History
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Empty Roads, Desert Rain & Mirages: Matmata-Douz-Tozeur
It’s fair to say that the journey from Matmata to Douz isn’t the most challenging foreign drive we’ve ever undertaken, with long stretches of empty road cutting a perfect straight line through the desert. In terms of civilisation, there is nothing: a good hour of roadway passing not a single building, let alone anything as grand as a village. In fact the greatest – maybe the only – challenge is the patches where the sand has covered the road, the tarmac has all but disappeared and the grip of our tyres is about as good as a stiletto on a polished floor. At last we reach signs of life as…
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Going Underground: Matmata
As soon as we heard that some former troglodyte homes beneath the ground had been converted into a place where you can stay the night, we knew we had to do it. The temptation of spending a night in one of these most unusual cave dwellings was just too much to resist, especially when our route south and west was taking us close to their very location. An entire population of troglodyte people lived in and around what is now Matmata, in man made cave dwellings constructed in intriguing fashion. Some of these cave dwellings were simply hewn into the rock, often behind tight entrances between tall natural pillars, but…
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The Journey Continues: Monastir-El Jem-Gabes
Strictly speaking, El Jem isn’t a desert town, but as we step off the louage from Monastir and squint through the haze, it bears all the hallmarks of one. We arrive in a dust storm – or maybe a sand storm – which makes the whole town shimmer in the heat and minarets and palm trees drift in and out of sight. Flags whip and crack in the stiff wind, the sun is clogged and filtered by the sand which is so concentrated that it’s a bit like looking into a fog. Our glasses and sunglasses are quickly covered in a film of dust, layers of sand particles have coated…
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To A Different World: Kairouan To Monastir
We have barely entered the chaotic louage station before someone spots us – two backpack laden travellers on the move – and points us in the direction of the correct ticket window for Monastir, and as soon as we have our tickets, a second person is there to show us to the right louage. This is just how Tunisia, and Kairouan, is: helpful people everywhere. For those unfamiliar with this kind of transport, the louage and its counterparts in other countries, there is no timetable, the driver simply waits until all seats are taken and, as soon as they are, he hits the road. With a stroke of luck the…
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In Deeper: To The Sacred City Of Kairouan
We feel quite a sense of anticipation as we make our way across the nondescript scrubland plain towards the city of Kairouan and step down from the minibus beneath greying afternoon skies. Indeed, there was a time when we couldn’t even have got as far as this: until being taken by the French in 1881, Kairouan was strictly Muslim only with all others barred from even entering the city. It is today the fourth most sacred city of Islam after Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem, tradition stating that seven pilgrimages to Kairouan equals one pilgrimage to Mecca. The Great Mosque of Kairouan (aka the Mosque Of Uqba) is widely accepted as…
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The Wider Tunis: Carthage, The Coast And More
The teenage boys are just as boisterous on the train now as they were half an hour ago performing outrageous gymnastics on the beach, which in itself is pretty impressive, particularly if they’re practicing Ramadan and leaping around like that when they can’t even take on water. Now, on the train, they jump off and run from carriage to carriage at each station, open the doors while the train is moving, swap shirts and throw bags at each other: we just smile at the fact that wherever you are, whatever the culture…..boys will be boys. We are on the short suburban railway which runs out from Tunis, across the water…
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Legal Aliens: Englishmen In Resort
Day 3 at Camp Sunshine (not its real name) brings an increase in the sea breeze and the nations’ flags between the restaurant and the beach are flapping furiously – though there’s not a Union Jack or a St Georges anywhere to be seen in the collection. Colours are to the fore: the deep brown suntans of those Germans presumably nearing the end of their stay clashing with the frighteningly red raw faces and shoulders of the newcomers who’ve done too much sun too soon. They must be suffering. There’s also the sky blue – not the sea or the sky but the shiny sky blue of our wrist bands…
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Aswan Days
Sunrise in Aswan is fuzzy. The sand drifting across the Sahara and around the Nile Valley turns everything into an ochre tinted blur into which anything in the distance shimmers in and out of view. And at the end of the day, the sunset hints at beauty, but then turns a strangely pale yellow as if its paints have been thinned with water. In between the two, that ochre tinge to the day rarely departs. We had some pre-conceived ideas about Aswan which have proved to be completely inaccurate. Far from finding an increase on the rustic scale, Aswan has a river frontage sporting a number of hotels, a thoughtfully…
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Further South: Luxor To Aswan
Luxor is definitely quieter as Saturday morning dawns and heralds the start of the sacred month of Ramadan. We’ve been told several times that the first day of Ramadan is a time for families, as first they fast together, and then later celebrate the passing of the first day with a convivial family meal as soon as the sunset call to prayer sounds. True to form, in the last few moments before sundown, the previously bustling streets of Luxor are akin to those of a ghost town: no tuk-tuks, no taxis, no horses, litter blowing down the market street which yesterday was rammed with people. Then, two hours or so…
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Luxor: Days By The Nile
Being a visitor to Egypt brings with it one absolute certainty – you are going to have to live with the utterly constant pestering by would-be guides, taxi and tuk-tuk drivers, boatmen, tour operators, shopkeepers and individuals selling everything from tissues to tat and from jewellery to junk. And of course there’s those selling nothing and just asking for money. It’s a constant barrage that you have to conquer in order to do anything or go anywhere. Add to that a complete mishmash of haggling over prices, blatant attempts at scams and a complex “baksheesh” (tipping) protocol and you have a cauldron of unfamiliar financial dealings which takes a certain…
