Tunisia Road Trip

Hi everyone,

Last week we hired a car to tour inland parts of Tunisia.  We did 1200km over 3 days visiting towns, oases, Star Wars sets and a Roman city.

Into the Sahara

On day 1 we drove from Monastir south to Matmata and Tamazret, an area famous for its 'troglodyte' Berber houses, then onward to Tozeur via Chott el Djerit the Sahara's largest salt pan.  On day 2 we were taken around a series of magnificent locations by Ahmed of The Soul of Sahara on his 'Hardcore Tour'.  On day 3 we returned to Monastir via the Roman ruins at Sbeitla.

GoogleMaps view of our route (ignore the 'inside track')

The drive south from Monastir to the outskirts of Gabes was easy on the A1 motorway.  Along the way there are miles and miles of olive groves.  The country slowly becomes drier as one heads south.  Beyond Gabes the roads are single carriageway and the agriculture stops.  The hills are spectacular and every gully is dammed to capture every last drop of run-off.  Upstream of each dam isn't a lake but rather a flat patch of farmland.

The Berber people of this area are famous for their houses carved out of the hills.  The houses are spread all over the landscape, presumably one on each family's land.  From a distance one sees either the doorway or the void above their courtyard.

Downstairs (below ground) and Upstairs (above ground) accommodation

Dammed gully with multiple field/dam pairs

We drove straight through Matmata which appeared quite touristy.  It took us a while to convince a guide on a moped that we really didn't want to stop in the town.

Terraced hillside outside Matmata

From Matmata it was a short drive to Tamazret where we visited the Berber Museum.  It's an example of a 'troglodyte' house, being carved out of the hillside as are most of the houses around it.

View over Tamazret

Inside the Berber Museum

Bedroom

Living Room

From Tamazret we drove westward.  Many Tunisian towns have arches over the roads leading into them.  Various themes from Camels to Forts.

Many Tunisian towns have arches over the roads in/out

It was obvious when we'd reached the Chott el Djerit salt pan.  Mile after mile of flat sandy surface with no vegetation.  We noticed one or two channels dug into the pan with standing water.  It seemed the water level was about two meters below ground.  Along the road there were several sites which were clearly for people to swim and eat/drink when the lake is full.  Apparently the water can have many colours.

Chott el Djerit salt pan with Atlas Mountains in the distance

We arrived in Tozeur and found our hotel.  It had been a long but amazing day.

On day 2 Ahmed came to our hotel at 0800 and we set off in the hire car for our HardCore Tour.  First we drove north from Tozeur into the mountains.  Along the way we came upon several herds of camels, some crossing the road.

Camel Crossing sign

Camel hoping to cross

Camel crossing!

We also drove through villages surrounded by date palm groves.  The groves are irrigated.  Apparently there are hundreds of types of date palm.

Date Palms ready for harvesting

Date Palms

The Atlas Mountains run from Morocco to Tunisia.  North of Tozeur there are several ranges.  Ahmed took us up one which has a road to access a Phosphate mine.  The mountains are barren and steep with rocky outcrops.

Into the Atlas Mountains

View from the top

OK, nearly the top

From the mountains we drove back down to the plain and along to the western end of the range to Chebika Oasis.  Chebika is an old village sited below a water course emerging from the mountains.  There's a waterfall and the water runs all year.  The water flows into the oasis which has a well irrigated date palm grove.

Approaching the Oasis

Irrigation channel in the Oasis

Yep, the water comes from the mountains

Chebika is a popular tourist spot.  Due to Covid we were almost alone.  Apparently the only tourists coming here at present are the occasional yachtie and coach loads of Russians.  There are plenty of tourist trinkets.  Most interesting are the fossils and geodes.  Fossils because the mountains are made of ancient sea bed.  And geodes are rocks containing sparkling crystals.  From the outside they're normal but once split in two their inside is amazing.  And amazingly cheap here!

Rocky tourist trinkets

Colourful scarves

The original town of Chebika was abandoned 20 years ago when a new village was constructed nearby with modern facilities.  The old village is on the hillside above the new.

Old Chebika House Door 

View over old Chebika to the new village

From the old village we walked to the waterfall.  Amazing scenery and a quick face wash from the pool was very refreshing.  Twas only a few inches deep but the water was running through the pool and down towards the village and the palm grove, even at the end of a long hot summer.

Chebika Oasis

Chebika

Following the water course

Chebika waterfall

From Chebika we drove west through the town of Tamerza to Mides oasis near the Algerian border.  The old town of Mides is impressively sited.  It has deep canyons on two sides.

Tamerza old town - abandoned in 1969 after sustained flooding

Algeria/Tunisia Border Post

Mides canyon

Mides old town street

Old town above the canyon

Dammed farming area on other side of Mides, with date palm grove beyond

More of the canyon network

From Mides we drove back through Tamarza to Tozeur for lunch.  The road follows the water course from the mountains north of Tamarza to the salt pans near Tozeur.  There are a number of waterfalls along the way.  No doubt they're larger in winter and very impressive in flood!  They reminded us of the Kimberley.

Waterfall downstream of Tamarza

Flood valley

Cafe above the waterfall

Another waterfall downstream from Tamarza

Flood valley downstream of another waterfall

As we drove into Tozeur Ahmed stopped at a butchers.  We knew it was a butchers because there were sheep and camel heads hanging outside.  Ahmed bought the 'best bits' of a fresh camel and took us to a local cafe where the meat was barbequed.

Tozeur market

Camel Ribeye Steak for lunch

A Tunisian 'Ute'

Tunisians love their fancy brickwork

After lunch we drove west to Nefta.  There's a large reservoir in the town which feeds the downstream date palm groves.  

Nefta Reservoir

Nefta

From Nefta we drove north towards the Chott el Rharsa salt pan.  This road was covered by sand in places but not deep.  I reckon Ahmed put on a little show of checking the sand's depth and gunning the car across it.  Having driven around the Pilbara in the 70s and 80s I can say Tunisian roads are similar or better!

A small sand patch

A Sahara Dune!

On top of the dune
Ahmed insists "it's Tunisian so it's white"

Sand sculptures on the dune

The dune we explored is adjacent to Ong Jemal, home to the Star Wars set of Mos Espa 'on the desert world of Tatooine'.

Star Wars set from the dune

Inside the set

Other-worldly structures

Where are the aliens?

In Tunisia there's always a camel

The sand will win

Behind the scenes

From Ong Jemal we drove back to Nefta and west to the western tip of the Chott el Djerid salt pan.  Here we found a smaller Star Wars set - the entrance dome to Luke Skywalker's homestead.  When we approached the entrance an amazingly colourful bird flew out.  Greyish with other-worldly bright orange crest and white patches.  We reckon is was a Eurasian Hoopoe.

Star Wars entrance dome

From Star Wars it was back to Tozeur and our hotel.  What a fantastic day.  Worth every Dinar.  Thanks again Ahmed and The Soul of Sahara. We hope many more tourists visit Tozeur soon.  Ahmed also introduced us to Taureg musicians Tinariwen - awesome accompaniment to any North African adventure!

One of many horse and carts seen all over Tunisia

On day 3 we drove back to Monastir via the Roman ruins at Sbeitla.  The ruins are amazing and cover at least a square kilometre.  There is a large entrance arch, an entire town site with streets of shops and dwellings, a set of temples, churches, baths, gym and theatre.  Most of the ruins date from Roman times, with alternations and additions during Byzantine times (eg the churches).

Entrance Arch

View over the ruins with temples in the background

Donkey/Camel-drven Olive Press

Amazing mosaiced bath

Shop-lined street

Water storage cistern

Byzantine churches

Baptismal Font

The road toward the temples

Approaching the temple complex

Temples to Juno, Jupiter and Minerva

Inside one of the temples

Dwelling-lined street behind the temples

Another font

Bath

Baths Foyer

Tree of Life mosaic

The rules of the gym (apparently)

Hot bath heating system

On the throne!

Theatre (no lions here)

The drive back to Monastir from Sbeitla was on busy single carriageway roads until we approached the coast and dual carriageways appeared.  The single carriageways were hectic with everything from horse'n'carts to heavily laden trucks to 4WDs to Porches.  There was a lot of crazy overtaking going on.  Someone must have got it wrong and we had a lengthy detour around a crash.

Our Saharan Road Trip was fantastic.  Here's what it cost...

• Hire Car TND240 for 4 days including extra day to cover excess km
• Petrol TND150
• Hotel TND160 for two nights
• Day Tour TND300 worth every Dinar - we'd not have found many places without a guide
• Food TND100
• Trinkets/Tips TND100

With our big adventure behind us we're now thinking about our departure from Tunisia.  We'll be here in Monastir for another two weeks.  Then we'll be looking for a good weather window to sail away!