Continental Hotel Tozeur

Our day of adventures in Tozeur begins with a short walk to the nearby museum of folk arts and traditions, where we see depictions of Tunisian life throughout history. Afterwards six of the group members take an exciting jeep trip into the desert to see the Star Wars set of Mos Isley on the planet Tatooine. Since I experienced this adventure last year, I use the time to go shopping in the medina of Tozeur. One of the ...

We get an early start from the hotel in order to be at the famous La Ghriba Synagogue at the 9am opening. Of course, the man with the keys is 10 minutes late, but we walk through the village and talk with some school children on their way to classes.

Continuing to Douz, we experience one of the highlights of the tour – riding camels into the Sahara ...

... quasi assordante. Sveglia presto e giretto per la medina di Hammamet con ancora tutti i negozi chiusissimi (ma a che ora si svegliano qui?), l'unica attività fiorente era un caffè appena fuori dalle mura della medina stracolmo di uomini che sorseggiavano caffè e cappuccino (o almeno, una cosa color cappuccino con la schiuma sopra) e fumavano la shisha (il famoso ampollone da cui si fuma non si sa bene cosa tramite una sorta di tubi, ciò che tutti chiamano ...

The computers here are insanely slow and I'm not allowed to upload the pictures I've got! I 've written all the entries from the last one up till now, but alas, they're on a USB card too (used ethan's phone to type them out so that I wouldn't have to spend ages in an internet cafe). They're coming, don't worry. We're safe and everything's wonderful. I have lots of pictures and stories. We're off on our desert excursion tomorrow to the Grand ...

... a Ksar Ghilane vers 15h ou seul les 4x4 peuvent aller parce que le sable est mou et les vents deplacent les dunes... On est alles profiter de l eau chaude d un etang au milieu d un oasis avec des palmiers... plutot incroyable Ensuite on a fait une marche dans le desert vers un fort romain pour assister au coucher de soleil... le sable etait brulant et le silence un peu intimidant, au ...

... of a sandstorm! The photos speak for themselves. The Chott el Jerid is a great salt lake that dries up in the summer. A long causeway crosses the lake, and we stop midway for photos of the beautiful landscape. We reach the hotel in Tozeur by 6:30pm and settle in for two nights after a long and most interesting day. Hugs, Dan

... before. The cab-driver was of course able to put us off at the best entrance, a wide gate displaying the special Tozeur architecture. This consists of a pattern of brickwork, where some bricks are jutting out, to form an intricate and stunning pattern. It is found only in Tozeur and in nearby Nefta. Unfortunately, the tourists shops were all clustered at his focal point, and we were left in no peace to just take in the atmosphere. We brushed off the offer to show us the medina ...

... shells a little further down the path (and a few hundred metres above sea level) provided further evidence of this land's turbulent geologic past - apparently the whole area was sea millions of years ago, before it was thrust up towards the heavens to its current altitude, which in turn reminded me of my visit to Kings Canyon on this trip ...

... bare timber frames and sand drifts, as they didn't shoot anything inside. Industrial piping is a nice addition and the transmission beacon models complete the spacey scene. Pretty nice all up. The parked dromadaires (French for camels) were an amusing sight as we drove out of Ong Jemel. Just sitting there doing nothing on the parched sands ...

Five or six days of not really feeling well at all is hopefully coming to an end. Whatever I got/ate in Sousse pretty much dehydrated me and not drinking nearly enough water didn,t help. I was in pretty rough shape by the time we got to Tozeur. Rebeca got the hotel to get a doctor and he prescribed a bunch of things to rehydrate me back to some sort of normal. I still feel like **** but at least on the getting better end.
We did the best thing yesterday. We booked a trip to go ...