Tunisia 3 - part 3/4 - Let the bus trip begin

We also did a two day trip down to the Sahara, across to the Atlas mountains and, well, just generally around the entire southern part of Tunisia.

First stop was El Jem, a pretty well-preserved colliseum where they filmed a bit of Gladiator I believe.

From there we went to Matmata - where a few thousand people still live in caves to avoid the heat in the day and enjoy the warmth in the night. We stopped off at one such cave and went in and had a chat with the locals.

But one of the main reasons we did the trip was for the camel ride in the Sahara. We got kitted out in the local dress and decided to go with our own camels cos I didn't want any more back-seat driving if you know what I mean. Damn I look sexy in Bedouin dress!





Cath lead our entire group. Or should I say, Cath's camel did. Cath had an ancient camel (he was so wise - like a miniature Budha all covered with hair) - but I had a three-year old who skrikked every time someone made a noise near him. He would then try and hide behind the nearest camel. Wus.

A few for the photo album.

Later on, we took another stop at a salt pan, in the middle of the dessert. Cath decided Algeria might be more exciting, but no-one stopped for her with me standing nearby looking menacing!

Random fishing boat shows that ages ago (about 30 years apparently) the sea used to come this far inland.

We eventually got to our hotel that evening and headed for a swim at the pool before supper. Twas a stunning pool and we just had time to snap Cath with a nearby sunflower. I will spare you the corny / cheesy comments about cath being my sunflower, etc.

After supper, we went for a walk where some local boys gave Cath a rose.






The next morning we were up at about 4:30am for breakfast and a short drive to the Atlas mountains to watch the sunrise. It was pretty dark on the way and we had to watch out for camels crossing... (I took this photie on the drive back when it was a bit brighter)

These were at the mountains...



We had to go through a bit of a gap in the mountain to get a view of a waterfall.. was pretty cool.

The views were stunning...

Actually, one of the reasons I took this photo (no really) was that we were very aware that being in a Muslim country, we would have to be aware that women have to cover up a bit more than in Western countries, basically just trying to be considerate. Then we saw Anna here - part of our tourgroup wear this pair of pants that had her bum popping out all the time.

Naturally, on several occasions cath would talk to me for five minutes before realising that I was drooling and hadn't heard a word... my black eye is healing very well, thanks for asking...

Anyhoo, we then drove to another waterfall (le grande cascade) where there were more shops and stalls...

And we took this one of Cath...

This was our car and our driver... on the way back he suddenly locked the steering wheel left, took us off-road into the dessert, over a few bumps and hills that had our stomachs up in our throats before returning to the road, turning to look at us in the back and said "It's nice, yes?"

I loved it but it had woken Cath from my shoulder - and the other people in the car were about 65-70 so they weren't so impressed, but it was cool.