Tunisia east coast tour and HOME AT LAST!!!!

  London, United Kingdom
Saturday, December 17, 2005

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09 Dec, Friday
Start point: Redeyef
End point: Tunis
Via: Metlaoui
Odom(Km): 96.00

An early start allowed me to sort the dates I picked up in Douz and box them for the Christmas dinner. Then continued through eroded landscape to the large industrial town of Metlaoui that exists due to the high phosphate and lead content of the surrounding landscape. This the where I finish my tour of southern Tunisia. I have toured just about every site that I am interested in seeing at this time of year and will head north on public transport as the cold and rain are many times more likely further north of Gafsa. Time to leave the bike in Tunis and explore some of the bigger towns within easy reach of Tunis on foot. Busses here take bikes for a small baggage charge and it was a long 7 hour journey. Once in Tunis I made my way back to the hotel which I stayed in on the first night.

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10 Dec, Saturday
Start point: Tunis
End point: Tunis

Day out exploring Tunis, pounding the streets, sampling the food and shoe shopping of all things! As a rule I have found that the advertised prices in the shops are 1 pound for 1 dinar. A good smart pair of leather shoes cost 35 dinars and there are 2.3 dinars to the pound. This makes the shoes I purchased around 15 pounds. I'll need them for job interviews and posh meals.
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11 Dec, Sunday
Start point: Tunis
End point: Sfax
Via: El-Jam, Sfax

I'm already familiar with the public transport system, even though I have barley used it. Cycling on the roads a large proportion of the traffic is a mode of transport called the louage. It is a shared car or small minibus - more like a transit van with seats! They line up underneath a sign displaying the destination and when full, off they go. Getting from one big town to another involves waiting until 4 people (car) or 9 people (mini-bus) arrive. I can assure you in a country where people always seem to be on the move, the time you need to wait ranges from a few minutes to the time taken for everyone to scramble into the vehicle and close the boot bursting with an assortment of luggage. It's a none stop, full throttle white knuckle ride to your destination. They unload at the station near the centre from where you can get other louages to near by small towns and villages. It's so simple, fast and cheap that I can honestly say it puts the transport system of the UK to shame.
This is how I got from Tunis, via Sousse (population 158,000) to Sfax (population 14,000). Sfax is a small town with a big coliseum - the third largest in the Roman world. It measures 138x114x30 metres and seated 30,000 people in 3 tiers. I wandered round the site, exploring the underground passages and climbed up the different levels which gave good views of the structure and the town below. It was a bit too cool to linger around for long and I soon found myself in a snack bar tucking into a warm bowl of lablabi. Next the museum, with I have to say is the best in Tunisia I have visited. It is set into the grounds of an archaeology park where the finds came from - and in some cases remain in their original position. Information is informative and gives background and context to what you are looking at. The introduction goes something like this: El-Jem is an unlikely site for such a large town for the following reasons:
There are no springs and the ground water is heavily salinated.
The soil is very infertile, with little and unreliable rain.
There is no supply of local stone, the nearest quarry being 30Km away by the coast.
The geography of the site offers no natural defence.
But judging by the scale of some of the villas, prosper it did.
After the museum I hopped on a louage to the nearest big town, Sfax. This is a big town with a compact centre. I booked into a good hotel in north of the Medina - a vastly expensive 4 pounds a night for a clean all tiled room that makes your eyes go funny if you stare at them for too long. Stare at the walls is not something I didn't do for long once I got exploring the narrow winding streets of the medina. I can't think of a better place to do my Christmas shopping. Perfumes, spices, coffees, teas, things you burn, things to dissolve, oils, things to eat, things to rub together, things that smell nice and things that even the shopkeepers can't describe what you do with them.
Then for a stop in a cafe - one of the best in town. Where else can you sample mint tea, plain coffee, Arabic coffee and caramel coffee while looking out over the medina walls onto the Ville nouvelle - and pay 60p for the pleasure.


The coliseum at El-Jam




Fantastic Mosaic in the Museum, unearthed in its grounds


Sfax is the best destination for shopping in Tunisia. The least hassle, not that I had much elsewhere. Typical street markets


Closly pack houses within the Medina

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12 Dec, Monday
Start point: Sfax
End point: Sfax

See 11th December in Sfax - more of the same, it's a hard life out here.


Medina from the outside. Note the café culture.


The main shopping route - closed on a Monday. Ouch.


Man on street



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13-16 Dec, Tuesday
Start point: Sfax
End point: London

Series of buses, ferries, trains and cycling got me home in 3 days. Not much point about writing about I as not much happened. These are the practical details:
Louage from Sfax to Tunins. One night in Tunis.
Boat from Tunis to Marseilles via vomit central - lucky I don't suffer - took a day and a night, for some it lasted months.
Train to Dijon, Paris, and Calais. Boat to Dover and train to London. This took 2 days one night.
Then I drifted around London and Reading
Finally returned home to Southport to my parents and the house where I was born. Luckily they were thankful to see me (alive). The end.