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

In reply to DarkMonohue :

hahahaha.  Yeah, I knew but didn't tell ya.  Hers differs from all of ours as I wanted the knives to pair well together.  While hers can very much stand on its own merits, I had the idea that if she's with one of the younger Huntsmen or myself that one knife picks up where the other leaves off.  It proved to be a successful strategy on our 2022 trip to Ukraine when my driver's side window decided to depart itself from its tracks.  It got VERY cold there for a bit and had we not been able to pull over and fix things then it would have been a very different drive...

DrMikeCSI said:

In reply to Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) :

Wow, that is a fantastic trip. 

You know, this morning will be the first day that I wake up and FEEL like I'm on a vacation.  Up and 'till now we've always had a deadline (whether stated or just expected) and tonight we'll be wild camping so there is literally nothing that needs to be done in any sort of time allowance.  For the first time we are actually 100% free to just kick it.

I will say though that the youngest Huntsman had to sleep in bed with us.  The second bed in this room isn't big enough for both Huntsmen but he didn't mind.  Unfortunately he is "Mr. Moves A Lot" at night so both adults got his version of an impact massage (and I swear he was upside down at one point).  Adding to that, this is also the only place where we lack the freedom to make our own coffee....

ouch.

Still being early (7am or so) we didn't want to wake the place up, but the kiddos needed space to move so we headed above ground:

This last one was my favorite.

Everyone got their Orphan Annie decoder rings?

I really like being up early as the whole place comes to life.  That miniCarrefore guy arrives on his scooter with his 5-year-old son and opens shop.  Deliveries are being made to the hotel's kitchen, and the workers are arriving to clean and turn over the rooms (all well dressed, I might add).

Breakfast is served and its bread with spread.

watch the eldest Huntsman there with the milk.  It was funny to watch.

Spread is hard-boiled eggs (hot!), butter, honey, and a cinnamon/sugar mixture.  Coffee and warm milk are served and both are on point (the kiddos really liked the warm milk.  Something they've never had before).

The Scot/Polish couple joins us again (we're the only two rooms rented here, I think).  I was a bit worried about meeting them again because we're wearing the same outer clothes twice before washing on this trip (to save room) and was prepared to be a bit embarrassed but notice right away that the man is wearing the same shirt from yesterday too (a Captain Kirk styled Star Trek uniform shirt.  Love it, love it, love it)

After that it's time to use those facilities while we can!  We're 100% in "do not flush your TP" territory out here and the kiddos are still not comfortable with the butt-sprayer yet.

Out front we're still talking with the other couple.  They rented a car and are headed to Touzer (the other big Star Wars spot out here, about 5 hours away) and will hire a 4wd once there.  It was a cheaper option for them when compared to just renting a 4x4 from the airport.  Of course they take lots of photos of our truck and notice something funny about the back window sticker "hey, those aren't the star wars characters!!!" he exclaims (instantly making the connection that we photo-shopped our faces onto the scene.

That gets a good laugh from everyone.  (Their names are "Kasha and Bart" by the way)

Then it's on to souvenir shopping, etc:

No pictures of the souvenirs though.  There's a magnet and a post card display along with some other stuff for sale.  What I like about this stuff in particular is how OLD it looks when everything is as sun faded as it is.  You don't get the impression that this stuff was just "mass produced to sell to suckers" the way you do with the normal "genuine hand made" stuff that's usually pushed.  In fact, I noticed that the magnet portion of the magnets we're buying weren't glued to the same spot on every one.  They're all a bit "human off-center".

I also like all the workers.  They come off as "naturally happy".  Every last one of them.  Like even when they're talking to each other. 

Not the fake sort of "customer service" happy, but actually "happy".  In my mind I attribute this to the bit of money that tourism out here must bring in, and think that it must spread out into the community in decent proportions or else we'd see less happy people.  I decide I like this place very much.

(quick note, I just checked.  We paid $80 for our stay.  Very clean, well equipped, nicely decorated, friendly staff, big restaurant with lots of seating available... 6 out of 5 stars, could not recommend enough)

quick note, I saw this place had a 3.5 star rating on trip advisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g293756-d523724-Reviews-Hotel_Sidi_Driss-Matmata_Gabes_Governorate.html

Apparently people have very different expectations than I do when staying in a literal hole in the ground.  I still stand by my rating, but feel I should mention the shared toilets

By 9, we're loaded up and truckin.

Our cell situation is getting worse now.  all our batteries are low (and the phone we're using as a camera is completely dead), the bluetooth speaker is dead, and the power bank is below half-capacity.  In an attempt to alleviate this issue somewhat, we unplug the fridge and use that socket as a second charging point (Narrator:  but it wont work).  We also have to work on keeping any phones not being used for GPS out of direct sunlight as they've been overheating and that stops the charging process.

Today's agenda has us stopping at three different Berber ruins all located near the city of Tatouine, which will serve as the central point for all this.  Each set of ruins increases in "touristyness" incrementally as we go.  The first was found on iOverlander, the second and third were from Trip advisor.

First up is Ksar Al-Ferch, but we still need to get there...  and to do so, we are absolutely awestruck at the mountain roads we get to drive along.  I mean almost instantly we find ourselves pulling over for pictures:

Even the eldest was impressed!

(so of course, we had to pose)

You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy...

There were "Bon View" coffee shops almost immediately after this, I think.  If you're driving through it would probably be worth it to sit and sip.

And then there was this mountain-side village that was too cool for words:

And then the road flattened out and things mostly calmed down.

I'm at about a half-tank now which is where I start looking for a filling station.  Unfortunately I don't see any with fuel pumps around here.  Only shacks with funnels raised way up high and containers of fuel stacked up in the shade.  I'm not into panic-mode yet so I opt to wait a bit longer before I fill up.

No time to think about that any further now though, because we just missed our sign (and I promise that there was a turn-around spot for this exact purpose:

I think that was just the county-line sign because things are getting steep again:

The youngest huntsman now insists on posing like this everywhere we go...

..it took me 5 pages and a full Budapest - Bamako Report to realise your Truck only has two Doors!

Your boys seem athletic enough not to bother, but with adults at the Bamako rally this must have been interesting, always having to squeeze in and out.

We hit Ksar Al Ferech after 10:50 and it turns out we were lucky this was our first stop because there is a QR code on the sign to scan for english!

The place is pretty cool though as it's a bit "in the middle of no-where" and we are 100% free and left to our own devices:

It takes us a bit to properly "kick it" around the grounds.  We stick our heads into the dwellings, explore things, call each other over as we find (or find out) something new... it's a lot of fun.

Also on grounds is a little souvenier/tea shop so we sit down for a cup.  When we walked in both men were watching the news on TV.  When we got our tea and sat down they gave us space and sat in the other room away from the tv...

I felt bad about that, so I popped back over and called the guy back and had him sit with us   No idea what the news was actually saying, but I could tell what it was about (world events that might be important to people of this region)

I didn't want to be cheeky though and have the guy pose for pictures (he's sitting behind me in this photo).  But we do buy some post cards and whatnot before we go (and both the younger huntsmen are given desert roses by the shop owner as gifts)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_rose_%28crystal%29

Back in the truck we need to drive through the actual city of Tataouine to get to our next destination.  This one will be Ksar Ouled Sultane and might be one of the ones (or at least it is very similar to the one) used to film the slave quarters in the first Star Wars prequel.  First though, we decide we'll stop in Taatouine for some lunch and fuel:

That was our lightsaber fight.

We pass a very western hotel on the city limits, and it might have the worst Star Wars display I've ever seen next to it.

Still cute to look at though

Tataouine itself is pretty big though.  Not a "big city" by any means, but definitely populated.  We had no problems finding fuel but ran into our nemesis (the pizzaria) for lunch

When ordering I noticed food was coming out for some of the other patrons.  So when my turn came, I pointed at their food and said "yo, I want that".  Whatever it was, it was delicious!  (and it was not listed on the wall-menu that the other Huntspeople ordered their pizzas from).

And then, in an effort to sit in shade, we sat next to this open room.  I can NOT tell you how bad that place smelled like cat pee...

Across the street was one of those fuel stations I mentioned earlier.  The guy was just setting up.

That guy setting up the fuel station?  Yup, same guy I bought this watermelon from.  Spying a stand about 100yds away, I popped out to snag a mellon as kind of a "camp treat" tonight.  When the guy saw me, he had to run over to make the sale.  He thought it was crazy that we were American ("I am an American" is one of the very few things I can say in Arabic).  He spoke a couple sentences in English VERY WELL (just enough to greet and make the sale) and I thought that was pretty darn funny in turn.

Back on the road, the GPS is glitching.  Luckily we're headed out of Tataouine the way we came in so we can get some wind through the windows to cool the cell phone down.  Everything is hot.  We've also given up on our second 12v charger because it's only gotten the Eldest's phone to 40% so far.  Instead we plug the fridge back in (But cant hear it over the road noise, so we just cross our fingers it turned back on).

This Ksar is actually in a village and we notice that we're scoped out when we pull up.  We take a moment to drink water (everyone drink! is kind of a battle cry for this trip, and someone will randomly shout it while driving after which everyone drinks) and apply sunblock before we head in.  This place is much smaller than the previous one, but much more done up.

On our way in we're beckoned in to both of the two souvenier shops we see to our right.  We politely decline for the moment and a "later.  Later" satisfies them.  They offer magnets and post cards and tea, but really it's just a bit too warm out for that much energy and we want to see this place first.

Inside are a couple painters (one in each of the two courtyards).  the first is going through the motions of painting like he had been doing it before we arrived.  This makes me chuckle.

There's not as much to explore in this one, but we all decide we REALLY like the rocks that we find jutting out of the wall as "steps" to get to the second story.  Something tells me "osha" wasn't invented yet.

No nook goes unexplored. 

On our way out we buy a photo from the first painter (who has a little shop set up in one of the rooms).  It's of the view immediately outside and to the right of his door.

We buy a painting from the second guy, but I can't remember what it was of.

At the first souvenir shop, we stop in for tea.

and the shop keeper shows us some artillery shells he has.  he says it's from Germany's "North African Campaign".  He also tells us this place is available for rent overnight if one wanted to stay in such a place.

At the second shop I buy a shemagh.  I'd been meaning to grab one and hadn't done so yet.

We had brought some coffee cups from Papa Hungary as gifts to hand out to people along this trip.  And decide to give our first one to the person we had tea with.  When the Huntswoman comes back, she's holding a flag that he gave her in return.

The last stop for today will be Chenini, and again!  There just ISN'T a bad view to be had out here!

We'll stop along our way at one of those street-front stores to stock back up on water.  It's 3pm and cookin by now (bur really, not that bad if I'm honest).  I meant to grab some baguettes that all these shops seem to sell but didn't see any immediately.  As I was putting the water on the counter an elderly man came rushing up and opened a cabinet to my left.  he pulls out 5 of the darn things, pays, and scurries off leaving only one left for purchase by me (I buy it).

I also notice that no one's peed today.  I mention this to the younger huntspeople and tell them they need to be aware of such things when they happen, and to drink more water (everyone drink!)

We reach Chenini by 1600 and pull up to where we think we should park.  Immediately we notice a bin for water bottles and dump all ours from the truck so far.  We're hippies, and don't like plastic waste, so having a dump site was nice.

My spidey senses are tingling as I look up at the ruins and something tells me that people still occupy some of these buildings.

I'm not talking about the obviously occupied houses I'm right next to, but looking up at what we came to see.  Why do I think people still live here?

Being our third stop, and being very steep and very hot out, we're don't figure we're going to explore the same way we did the last two.  But still, we're going to go on a bit of a walkabout.

My suspicions are 100% confirmed.  People very much still live in some of these buildings!

A man calls for us to come over to his shop from the direction of the mosque, but we tell him we want to go left to go right and we'll be there in a minute.  He says "oh no, that's too far" but we do it anway

again.  the VIEWS!!!

The guy runs a shop, and we do meet him by the mosque eventually.  He invites us in and tells us all about the place.  His mother is a weaver who makes the blankets we're seeing.  He's very honest about the stuff he's selling (like the dagger the Eldest is about to buy) and doesn't pretend like they're anything other than decoration (because, they're not).  Even still, the prices are pretty cheap.  He's definitely not running a "tourist trap" by any means and we enjoy the info he's giving us.

They get about 200 tourists a day in peak season, and 80 berber families still reside in the area. Most are going north as the date and olive farms in the area are all drying up.  He'll tell us that they haven't had rain in 4 years, but we'll later determine that he probably meant there wasn't enough rain to farm for 4 years, as there is still vegetation in the area.

Afterwards he takes us to the roof of his shop to take our picture:

Which was a lot of fun, so then we asked him to stand in front of his shop so we could take his.

Unfortunately it was too much of a climb back up to bring a coffee cup.

On our way out, we notice that someone is tanning goat hides

heading out, we have to double back a town or two to pick up GPS again.  We're headed to our camp now and it's off grid.

Pavement turns to dirt, dirt turns to nothing, and then we park in the nothing to make camp for the night.  Near us we find two wells.  Once is covered with palm leaves (but has water), the other is still used regularly by the looks of it.

We don't want to over do it, so we set up a little then sit a little, set up a little, then sit a little.  It takes time, but it works.

Not even when on vacation in the middle of the desert can you escape laundry.  This will be a thing almost every day afterwards...

This place is obviously a rest stop for shepherds to rest and water their goats so we try our best not to mess the place up.  There are no shortage of dry palm leaves on the ground though, so we don't mind building a fire.  There is a bit of litter in the area, but it's not too bad.  And while laundry is going, I make a double boiler out of our camp pot sets to get dinner going.

We see goats on the move in the far distance, a few wild dogs walk through camp, The Little Prince gets read, and I didn't have as much fuel as I thought in the stove and had to finish our dinner over the fire.  Spuds, onions, carrots, garlic, and zuccini in the pot.  Beef sausages over the fire.

Eventually the lights go out, the kids lay down, the gin gets mixed with tonic, and I promise it is WAY darker than it appears in that last photo.

I have to read your update in the morning before the newspaper. 

Gzwg said:

..it took me 5 pages and a full Budapest - Bamako Report to realise your Truck only has two Doors!

Your boys seem athletic enough not to bother, but with adults at the Bamako rally this must have been interesting, always having to squeeze in and out.

oh man, such a pain in the butt with grown adults back there!  Very much yes!

DrMikeCSI said:

I have to read your update in the morning before the newspaper. 

man, I'll be honest.  With the news coming in these days, I gave serious consideration to just staying in Tunisia and figuring the rest out as I went.  Only two things stood in my way:
1) we have pets, and we'd miss them.
2) Talking with the berber I met reminded me that even removed from society, you can't remove yourself the effects of society.  "News" from the rest of the world would catch up with me eventually...

I came into work 30min early to make up for yesterday's BMV & title office trip, and it was perfect to catch up on your adventure when I got here.