robodawno.com

When we arrived to Tunisia we really didn’t have much booked – just our first couple of nights of accommodation and a couple of nights near the end. We were the most excited about the end one because it was in a cave at the top of a mountain!
The Berber people from long ago built these dwellings to help protect themselves and their grain from raiders. Most of them are crumbling but a few have been restored, including ours which has been converted into a little hotel.

We were shown to our room, which amazingly stays cool in the heat and warm in the cold. I’m surprised that RockyB didn’t roast me more in her blog (https://www.delafrijoles.com/2023/05/from-stormy-seas-to-magical-mountains/) because I still give her a hard time over Rock-Awn 4.0 when she booked a hotel room that didn’t have a bathroom door. This cave room took it to another level because it had a shower at the foot of our beds! One night we laughed so hard because RockyB was showering while I was laying in my bed reading my book.

When we arrived it was a little weird and I was disappointed by some poor communication, so we weren’t sure that we were going to stay the full time. Our host made some adjustments, but I think the true turning point was meeting the only 2 other guests staying there. This Argentinian and Kazakhstan couple who live in the US had a car and were also touring the area. I was really proud of myself for getting the courage to step outside of my comfort zone and ask them if we could hang with them the next day. They were very welcoming and we all had a great time exploring the nearby sights.

We drove to Tatouine (the name inspired the Tatooine from Star Wars) and from there our friend drove this tiny rental car up a very rustic road to our first sight.

From afar Ksar Tounket didn’t look like much, but as we walked up to it our jaws dropped.

We then drove to Chenini village, which is a much larger village built into the side of a mountain, including a striking white mosque.

On our 2nd day at the cave hotel we hired a local villager to take us on a sunset hike. I think this was one of my highlights of the whole trip. Aymen taught us about all of the different herbs and spices along the trail. We hiked to some of the oldest Berber villages in the area and watched the sunset from the top vantage point.

I’ll leave you with more of the views from our epic ksar accommodation. We’ve now made our way back to Tunis and this Rock-Awn 6.0 adventure will come to an end. It definitely won’t be the last Rock-Awn instalment!!! Tomorrow I fly to Venice to meet RobO and family, so stay tuned for some robodawno adventures.

Before coming to Tunisia one of the only things that I knew about it is that it was used for many filming locations for the Star Wars films. Even though I am not a Star Wars geek, it was obvious that we would try to see some of the sites. It surprised me how genuinely excited I felt to be at them. I think especially because there is zero fanfare about them by the Tunisian people. These crumbling, garbage collecting sites are just places that the people walk by each day but with some upkeep and tourism marketing they could be goldmines!

The first that we visited was the Mos Eisley cantina from Episode IV. Can’t you just hear the music playing?

We walked about 3kms up the coast to Amghar Mosque, which was Obi-Wan’s house in Episode IV.

When we got off the bus in Medenine we were only about 1 block away from Anakin’s hovel from Episode I.

We found that right around the times that we were at these sites something special happened, like we walked to the road and the exact bus that we needed was just driving by, or that we were standing right by a perfect little coffee shop with wifi. I have to think the force was strong with us at these places.

We’ve moved to the mountains now. Spoiler alert… the next post is going to be a gooder!

Our first Rock-Awn all inclusive experience was (not surprisingly) not our favourite accommodation experience. In defence of the Hari Club Beach Resort, we didn’t have very nice weather, so we took a pass on appreciating the pools and amenities in gale force winds. I think for us there is a lot of travel joy in trying local foods from local restaurants, which is quite different than the resort buffet experience. This morning we did have our very best activity there, which was a hammam and gommage. Picture the Rock-Awns enjoying a sauna and then a scrub down.

During our days on the island we learned the island bus system and one day took it to a community with one of Tunisia’s oldest synagogues. When we met the government representative the other day he was proud to tell us that Djerba is very accepting of all religions and thus has quite a few Jewish people on the island. He said that this synagogue is a place that many people visit as a pilgrimage.

We enjoyed wandering around an area called Djerbahood, where numerous mural artists painted works throughout the small alleyways in the area.

We also visited a couple of famous film sites, but stay tuned for a future blog for those pics. Today we’re moving to the desert, to an accommodation with a lot of anticipation. May the force be with us!

Our time in Tunisia has continued to surpass our expectations, mostly because of our interactions with Tunisians. We took a train to the industrial city of Sfax. It’s not a big tourist destination, but we used it as a jumping off point to visit El Jem, which is one of the best preserved Roman amphitheatres in the world. What a gem it was. Of course we concluded our visit with the ‘tourist tax’ camel ride.

In Sfax we stayed in one of my favourite AirBnB experiences in the world thus far. Mohamed and his family hosted us in their home. We were surprised when they cooked breakfasts and dinners for us and how much time we spent talking over tea and coffee. It was a true cultural exchange and a connection that can be difficult to achieve in a short time in a different country. We talked about life goals and challenges and could see how alike we are, despite completely different lives. If you ever come to Tunisia let me know and I will connect you with this gem of an AirBnB. We were delighted when before we left Mohamed agreed to try one of RockyB’s classic ‘jump shots’.

We said goodbye to Mohamed and his family and headed to Djerba, which is an island off the coast of Tunisia. We opted to take a mini-bus, which was a pretty fun system to figure out. We paid for a ticket and found the corresponding van, then waited about an hour for it to fill with passengers so we could set off.

Almost every time I looked out the front window of the van I could see the driver giving me what I perceived to be the stink eye.

We passed by hours and hours of olive trees.

We saw a sign for camels crossing, then actually saw some camels crossing!

When we stopped at a gas station, I asked 2 of our bus mates who spoke some English if the driver didn’t like us. They said that no, in fact he was quite chuffed that he had 2 Canadians on board. After that we had a couple of interactions where he told us, through gestures and broken French, that he wished that we could communicate but felt that we were still able to get our points across. He even made 2 extra stops to try to buy a new traditional cd for us to listen to, much to the annoyance of the other passengers.

Another gem of a story: One of our fellow passengers also chatted with us at a rest stop and let us know that he is the member of parliament from Djerba Island. He was proud to be the youngest member of parliament and told us that he will be the president of Tunisia one day. When we got to the ferry terminal he decided to use his pull to get us to the front of the line. It took so much time that 2 of our passengers bailed and opted to walk on to the ferry, but he indeed succeeded and our little bus was first on the ferry for the next crossing!

Now on Djerba Island we’ve done a Rock-Awn 1st… we’re staying at an all-inclusive resort. Hopefully our gem experiences will continue.

This latest adventure started with a full day layover in Amsterdam. I wasn’t thinking much about it until the day before when I realized that it is the perfect timing for the tulip fields. A long walk on a sunny day was a sure jet-lag buster.

I arrived in Tunis, the capital of Tunisia, close to midnight and made my way to the guesthouse where RockyB was waiting. That’s right… this trip is Rock-Awn 6.0!!! Our guesthouse guy looked at me and told me I looked sporty, then proceeded to lead me up this crazy spiral staircase to our room. After a good sleep and no water in the morning (water restriction due to a countrywide drought), we headed out for day 1 of exploring.

The medina (old city) of Tunis is a Unesco World Heritage site and it was fun to explore the tiny pathways and eclectic shops.

We spent the afternoon in the town of Sidi Boussaïd which has ocean views and classic blue and white buildings.

This morning we felt ready to ‘dial up our adventure’ and try to figure out the Louage system, which is Tunisia’s version of mini-buses. We amazingly happened to wander our way to what seemed to be a Louage hangout. A very helpful Tunisian guy wrote down our instructions in Arabic and flagged down a cab to take us a very long way to the correct station. On the way RockyB used Google translate pictures to try to read what he had written and it said something about dying or crawling or something. I’m choosing to believe he had poor penmanship.

At the Louage station there was some commotion with a few drivers (maybe fighting over us?) and then we were off. It took about 90 minutes and another cab ride to get to El Dougga, which is ’the best preserved Roman small town in North Africa’.

We were celebrating our travel prowess while exploring the ruins. It was not until we got back to the closest town that we found out that the public transportation to Tunis stops running at 4:00. We cleared our heads with a delicious sandwich from a street vendor, where we held out a handful of change and he picked through to find the correct amount. This has occurred a few times because we haven’t figured out the coins yet.
With full tummies we felt ready to make a plan. Armed with Google translate, we chose a person to ask for help and immediately a kind man took charge. Our hero marched over to a taxi and a mini-bus and bartered for a quite reasonable price to get back to Tunis. He even included two Tunisian women he found who were heading part of the way to sweeten the deal. Like a mother hen he settled us both into the front seat of the mini-bus and waived us away.

On the ride home it was fitting that there was a rainbow, with the pot of gold landing in the direction of Tunis.

Undeterred by our travel mistakes, we opted to try our hand at public transport again to get to our guesthouse. Again a lovely man stopped and ‘hunt and peck’ typed into our translation app how to get where we needed to be.
Our assessment of Tunisian people has been very positive. They seem to be genuinely helpful and sincere, even despite our apparent stupidity with currency and language. I also have to give a shout out to Tunisian food.

Looks like Rock-Awn is doing what we do best… having great adventures that sometimes end up with even better stories.