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| Maison Leila |
We had planned to tour the north of Tunisia during our winter stay but following the terrorist attack at the Bardo museum in Tunis, the country is in a state of heightened alert. The site of Bulla Regia is now deemed essential travel only according to the British FCO so we made a decision to cancel our trip there as well as to Dougga due to their close proximity to Algeria. The marina is now patrolled by heavily armed security as well as the Garde Nationale. We feel quite safe and are getting used to the sight of guns and rifles as Tunisia tries to control the influx of any would be terrorists. Obviously this has had a huge impact on the country's tourist trade.
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| Maison Leila |
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| Maison Leila |
Instead of heading north we decided to spend a few days down south on the island of Djerba. Despite its proximity to Libya, thankfully it is still in the "green zone" and considered safe to visit according to the FCO. We hired a car with our friends Rob and Amanda, filled the boot with wine and set off on our six hour drive. We finally made it to Jorf where we had an hour long wait before taking the ferry to take us over to Djerba. It cost us the princely sum of £0.30 for a car and four people to make the crossing to the low lying, semi desert island with the highest tides in the Med and the home of many different ethinic and religious groups. We drove across the island to the outskirts of Midoun where we settled in to our suite at the wonderful Maison Leila. It was a small hotel based on traditional Moroccan and Tunisian archtiecture designed by the owner and his Italian wife.
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| Erriadh |
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| El Ghriba synagogue |
We spent the next few days relaxing by the lovely pool and exploring the small island which is only 25 x 22 km. Our first stop was the Jewish settlement of Hara Sghira, now called Erriadh. We visited the synagogue of El Ghriba which houses one of the oldest Torah's (first part of the Jewish bible) in the world and is a place of pilgrammage for Jews from all over north Africa. It was also the site of a deadly Al-Qaeda bombing in 2002 which killed 20 people. Security, not surprisingly, is very tight.
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| Djerbahood, Erriadh |
Erriadh is one of the oldest villages in Tunisia and in the summer of 2014 it became host to one of the biggest meetings of the modern street art scene. 150 international artists from 30 countries were invited to take part in the art project Djerbahood. We spent the rest of the morning wandering the backstreets hunting out the various murals on the walls of this old multi cultural village.
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| Djerbahood, Erriadh |
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| Djerbahood, Erriadh |
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| Djerbahood, Erriadh |
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| Fadloune mosque |
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| Fadloune mosque |
We continued our tour of the island heading south across the dusty agricultural interior in search of an old mosque which featured in Star Wars as Obiwan Kenobi's house. Unfortunately we searched in vain. The beautiful whitewashed fortified mosques dotted around the island are unique in Tunisia. The eleventh century Fadloune mosque, a classic Djerban Ibadite mosque with buttressed walls and lantern styled minaret, was easy to find as it was just across the road from our hotel! On our way back we made a brief stop at Guellala on the south coast. It is a centre for handmade pottery but unfortunately the shops lining the main street were full of garish glazed ceramics geared to the tourist market rather than the original Berber bowls and the large terracotta vessels used for storing and cooling water and oil, which were exported far afield.
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| Houmt Souk fort |
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| Houmt Souk |
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| Houmt Souk fort |
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| Houmt Souk |
We spent an afternoon at Houmt Souk, the island's capital. It is a popular tourist destination and is well known for its souk and impressive fifteenth century fortress. It is a small town with a charming central area. Having had our fill of the usual tourist wares, rugs, tiles, lamps, hubble-bubble pipes and the like we wandered down to the fishing port. Aside from tourism the island relies for much of its living on fishing the shallow waters that surround it. The dockside is stacked high with rows of terracotta pots for catching octopus. Each pot has a rim at the top with a string tied around attaching it to a long line of pots which are then dropped in to the sea a few miles offshore. The octopuses are drawn to the pots and curl up inside them. It's a technique that's been used for 3000 years and the octopuses still haven't caught on.
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| Octopus pots, Houmt Souk |
Djerba is also known for its beautiful
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| Lagune restaurant |
beaches. Sadly the best stretch of beach has been taken over by numerous, all inclusive, concrete hotels. We passed through the security checkpoint and drove along the characterless Zone Touristique. We finally got our fill of white sands and turquoise waters at the end of a bumpy and dusty track beyond the hotels. We had a wonderful lunch of grilled fresh fish at the Lagune restaurant situated on a spit of sand with tables and chairs set up at the waters edge.
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| Seguia, Djerba |
We enjoyed our short break on Djerba which claims to be the legendary land of the Lotus-Eaters but it was soon time for us to head back north. Instead of waiting for the ferry we opted for the slightly longer journey to the mainland via the dramatic 7km Roman causeway originally built in the 6th century BC. The drive back was as hairy as usual with the crazy Tunisian drivers, "invisible" speed bumps, huge pot holes and the inevitable flat tyre.
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| Seguia, Djerba |
