Tunisia

Tunisia was brilliant. Didnt expect to stay 5 weeks, but could have easily stayted another 5. Loads to see and people were very nice.

The Roman ruins at Dougga.

When Roman citys were conquered the newbes would swap the heads on the statues.

More Dougga.

This is my wheels for the desert. Loaded up and ready to hit the sand.

Spent the night in the Sahara with a guide, he showed me this game. Looks fairly simple but I was terrible at it. He eventually started just to let me win.

Sundown in the Sahara, wheels parked up in the distance.

I thought there would be some animals or scorpions in the Sahara but there was none, only a heap of these beatles. I just slept in the sand with blankets so I was freaked the beatles were gonna be all over me.

In the morning the guide made a huge fire and rolled up some dough. Then he used the hot fire embers mixed with sand, to sort of oven cook bread... it was bleeden delish!

Licence not necessary.

'Aidan the sword' would only get on the camel if it didnt stand up.

Tunisia is completely full of date trees. Sometimes we would just grab them straight from the tree and eat them. And its date season now so there extra nice.

The hostel in Tunis.

No explanation necessary I presume..... first stop '188 the spinacker, Smithfield'... Wha Wha Wha. On a serious note though, if the guy taking the picture wasnt using my camera, he was getten egged... Fact!

Roman coliseum at 'El Jem'. Smaller than the one in Rome, but less people and less rules.

Small Oasis near Tozeur. We rented a car and 6 of us pilled in for a road trip.

Canons between two towns on the road trip.

Our guide would break open rocks and the inside looked to be made of glass, and others of blue crystals.

This was our guide for the canons. He ended up being a good investment. We tried to navigate our way between the towns without a guide, but we hit a dead end after 10 min. If we hadnt of hit the dead end and went back for a guide, we would have gotten very very lost in the mountains. We were only 10km from the Algerian border so could have landed in a bit of bother.

'Please... no car bombs.

Matmata has loads of homes and hotels underground and in caves. Some still have troglodytes liven in them. The family of troglodytes who owned this troglodyte dwelling, leave it each year for the winter months. Not very hard core troglodyting at all..

'This was our hotel. Im banging my chest as I imagine the troglodytes would have done.

'This was the liven room where troglodytes lived all year round. I thought this was gas cause they have a telly. Presumably this is where the troglodytes kick back and relax. Troglodelicious.

Camels everywhere, all the time..

More old ruins at Carthage. Old ruins arent really that interesting so I jazzed this one up with a nab.

This was another troglodyte hotel, but it was the one where Star Wars was filmed. A lot of Star wars films were filmed in Tunisia, and people come from all over to see this hotel in all its troglodyte glory.'

The bar in Star Wars. The real excitement came from finally getten some booze.'

Oil and petrol is much cheaper in Libya, so many people buy it there and drive it in plastic barrels over the boarder to sell in Tunisia. This kind of setup is everywhere on the main roads. '

Old Ksour in Tataouine. These were used to store food stocks and were hidden away in the mountiains. Loads of rooms stacked on top of each other, kinda honeycomb'ish.'

Same Ksour again.

There was steps between many of the rooms, and you could just walk between them.'

When I left the Ksour I asked Bechir on the left for directions. He wouldnt allow me to pass his home without meeting his eight children, brothers, sisters, mother, father, grandparents, wife and unkle. His mother made me dinner and baked me bread to take on the road with me. I had to decline about 20 times not to stay the night. Most Tunisian people are very friendly and generous and this kind of thing happens often.'

In Tunis we climbed a mountain which was pretty good. This is about half way up. '

This was about 15 min from the top. About 10 minutes after reaching the top a Tunisian soldier and alsation dog arrived and told us we could not be there. We climbed the mountin the hard side and wanted to get down a road we seen, but the soldier said it was the armys road and we would be arrested if we went near it. On the (hard) way back down we got too close to the road and soldiers started to blow wistles at us. We could hear soldiers and dogs coming down the mountain behind us. Theres nothing like the Tunisian army and alsations to get a man off a mountiain... they didnt catch us.'

'Lost?

The salt lake. Salt as far as you can see, from dried up sea water. I got destroyed in salty mucky shite getting out onto the salt. Tunisian people say you shouldnt walk out onto the salt because the mucky part is like quicksand, but many people do it anyway. I took the extra safety precaution of going alone.
'

The salt is like loads of coin sized flakes.

There are loads of red water pools around the salt lake, Im not sure why the salt makes the water red.

The salt lake is in the middle of nowhere, so if you want to have a walk out on it, you need to exit the bus in the middle of the salt. But this leaves you stranded, so I hitched to the next town. This van stopped and tied my rucksack to the top, then I became the fourth passenger in the two seated van. After about 20 min the driver told his son to wait at a cafe in the middle of the salt lake.. abanded the poor fella. I didnt really care that much and appreciated the extra leg room!!

Beard update.