Tabarka, Tunisia

Tuesday 16th October 2007 Tabarka Yacht Club (39Km from Algerian border), Tunisia
The countryside west of Tunis is green rolling hills. They plant wheat right to the top of the hills (bit of erosion) and all types of vegetables, and lovely tomatoes, pomegranates (and persimmons). There is only the odd dairy cow and lots of sheep. As you get nearer the Algerian border the farming deteriorates from efficient commercial farms to badly run subsistence farms.
Tunisia has a very active rail system but the line to Algeria is not in use. Libya has no railway system at all since Dad Karg blew up the last train in Tobruk, however they are thinking about putting in a new system.
We went to shop in Biserte and a guide took us to the old quarter through Turkish, Spanish, Italian and Berber housing, all with different architecture. He showed us the saunas which are still in daily use. It was like seeing the Roman ruins in action. We had breakfast (at noon) at a Tunisian kitchen, a delicious Tuna dish. The Italians and Spanish make a living fishing here and the Berber by doing woodwork.
We then traveled west and found Tabarka, 39Km from the Algerian border. This is a beautiful town with many yachts resting from sailing round the Med, and campers from all over Europe. The natural harbour is peaceful and quiet with a huge fort overlooking the harbour.
Strange rock formations like fingers guard the harbour entrance.

Monday 15th October 2007 Biserte Tree Camp, Tunisia
Yesterday evening we camped where they recommended we should, right outside the police gymnasium. As they closed a chap approached and told us that he was the security for the police gym and he would look after us too, no problem. He went to do his prayers for half an hour, up and down bowing to Mecca. Then he offered to show us where the toilets were, and took us across the road to the ferry clubhouse. We showered, locked the Landy with a small gap near the top of the window and went to bed.
During the night Nev felt the Landy rock slightly and when he looked out the guard was nearby, so went back to sleep.
Disaster! The very nice "guard" last night, had disappeared this morning with his loot of our video and still cameras. Video had no backup, the still camera had been backed up in Egypt by Harry, thank goodness. We have to work though our feelings of disappointment.
If you thought the SAP are bad, they are brilliant compared with Tunisian police. It took us nearly two hours to get the police to take a statement. Only one in the station, and could only speak Arabic.
Only when I took out my Arabic dictionary did he suddenly start typing away on his computer. It wasn't worth the effort because he didn't even write down our contact details or the serial numbers until I insisted.
We tried to go west out of Tunis, but kept landing back in Carthage, not in a happy mood, but that riding round in circles just made us realize there are worse things in life than loosing stuff, and it made us start to laugh again.
We stopped in Biserte where Nev changed the oil and checked the Landy (in a forest) and camped in the campsite right near the beach, but it was too cold to swim. The beach was nice and sandy, but water was not as clear as in Libya. It was really cold and I used two sleeping bags to get to sleep.

Sunday 14th October 2007 harbour police camp, Tunis, Tunisia
We traveled north and the farms became more and more intensive, very neat with olive trees, peaches, apricot, pears, grapes, chillies, onions, and wheat just germinating.
We came through a few rain squalls and went straight to the port at Tunis to try to book the ferry to Palermo, Sicilly. The ferry was pulling out as we arrived, but there was another on Thursday. The people were very helpful, but the office only opened Monday because of the last holiday of Eid.
Tunis is the most beautiful city we have seen so far. Sparkling white buildings set against the blue of the gulf of Tunis, a natural harbour, with the buildings on the hills overlooking the whole bay.
We spent a lot of time looking for Carthage, and gone the "Douglas Green" directions until we decided to follow a tourist bus. So we zoomed along thinking we were going to an ancient Roman site and landed in a parking lot where Nev saw a little shuttle train about to leave.
He yelled at me to hurry and we jumped on, going where? There were little trains returning with tourists in the other direction, so we were re-assured that we were not on our way to the gallows. We chugged along and ended up in a flea market. Actually it was the Sidi Bou Said, the very old part of the city and all very prettily painted white with blue doors and windows overlooking the bay.
There are hundreds of tourists here, mostly Italian and French.
The northern part of Tunisia is more affluent than the southern area with bigger homes and newer cars, except for the farmers who are generally poor. We get a poor deal all over the world as farmers! The Muslem religion is not nearly as strictly upheld here, and most younger girls do not cover their heads, and wear modern clothing.

Saturday 13th October 2007 Farmers Kids Camp near Sousse, Tunisia
Luckily it didn't rain last night, because if it had we would have unable to cross the river bed and been stranded there for a while.
We headed north to Metlaoui where the hills were being mined for phosphates. There were conveyors for miles and miles and the mine dumps were higher than those in Johannesberg, and bigger than the existing colorful hills around the mines. The country was semi desert with only prickly pears being planted. As we drove north west the farming changed with the amount of rainfall received. At first the olives were planted 25mX20m spacing, and by the time we got to Sousse they were planted 5mX5m apart. There were also peach trees and wheat.
We went to a farmer and requested a spot to camp (they only speak French and Arabic so we are finding communication very difficult here. Especially the keyboard in the internet, where the letters are all in the wrong place and when some of them are erased with use it is impossible to type a legible sentence). One of the grandchildren could speak a bit of English and they willingly gave us a space and even took us down to the salt lake to have a look. It is so nice to hear birds calling again although there are only a few, and no wild animals except dogs.
Our clothes are starting to take a hammering, and Nev's shoes are now being tied up with baling twine since the pop-rivets have pulled out and Willy has taken his pop-rivet gun with him back south. Nev fixed my slops with super-glue. Now that Nev is out of Libya, he is into shorts again, but they are worn through and looking quite cool! Nev thinks my clothes are starting to look sexy as they are beginning to get transparent.
Soon after we had set up camp the sky turned an ugly black and a gale started to turn up the dust. We packed up the tent very fast and reorganized our Landy to sleep inside. The planes wanting to land at Sousse airport circled above us for nearly an hour waiting for the gusts to subside. Our Landy was rocked by the wind for most of the night, but we were snug and dry inside.