Truckin Around Tunisia (Or "Clutch in, Nerd out!!")

At this point we feel like we just kind of go through the motions when it comes to our toiletry situation.  I mean when you're not showering in this environment, deodorant is just a formality.

If you look close, you can see where my arm sweat has removed some of the decal from our sticker.

Huntskids are still fighting, but we're on the road by 9am.  It's a 3-hour drive to Tunis from here.  We need to be there by 1600 for a 1900 departure, so we are not in any hurry.

To kill time, the eldest educates me in quiddich (a quiz follows shortly after).

The drive is certainly fun.  Mostly switchbacks through the mountains.  We do stop once to try to use the post office to send off post cards.  When we park, I find myself in the middle of a town market

While parked, the youngest noticed everyone was staring at us.

"of course, they're staring at us" I reply.

"yeah.  we're nerds!" the eldest says.

The post office didn't work though.  Mrs. Huntswoman came back after a while describing an overcrowded office with 5 lines and no sign of anything resembling organization.  In short, she gave up.

The whole way back is proper two-lane blacktop with great views (we even spot standing water!)

Around lunch time we decide that if we can't beat our nemesis then we might as well enjoy him.  Lunch today will be mother-stinking "Papa John's" pizza.  Something we haven't seen since we left the US nearly 8 years ago.

And we're not shy about it either.  We order the biggest "family size" pizza they got (with fries and drinks) and ate the whole dang thing.  I mean, come on.  We TRIED to eat local, but if it's going to be impossible then we might as well enjoy what's available to us

The bathrooms too were a nice treat, with the youngest exclaiming "those are the CLEANEST bathrooms ever!"  (which they weren't, but that's a pretty good indication of where we just were).

Back on the road we're fighting a bit of a cross-wind and the hood is looking loose.

I don't pull over immediately, but eventually it gets bad enough that I think something needs to be done.  Here's what we're lookin at:

We zip-tie it down at two different points. The logic being if one fails, we can pull over before the second does (I'll later reinforce this with a bungee chord, as it's still a bit bouncy).  I also remember to unlock the hubs here as well (from our off-road excursion the day before).

Driving in Tunis is a bit nuts (or I've just lost my tolerance) and it is HOT now that we're out of the mountains.  We have time to kill and some errands that need running.  We decide to park at our old hotel in the city and use that as a base of operations.  Lucky for us, we still have that fridge and some frozen water because it was definitely needed.

While we're here we need to pick up  some meals and snacks for the ferry ride today.  Eating onboard on the route south was a wallet-breaker and we don't want to do it again.  We also want to mail our post cards that we couldn't mail earlier, and if possible we'd like some beers to drink tonight (and we know RIGHT where that vendor is.

Honestly, this all takes about 2 or 3 hours in total and it wasn't a lot of fun.  The beer vendor remembered me and got a good laugh when he saw me again.  The groceries were a great stop, and we got some dates to give to friends.  But then Mrs Huntswoman and the youngest almost got hit by a car when it ran a red-light.  We heard a horn to the right as this guy almost hit a car which had Mrs.Huntswoman (mid intersection) hot step it out of his way.  This, naturally had the effect of me shouting at the driver through his closed window loud enough he nearly jumped out of his seat.  I had been crossing too, so I was close enough to leave a good amount of spittle on the glass as he quickly drove back off (And again, it was HOT).  At one point we had to sit and wait 35 minutes for the post office to open, but on the bright side of that, we spotted "The Little Prince Cafe" and then this beauty.

ooh!  Advanced Auto Parts!

We're back at the truck by 1500 and figure now is close enough to time to head to the ferry.  When we get there it's a bit unorganized.  We're told to park streetside and walk to the ticket counter.  Which we do, but somewhere along the lines a BMW and a mercedes had a bump with each other and one of them suffered a broken taillight (this lead to much shouting between the occupants of both vehicles).

After ticketing we drive toward the boat but are stopped by a man who asks for our ticketing info (which I had on the dash).  I show him and it turns out that one of the "papers" I had (which states the destination) was a sticker.  He slaps that on the windscreen (right in my field of view) and asks for a tip.  I give him our last 5TND but he wants more.

"dollar??" he asks. to which I show him my empty walled (exactly why we hide money in the car).

At customs we're going through the inspect/stamp procedure.  Everyone is asked to unload their vehicles, so we do as well.  About half-way through it the guard is laughing hard enough to stop me and stamps my papers.

At the second stamp spot (one is customs control, the other passport control) I meet a russian man driving a car with Irish plates.  He's seen our truck and talks to me at length about the Hilux his dad just bought.  Apparently it's a 2.4D, and his dad is certain that he'll pass it down to him one day (I might have mentioned that the youngest is in line for the 4-Runner).

And then we're pier-side next to the same darn boat we arrived on!

It's a LOOOOONG wait, and at some point in time someone created a THIRD parking lane right next to us...  This put this guy within "door ding" territory of our truck, and he did not disappoint:

And I mean every damn time those shiny happy people got in and out of their car, they hit mine with their doors.  It got to the point I was strongly considering returning fire (just to make a very loud point), but ultimately decided that punching out idiots before we got back to the EU would be un-advisable.  Instead I go for a leg stretcher near the water and pass time by watching a guy with a treble hook try to catch something by draggin it back and forth.

I also notice that even though we're no longer "in the sticks" that none of my clothes stay clean very long anymore.

By 5:30 we can see that the boat is letting pedestrians board, and by the looks of they way they're already moving we're pretty certain that there's going to be a fight for space (good thing we got a cabin).

By 5:45 the cars begin, and immediately we run into another police check.  They're not interested in our papers and ultimately decide that they're looking for stow-aways on our vehicles (human smuggling?).  Either way, the three lines of parking we were once sitting in have turned into 3-lines of stupidity and we're not interested in participating.  This has the effect of somehow making us the ONLY vehicle parked on the top level of the boat (which is kind of nice for unloading purposes).

In the room it is all about plugging things in (my camera phone is completely dead despite us not using it all day, our lifesaver of a powerbank is down to 37%), using the facilities, and unwinding.

I kill two tiny beers in as many gulps.  Dinner today is going to be pocket knife sandwiches.  The A-Team (in Italian) is on TV, and boy do we have nothing else planned for the night

Remember that seed that the youngest pulled from the bush and threw in our first national part?  Mrs. Huntswoman remembered to throw that on his bead (after which we all acted surprised), it didn't have the effect we thought it would.

I also made the mistake of laying my head on the pillow before taking a shower:

Eventually the retro-80's TV shows give way to futbol and then I zonk out.

Ah, yesterday was a blur from the ER visit (most of Sunday wasn't much better), but come back to a good long update to start the day.

Awww, man, i absolutely love all your stories!!!

It's something interesting that I like to read when I have a coffee break 

Nature, sights, ruins(ohhh, i love the most!!!), adventure and cats (offf courseee!!!), it feels like reading an adventure book!!!

In reply to VikkiDp :

Thanks Vika!  I think comparing my typing to an adventure book is probably the best compliment I got all year!

I am glad you guys are enjoying it.

We're up at either 5:44 or 6:44 (we're not sure.  There was a time change).  We thought we passed Sicily last night because we were woken up by 100 announcements but that we'll later find out that isn't the case.

I roll out of bed only with the promise of coffee from downstairs and Mrs. Huntswoman starts laundry (we figure we're going to be here a while, and we DO have running water now...).  We also swap back out our Tunisian sim cards with our EU sim cards and are treated to a billion notifications (rendering our phones completely unusable while they struggle to keep up).  Figuring we deserve it, we head back downstairs for a second cup of joe.

And that's just kind of it.  There really isn't a lot to do on this trip but watch 1980's shows (Diagnosis murder is on TV, except they call it "Detective in Corsia", and use the facilities (which I make GREAT use of).  In doing so, my FB feed alerts me to something called "The Tunisia Challenge"

https://www.tunisiechallenge.com/en/

Which I look into a bit (and do take note of the fact that my phone is still spying on me)

Around 8:30am we look out our windows and see LOTS of land.  This comes as a surprise to us, and we realize that this must be Sicily!

I post up on the aft section of the ship and get ready to film what I think is going to be "bumper cars" from my spot, but it never happens.  All the cars getting off here are getting off the bottom deck, I guess.

Giving up on that idea, Mrs. Huntswoman and I decide to head to the side and to watch the water for a bit.

Since we have data service here, the eldest decides he's going to learn Klingon from DuoLingo...

We're doing our best to stay out of the room, but eventually someone comes by to clean the deck with a hose and we head back in for showers, cereal, and a nap.  Really, we're just bored and trying to kill time, but even after all that, it's only 11:30 and we're STILL in port

Eventually we shove off, but the boredom continues all day.  We do talk about the trip though.  What was our favorite part?

Mrs.:  Camping under that oasis, driving through the desert, and the ruins

Youngest:  Luke Skywalkers house, El Jem, and Ginger Bread (one of the cat's names.  yes... they all got names )

Eldest:  Cats...  otherwise, it was kinda boring.

(honestly, we talk a lot about what we liked.  It goes on for a while)

Ok, what did we not like:

ALL:  Pushy salesmen!

After that, we head back in to play cards.

Dang!  So close!!!

and back in the room for TV time.  Did you know there was a new Lethal Weapon that was filmed?  It's a TV show, but it seems to be a carbon-stinking-copy of the first movie!

We still have 4-hours to go at this point but we are BEYOND BORED (like "repeatedly bump your head against the wall with your eyes closed" bored)

Sometime around 7pm the announcement to vacate the room comes and we're forced back outside.  We got lucky that the door to the vehicles was unlocked this time so we loaded everything in the truck right away, and then were able to kick it around the boat (instead of standing in one place for multiple hours like last time)

And I don't know if it's just the boredom or what, but time is dragging by...  We go back and forth between leg stretchers and games of cards multiple times and the boat STILL isn't docked.  In fact, we don't make it to "butts in seats" until after 9:30pm!

This guy in this VW van thing?

He is VERY anxious to be first off the ship.  I don't think we were the only people hoping he would break something in the process (he came darn close more than a couple times)

Things are less stressful when we're sitting in the truck.  Eventually the ramp drops and the bumper cars start.  I cant help but notice that everyone on my side is still standing outside their vehicles (and MULTIPLE vehicles don't even have drivers!).  But honestly this is something we have no control over, so we just sit and chill.

Mrs. Huntswoman does call the hotel and let them know we might be late.  They tell us not to worry, they're manned until 1am (which has us kinda relived, but still kinda worried.  We still have customs after this!).

around 22:30 there was finally enough space around me to do a 3-point turn and get the vehicle in the right direction.  Those driverless cars were still driverless as we were the last people to drive off the ship, and we spend more than a couple brain cells wondering if those people just decided the traffic wasn't worth it.  And of course there was some car on car contact.

We got to customs around 2240, and had good nav all the way to the hotel (no wrong turns, etc).  This had the effect of getting us to our room by 2330 at night, but man this place is HAPPENING!

Italians are all out having drinks and hanging out, but it's surprisingly soundproof in our room.

The hotel is "Tenuta Olivia" in Fisciano and the room is REALLY nice.  Plus it has this SUPER cool key:

Like that is some straight up "Fifth Element" type stuff right there!!  Love it!

We're helped up to the room by an employee named "Gabriel" (who said he really liked our truck) and it comes out that he's from "Sierra Leone"!

This has the effect of blowing my mind as that was the destination for our last adventure.  When I inform him of as much, it has the effect of blowing HIS mind.  I make a note that I'll have to find him tomorrow when things are less busy and chat him up.

Anyhoo, Gabriel, the Eldest, and Mrs. Huntswoman are all carrying bags.  I'm carrying the youngest.

No big unpack today.  Just boots off, beers up,and TV on ("How it's made" is playing).  Everyone is asleep by 1am.

Our alarm goes off at 8am, but Mrs. Huntswoman is already in the shower.

Even though I hop in immediately afterwards, we only have about 20 minutes before breakfast closes.  When we make it down, it looks to us like "breakfast" is actually "all desserts" (which the kids enjoy)

The lady running the place is absolutely lovely though.  She explains "what's what" and "where" to us in Italian.

The pie is apricot

the cake has peanuts

Juices are peach, something else, and "mix"

And then she asks "Capiche?" (which we respond in the affirmative, but I think I can say that collectively we've only heard that word used in Italian mobster flicks prior to this)

Then she continues:

Do the kids want white milk?  With chocolate?

On to coffees:

Americano? cappuccino?

We get a bit of everything and it was great!  Plus we were worried about nothing with the "closing time".  More people came after us and they got the same great treatment.

We learn that our host has three sons.  When she asks us our kiddo-s name we tell her the eldest is "Alex"

She has a son named "Alex"!

What is our youngest's name?

"Simon"

No way, she has a son named Simon!!

Her third son's name? Christiano.

We chat about this for a while (her english isn't super great, but it's enough that we can talk a bit) but eventually it's 9am and time for us to head out.  Here's the view from outside:

Reality sets in a bit though after breakfast.  I forgot we still have to pay rent (something I can thankfully do from my phone).  Mrs. Huntswoman has long since run out of deoderant and has taken to using mine.  And the truck is still pretty filthy, even though the rest of us have had regular showers these last couple days:

I do get a chance to talk to Gabriel again while Mrs. Huntswoman pays for our stay though.  He left Sierra Leone and came to Europe claiming political asylum.  He works at the hotel as a translator, and has studied Italian for over a year or so.  He talks about crossing Algeria on foot and not having water for multiple days.  He's been here for 8 years now and can finally visit home this year as he now qualifies for Italian residency.

We talk about being lonely as expats, and he relates.  He says there used to be Americans at his church but they eventually moved back home.

When Mrs. Hungary comes back it's time for us to hit the road.  We snap a photo before heading out:

Our host wishes us a "good life" as we leave

From here we still have two days before work.  Initially we planned to explore some caves in Slovenia with the kids (STRONGLY recommended, if you're ever in Ljubljana) and even had a camping spot in mind, but ultimately we decided to iron butt it back home (and that's what we do.  12 hours, straight shot).

One highlight along the way was seeing a Toyota 4x4 of the same generation on the road.  I passed him doing 120 (he was going just under 100kph) and since my horn didn't work, we had to resort to rolling down the windows and going nuts.

They (first his girlfriend, and then him) responded in kind, and he gave us a blast of his air-horn which played a tune for us as we drove off into the sunset.

Good times (and probably the only time I've seen another Toyota of this generation on the roads out here)

Cool stuff.  Thanks for inviting us along. 

"Cats...  otherwise, it was kinda boring."

Kids, amiright?

Jerry said:

"Cats...  otherwise, it was kinda boring."

Kids, amiright?

I mean, seriously!

lownslow said:

Cool stuff.  Thanks for inviting us along. 

I'm glad you enjoyed it!  Thanks for letting me share!

So, I do have to pop back in and give some updates (as I was reading the first couple pages again).

My phone ran out of data on the very last day or so in country.  The whole time in, the kids would ask if they could "play games" or "listen to music" and would grumble when I said "only what's downloaded".  Well, turns out that was the correct answer.  Luckily Mrs. Huntswoman had enough data left to run maps until we were off continent.

The razor Mrs. Huntswoman thought she lost in that first camp?  We found it on the dining table when we got home

The tiny Tunisian beers I could drink a million of?  Here's how they compare to the beers back home

And finally.  As much as I LOVE that 12v Alpincool fridge we bought.  The real hero of this trip was the gall-durn sunblock we found at Decathlon before we left

4 of us, trucking around the Sahara in June and not a darn one of us got a single sun-burn.  (and Mrs. Huntswoman is SUPER sun sensitive).

I'll add in that I have tan skin and hairy arms.  I can NOT stand sunscreen on the best of days as it clumps up in my arm hair leaving white streaks everywhere.  This stuff though?  Wiped right in without a single streak.  6 out of 5 stars.  Buying for life.  (plus the bottle says it's ocean friendly.  We're hoping that means "reef friendly")

There was one more think I wanted to add in as well, as it did not escape our attention that while we could visit THIS country, all of it's neighbors were considered very much "off limits and I really think that had something to do with the root of what drove us (pun intended) out here in the first place.

Star Wars.

I know Sci-Fi is a potential look towards the future, but I don't think anyone involved in the original shooting of the film could have predicted what it would have driven.  I mean I've just learned it's credited in part with Tunisia's Nobel Peace prize in 2015!

I won't pretend to know everything on the subject, but there was a good (short) article written on the subject and I do think it's worth a read:

https://deadline.com/2015/12/star-wars-george-lucas-tatooine-tunisia-win-the-nobel-peace-prize-may-the-force-be-with-you-1201673750/

Cheers everyone.  And thank you for letting me ramble about our trip.  It was really great having you all along.  It was very much like a return journey for me, and I'm feeling SUPER nostalgic right now.

Ninja edit:  Did a deep dive, the sunblock complies with what I consider "reef safe".  See "technical information" at the link below:

https://www.decathlon.mt/p/347097-446481-active-sunscreen-spray-spf-50-250-ml.html

now 8 out of 5 stars.  Can not recommend enough.

The Nobel prize is news to me and I "know some stuff" about Star Wars. And I still have some interesting cans from my time in the Gulf in 91. I don't remember tasting any different, we were happy to have anything in stock.

I have loved following along, your descriptions of the trip have been great. I am not sure I would have the courage to tackle an excursion like that, Bravo. I like exploring... but in areas I feel like I sort of know what to expect and can speak the local language. Kind of limits me to our country. I think it is so cool your kids got to experience this trip, it will be something the whole family will talk about for ages. Kuddos to you and Mrs Huntswoman for being adventurous! Where are you off to next?