To Houmt Souk, Djerba

  Djerba, Tunisia
Tuesday, February 12, 2008

We returned the car, and at about 10.00am we were off in the louage to Kebili. Here is a photo of a typical louage station, although not the one at Tozeur.

A typical louage station

The journey entailed a drive over the magnificent Chott el Jerid, a salt lake which is dry most of the time and over which is a causeway. Beautiful colours can be seen. It almost resembles a glacier in some ways, and mirages are not unknown. (See pics).

Chott Jerid

Desert roses by the Chott

The man sitting next to me turned out to be quite chatty. He worked in the phosphate industry. At Kebili, we had to purchase new tickets for the journey to Gabès, but again, we didn't have to wait long for the van to fill up. Gabès we have encountered before - a pretty central place with a big and busy louage station. We were hungry and bought more Schwarma (kebab/sandwich) for the ridiculous price it always is! Satisfied we boarded our louage for Houmt Souk, the administrative capital of Djerba, but this time we had to wait a good half an hour. At last we were off, and quite a few hairy overtaking episodes there were! It seems Tunisians think nothing of overtaking with oncoming traffic hurtling towards them at top speed, and quickly dodge it with about 2 seconds to go on! At first I was nervous, but strangely enough, after a while I found it normal, like everyone else. The louage went on the ferry, and we arrived in Ain, the port town which eventually brought us to Houmt Souk.

We had found what looked like a good hotel from the Lonely Planet Guide book, Hotel Erriadh. We got into a taxi and stated our destination, but the taxi-driver seemed confused and annoyed. He was expecting tourists to demand the touristic zone, a long and relatively expensive drive, and here we were asking for accomodation which was right under our noses! Because of the heavy bags we now had, I wanted to be driven to the door, but as we later found out, there was no access for vehicles in the narrow medina allies. We had to walk and it wasn't easy to find the way. Even the locals seemed unable/unwilling to help, until we were lucky enough to ask the right guy who took us all the way to the door. What a beautiful door, and what delightful decor!

Entrance Hotel Erriadh

The hotel was an adapted funduq, where camel-caravan travellers had lodged many years ago. This was built according to a special pattern, with large rooms around a central courtyard for the animals, and smaller rooms for the people on the second floor. The atmosphere was quaint and calm, with large, blue volted doors, Arab-patterned tiles, green plants and pink flowers, a giant bird cage and old well. I loved it! The small tables in the courtyard were perfect for breakfast, which was the best we had experienced so far.

Pretty courtyard

Room entrance

Paul Eric took a rest in the warm room (there was a heater, which we had not had in Tozeur), whilst I took a look at the maze of pretty avenues and squares making up the medina of Houmt Souk. It was full of cafés, restaurants and shops, but the pressure to look in the shops was greater than we had experienced in Tozeur. I don't like to be rude, but if you don't want to spend all your holiday in a shop, you have to learn to ignore people, as they don't take no for an answer. A man claimed to be a waiter from our hotel, and pretended to be offended that I didn't remember him. I had to laugh! Little did he know that I was not a day-tripper from the touristic zone. Another man asked me, "Why don't you like to talk to Tunisians?" That's silly! Why would I come to Tunisia if I didn't want to talk to Tunisians? Here, one of the Djerban pottery stalls.

Djerban pottery

One thing we didn't manage to get in Tozeur was swimming trunks for Paul Eric, but here they were of course available. We bought some right next door to the hotel for 12 dinars, and then found a restaurant for dinner - a strange place where we were the only customers in the dark room upstairs. The food was ok, the waiter attentive and the company of the cat on the window sill was nice. Then we looked around town, buying a phone charger for 4 dinars, and finding the internet café. We met the second man of the day claiming to be a waiter from our hotel, and this time Paul Eric got a good laugh!