Hotel Phedra Tozeur

... is done.

Our final activity of the day is a trip into the foothills, where we hike up to the tomb of an Islamic holy man. It rests on the side of one of the canyons used as a location for the movie "The English Patient." The hike is exhilarating, and the sun is setting, providing the perfect long rays of light for excellent photography. Early dinner tonight, and very early start tomorrow, as we head back to Tunis.

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 ...

... quinto piano...) e il carotone ha finalmente posato le ruote sull'asfalto tunisino alle 7 passate. Fidandoci delle indicazioni di un altro motociclista pratico della tunisia (forse un filo superficiale, ma pur sempre pratico... tunisi č brutta, e cartagine - CARTAGINE!! - sono 4 sassi) abbiamo deciso di passare la prima notte ad Hammamet, giusto il tempo di una cena cosė cosė e siamo crollati in un albergo bruttarello, ma talmente fronte mare che il rumore ...

... Oriental. Thankfully, the tour guide laughed at me when I asked if there were scorpions. Apparently it's too cold for them here right now. After spending the night in the desert, we'll be getting back into town pretty late and probably won't get to a computer until either Saturday or Sunday night. Hopefully the next cafe I go to will allow me to upload stuff and then you'll all have a TON to read and sift through. Hope you're all doing well!

... no idea what kind of trees they were), herding livestock.. the scenery changed from city to green country to sandy to desert to mountainous and back to green again as we neared the oasis. The train had a lot of problems and we got in almost an hour and a half.. luckily we found our hotel in the dark, and were able to get ready for a packed day tomorrow.

... many mosques and shrines lining the hill above. A lovely sight, but I think we agree that there is not enough to see here to warrant the half-hour drive from our beautiful hotel in Tozeur. I hop off the bus in the heart of Tozeur to go shopping for a birthday gift for a surprise celebration tonight. A very full and fun day in Tunisia, and we are all regretting that the tour is drawing to the end. Hugs, Dan

... we adapted to the different culture, I found it quite preferable to the Norwegian "pretend I haven't seen you" attitude. A group of children were playing in the street, casting stones at tin cans piled up in a tower. They laughed and said "Bonjour madame et monsieur", and we felt the stones gently hitting our legs after we had passed. A woman shouted out to us when we looked lost, " Do you want the zoo de Paradis"? Yes, I called back, and she indicated the direction. It turned ...

... eons ago... Back to reality, three of us (two Japanese and I) jumped into the 4WD and shortly after we were in dromaderie country again. They're everywhere out here, so much so that large signs warn motorists of the danger at very regular intervals much like those found in country Australia warning of kangaroos. Think I'd prefer to hit a ...

... across the highway as we approached the vast salt lake, and finer dust hung in the air for kilometres further reducing visibility. Eventually this hinter-desert gave way to the edge of the lake where strange troglodyte mounds had been dug from small, whitewashed mole hills pimpling the flat plain around, along with statues of camels and the ...

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 ...