The oasis villages: Chebika, Tamerza and Midès

  Tamerza, Tunisia
Monday, February 11, 2008

This was one of our most enjoyable and memorable days. We began by keeping our appointment with the caleche driver, quite early at 9.15. He was waiting outside the hotel and we emerged before time because I needed to buy batteries for my camera. He picked us up and after the purchase of batteries, we continued into the palmary. This time we were not tired and were able to understand and enjoy ourselves much more. As well as many types of date trees (about 60 different sorts), he showed us pommegranate, lemon, peach, orange, mini-banana and olive trees, along with small jasmine plants and others. It was a calm paradise here, and we got down from the caleche to take a walk amongst the vegitation. Wonderful photos were taken, including one of Paul Eric looking as though he were climbing a palm tree, but alas, those we will never see! Amazingly, there was a man with a jewellery stall in the middle of it all, and I purchased three necklaces for friends for only 5 dinars! Tozeur is reputed to produce the best dates in all of Tunisia. They were indeed very, very good even in February, but a trip at harvest-time is a must for a date-lover like me! Another time, Inchallah!

Date harvest in Tozeur

Back at the hotel, we waited for the deliverance of our rental car. Along came the man, and we accompanied him to his office down the road. It turned out to be a small Fiat with a sticky clutch for 60 dinars, but it did fine. Petrol was pretty cheap too - no more than 20 dinars for the ca.200 km. return trip. Relieved that I had managed to navigate out of town and even work out how to lift the clutch up from the floor when it stuck, we set off in anticipation. This was one of our happiest times on the flat, open road towards the mountains by the Algerian border. It was not a main road and there was little traffic towards these sparsly populated places. In some ways, the barren desert landscape reminded me of driving in Iceland with its rugged, wide expanse. I love the feeling of freedom this gives, and seeing a heard of camels grazing in the wild absolutely delighted us.

camels on the way

more camels

We stopped the car to get out and view them more closely. After a while the scenery changed as we ascended the mountains on the narrow, winding path. With care, this was not difficult to negotiate. The views were stunning!

We arrived first at the small mountain village of Chebika. This is one of those where the ancient Berber settlement was ravaged by heavy rains some 40 years ago. The inhabitants quickly built alternative homes nearby, but it is fascinating to explore the ruins. In Chebika, the refreshing water rushes over an imposing waterfall to form a wadi surrounded by palm trees at the bottom of a gorge.

Chebika oasis

We found our way here, and the wadi was a beautiful deep, still green, full of frogs that we had fun chasing and filming. Our only slight problem was the "guide" who was determined to follow us. After asking him several times to leave us alone as politely as I could, I ended up having to bring up the magic word "respect" which put a few more metres between us. Still, had he not sat on a rock nearby, I might well have taken a bathe with the frogs!

heart of the oasis

But it was business as usual as we re-mounted the hill on our return, and we bought drinks and ice-creams from the café.

We continued over the mountain to Tamerza. By this time we were hungry, and a very well sign-posted "Restaurant Le Soleil" became our first experience of Tamerza. It almost seemed as though the sweet lady who welcomed us had been expecting us, and we chose to eat on the roof in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere. The atmosphere was more of a village home than a restaurant, and we had fun watching a man chase his turkeys, and listening to the bleeting of goats. Expecting her to bring the menu, she soon ascended the stairs with hot chorba, coke, water and bread. We enjoyed it, and immediatly we were presented with briq, followed by lamb couscous, and lastly the most juicy, fat dates and mint tea. This was the best meal we had in all of Tunisia, the best service and probably the most enjoyable scenery. Not bad for 26 dinars!

Now we needed to excercise, and excercise we certainly did! We found the road down to the waterfall, and parked the car. Of course, there was no shortage of would-be guides who followed us down the hill. We admired the spectacular waterfall, and one of them told us about the canyon "just nearby" which he would take us to. We agreed, and it proved quite a challenging journey over stepping stones and a narrow mountain ledge. It was also a very long way! In any case, we thought it was worth it. The view was stunning and the walk good. Our unofficial guide offered to take us to see the ruined village and the water source. Since Tamerza was bigger than Chebika and not so easy to find all the sites, I agreed, and we returned to the car to drive a short distance. Then followed another long walk, and interesting sights. The old village contained a covered souq, mosque and small shop which could be made out, but the source was nothing more than a pipe!

Old temerza

Marabout

A disappointment! He offered to show us more, but by this time we were tired. I paid him 10 dinars, which he was not very happy about, but I reckon the price was about right.

Tamerza waterfall

Tamerza oasis

Next we drove to beautiful little Midès, where the usual crowd was waiting for us on our arrival. By this time, it was a little distressing that we couldn't explore beautiful places in peace and freedom, and without souvenir shops everywhere. (We were even offered to purchase meteorites as we sipped our drinks, but it's doubtful they were genuine. If anyone has any knowledge about this, please let me know.I)t's tiring having to deal with the offers all day, judge the prices in an unfamiliar environment, and  all in a language you're not very good at. Here we were not up to it, and simply bought drinks at the café, viewed the souvenir shop and I went for a short walk alone. I suppose not many tourists do the trips on their own steam - there are mostly organized tours, so when tourists do come, there's an opportunity for unoffical guides to earn some money. I'm not against this in principle, but it does get a bit much.

One last stop on our way home was the Algerian border. I was hoping to get a pic. of a sign saying Algeria, but my doubts were confirmed when the guard gave me a strict, "Non"! No photographs allowed! On the way home, a policeman stopped me and viewed my passport, wishing us a very happy stay in Tunisia. That made me feel better, although who knows if the border-police had tipped him off about the strange foreign woman who had wanted to take photos at the border!

Back in Tozeur just as darkness fell, we still had matters on our agenda before returning the car. The Belvedere Rocks were something I wanted to see, with the floodlit salt statues. We seemed to have problems finding the way, and ended up on a path that didn't seem to be made for cars at all. However, just as we were thinking of turning back, they were suddenly straight in front of us. Time for photos, and we had to hurry on, in search of toilets, warmth and supper. Paul Eric chose Berber pizza again at our local haunt, and I even got time for a quick look around the museum part of the Dar Charait, although honestly, I was too tired to learn very much. Another good reason for returning one day!