu but didn't know what dishes they were for. When we went to pay, we got charged around $11 (Aussie) for the lot. Amazing!
We headed back towards Tunis. On the way we saw this huge pile on a ute.
But we think this guy wins the "how many bags can I get on a ute" competition! Note the wet ground -it rained a bit!
The driving in Tunis was as crazy as we expected but John was used to it by now. We arrived unscathed at our expensive hotel near the airport, handed the car back, had a shower in a spotlessly clean bathroom and followed with a dinner in a nice restaurant. John finally found a half-decent red wine but my food was only average.
Our trip to Tunisia was amazing. The quality and variety of things to see was astonishing, especially when you consider that it's not a big country. The dry desert air has helped to preserve many ancient sites.
The people have generally been great. They're very caring and helpful. The language barrier was an issue at times but we usually got by ok with John's French and a bit of sign language.
I wish they shared the same respect of other people with their animals though. Animals were mostly well-fed, however the tight tethering and hobbling was a bit hard to take, as was the way they just tie animals up for long periods without water. Some of the tethering was simply cruel.
The heat impacted us in a way that we hadn't really planned. Most days, we only did things for half a day as it was simply too hot in the afternoons to go out and see things. Driving in the afternoons was ok though as the aircon worked well in the car. The bonus of being here when it's hot though is that there were so few other tourists.
The food was surprisingly good (if I saw some scales I'd be scared to stand on them!). Couscous meals were usually amazing. Served with slow-cooked meat and chunks of vegies that were cooked in a sauce, they were melt-in-your-mouth sensational.
The problem was that it was usually hard to get just couscous without getting three or four other courses! Often, one of the appetisers was a brik - a fried light pastry filled with egg, tuna or sometimes meat.
One issue that we hadn't thought too much about was the biting insects. They generally didn't annoy us too much, however John had an allergic reaction to them. His bites swelled up dramatically and he spent half his time in Tunisia on anti-histamines. He was also covered in white Stingoes blotches from trying to stop the itches!
Would I recommend coming here? Absolutely. I think it's a country that hasn't quite caught up with the rest of the world yet and, when it does, it will be flooded with tourists. That might not happen for awhile yet though. It's also quite cheap - things cost maybe half of what they do at home.
We were farewelled from the country with a series of really funny incidents at the airport. We were waiting in the lounge for our flight when John saw the pilot reach out of the cockpit and clean the windscreen with a piece of cloth, like he was in a car. Clearly this didn't do a good enough job as a worker soon turned up, rode up to cockpit level in a cherry-picker and hosed the windscreen down with an industrial-sized hose. The pilot then turned the wipers on. I had no idea that aeroplanes even had wipers. The funny thing was that they operated really fast like on a very small car. I wish I'd been quick enough to video it. It looked like something from "Flying High".
They were loading people into the plane but John pointed out that there was no hurry - the bags from the previous flight were still coming off! Remember when we waited 1.5 hours for our bags to come off the plane when we first arrived in Tunisia and, when they did, they arrived on the world's slowest baggage carousel? Well the escalator they used to unload the plane was just as slow! It was ridiculous!
Thanks for following along with our Tunisian adventures. Next stop is Greece!
Heather and John
