I initially thought the guide was joking when he said reception would phone our rooms at 4am, he wasn’t. I suppose it stopped any excuses like ‘My alarm didn’t go off’. Breakfast was food, after which we all got on the coach ready for what the day would bring. Lyn hasn’t had any tea at all this trip and was doing remarkably well but this morning might have been a step too far.
Still dark we headed for a series of salt lakes. Unlike some of the other stuff I hadn’t got any preconceived ideas of what to expect. Flat and salty I suppose. I looked out of the coach window and felt saddened at the sheer amount of rubbish. The south of Tunisia is poor and the land not much use for anything and I suppose when you’re living hand to mouth the last thing you’re worried about is where that plastic bag is going. I don’t know what bin collection they have but on what I saw throughout the country there’s either none or when they collect it they just dump it on the nearest bit of waste land. Down south wasteland is everywhere.
We stopped to get pictures as the sun came up but the whole thing was again spoilt by the rubbish. I’ve edited pictures to remove the rubbish and it looks very nice but the one above is the genuine article 😔
We arrived at the middle of the salt lake. This one had a road, which the army had built, through the middle of it. It had a bit of an Armageddon/Dystopian look about it. I was right, it was flat and salty but what I missed out was the smell. We took a few pictures and one of Lyn at the road crossing was particularly good. I was going to try and get her to do a Beatles Abby Road picture but after that look I thought it best not to ask. To be honest nearly all the photos we took at that place could be album covers. One of the children managed to run into all the stinking mud. Initially we though the child had shit itself as the mother tried to clean it up. I suppose mud on its feet is better then shit but the result and smell were fairly similar.
Our next stop was a horse and carriage ride to an oasis. Now this was something neither of us had particularly wanted to do. I try not to judge other people’s/countries use of animals. In poor countries they don’t have the luxury of thinking of animals as pets, they are tools pure and simple and they have to earn their keep. Having said that only a idiot would mistreat their work tools because ultimately you want to get the best out of it. Lyn however does get upset at the state of some of the horses and the poorer the area the worse the state.
We were shown to a horse and carriage along with a French mother and daughter… we had no conversation at all. Of course we had the worse behaved horse in the group. The young lad (late teens I’d say) had trouble controlling it and it did seem to want to fight with the other horses. Honestly I think it was just ‘Hangry’.
We set of through the outskirts of the town and into the oasis itself. These are all privately owned. The dates are the cash crop and then they also grow fruit and veg to eat. Once at the centre we got off the carriage, which wasn’t easy as hangry horse wouldn’t keep still. We were shown around with the guide explaining growing methods different plants on show, the normal stuff. To be fair it was quite interesting.
The highlight was when they made a 75 year old man climb up a palm tree in bare feet for coins. One of the young English lads thought he’d give it a go. He did it bare footed as well. The guide was getting very anxious as he went up. Oh to be young and stupid again… instead of old and stupid and getting up out of a chair is an effort.
We had to get back in the carriages for the ride back to town. This was a bit more hair raising as the lads thought they’d race a bit. It did cross my mind that it would make for an interesting epitaph. The lad driving didn’t get a chance to ask for a tip as once we got off hangry horse wasn’t hanging about and shot off with the lad shouting at it.
The next activity was the 4x4s. For this you needed groups of 6 so to avoid having to develop any Entente Cordiale we teamed up with Jill, Michelle, Donna and Donna’s other half… I can’t remember… I want to say Jeff with a J… Why not. This might be embarrassing if I hadn’t already explained that I’m shit with names. The tour guide wanted me to sit in the front but Jill definitely had dibs on that. In fact the guide was being quite attentive as I’d complained about the camels yesterday. I might have used the phrase ‘fucking dangerous’ at one point.
The first part of the drive was a bit disappointing, we just seemed to be driving down dirt roads. Quite frankly I could do that at home. For our first stop we ended up at a place called Ong Jemel or ‘the neck of the camel’. The reveal as we crested a ridge was quite impressive. This is basically near another salt lake called Chott el Gharsa. I think honestly the names are getting confusing. The place is named after a rock, see picture below, and you could even see a bit of a mirage across the salt flats.
We got back into the 4x4s and now did some proper off roading. I don’t think our driver spoke English but I like to think he at least said ‘Shahid Hadha!!’ in Arabic which is of course… ‘Watch This!’.
This is getting quite long so I’m splitting it again. Part 2 tomorrow.
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