Tunisia-Med-Sahara Day 8

Day 14-09 - Monday, March 23, 2009 - Mountain Oases Optional Tour

We woke up to bright blue skies and a sunny day. It was warmer today; 57º and 49% humidity here in the oasis. Some of our California friends do not like this cool weather!

The alarm woke us up at 6:45. We had slept well in this quiet hotel of satellite units. The rooms surround a central courtyard and main activity areas, just as in an oasis

The hotel chain, The Golden Yasmin is very nice. Each hotel in the chain is built and decorated in the unique style of the location.

At 8:30 we met our local guides who would take us on a full-day Mountain Oases optional tour all in 4-wheel drive vehicles. Our driver was Abdul and his Toyota Land Cruiser has definitely been out in the desert before!

We divided ourselves into groups of 4 for the adventure. I rode shotgun with Abdul and Gennie, Linda and Ed sat in the middle seat. We stored all of our gear in the back seat.

Khamis directed our caravan to the local grocery store where he bought water for everyone. We looked around and bought a few snacks. Dan bought a Monopoly game in Arabic.

At 9:00 we started west, southwest into the Sahara desert. We passed Choult El Jerid, the second largest salt lake in the world next to the Great Salt Lake in Utah.

Along the road on both sides were fences built with the palm branches. These are important to keep sand from drifting on the road. We told Abdul about our snow fences in Colorado and Indiana and he was impressed.

We passed through the town of Nefta which is the 2nd largest town in the province. Five thousand people live here.

We got out to take photos of the oasis. Khamis told us that over the 30 years he has been coming here, the springs are drying up more with each visit.

Between the dry salt lake and the city is another larger oasis and we could see acres of date palm trees in the distance. The wood, the branches, and the date palms are all used by the inhabitant of the oasis.

Abdul left the paved road and we traveled on a bumpy dirt road to the town of Oung El Jemel. There were nomads, (shepards who stay out in the desert with their flocks), on each side of the road.

A young girl with a baby desert fox came out to the edge of the road. We took photos and gave her several coins and then we were on our way to the set of the Star Wars movies.

The first stop was to see the section of the set that has not been preserved for tourists. Khamis wanted us to be able to see what the desert does to destroy everything that is left out in the sun, the wind, and the sand.

The very primitive road, a piste, was made only for the film crew and now it is used to bring tourists to the site.

We went to the other side of the dune to see the well preserved set, complete with camels and vendors ready to sell us trinkets. We had fun looking at the set that we remember from 1977 and then we took a group photo.

Our next stop was Ohk Jemal, the Head of the Camel and also where they shot scenes for the English Patient. Abdul told us he was an extra in the movie. He was praying to Allah wearing a beige turban and also in the scene pushing the military jeep out of the sand.

We were 3 meters below sea level and could see an extensive mirage in the distance. The high sandstone hills were great for climbing – one is in the shape of a camel, hence the name of the oasis.

Back in the jeep, we continued into the desert leaving the dirt road and going off road through the sand. We saw several beautiful falcons hunting.

After bouncing along for 30 more minutes we got back on the primitive paved road. We continued on to El Hamma where we had our stop for lunch.

Talk about an oasis in the desert – Dar Horchani is a converted home and is now a small inn and was beautiful. Our meal began with tiny pasta in a tomato based vegetable soup.

Then we had salad of green peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, and onions. Couscous with beef and vegetables, flat bread, and Fatma Fingers, much like a egg roll but with tuna, egg, potatoes and parsley were all excellent.

We left this oasis at 2:30 and met Abdul who was patiently waiting for us. Continuing into the desert, we went directly to the Low Atlas Mountains passing herds of camels.

Abdul was excellent in pointing our important landmarks and Linda is fluent in French so our drive was very educational. It is surprising how quickly we are picking up French words and phrases and how much we remember from our high school French.

Our stop at Chebika was very interesting. The original town was wiped out in the flood of 1969 and a new town was built right down the road.

We toured the old town after Khamis gave us an explanation of the village in the Roman era and then more recently since the flood. We then climbed up into the mountains.

Our hike to the top was incredible seeing the uplifted sea bed with all of the fossils and the crystals the vendors have been selling below. The path down was steep and only for the sure footed.

As soon as we reached the parking area we regrouped and started out again at 4:35. We began our ascent and would go up 750 meters in about 7 kilometers.

I charted our part on my GPS. General Romel’s army built a path up the mountain and then after the time of independence the Tunisians enlarged it. In 2000 they repaved the road that is used mainly for tourism.

At the top of the mountain is Tamerza, which was also destroyed during the 1969 flood. From a new museum across the wadi we could see the remains of the old village.

We were only 5 kilometers from the Algerian border, just on the other side of the mountain. Our next stop was Mides a tiny village right on the frontier.

There is a huge canyon where they filmed the chase scene through the gorge. We had our photo taken with Abdul and then began our trek back to Tozeur.

We returned to the hotel at 7:15 and quickly got the journal started because dinner was at 8:00. We tried to track down our laundry, but there is no one from the service working this late and we will have to wait until the morning.

After dinner we finished typing, looked at photos and then went back to the lobby to post the events of the day.

Accommodations: La Kasbah Golden Yasmin Hotel - - - Meals: B, L, D

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Yes, we saw the place where they used the backdrop for the star fighters chase scene. Late afternoon so it was difficult to shoot. Sorry for no picture or comment.

Wow! Star Wars - you were actually there. Did you see the valley where they had the fighters scene?

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Day 13 - Saturday, April 22, 2022 - Depart for U.S.

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