Tunisia
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Tunisia |
| Tunisia |
| Our short trip through
Tunisia was a well-deserved rest after our 12-day and 4600 km blast
through Libya. We had planned to visit a few places on the way to Tunis
but it soon became clear to we needed a little rest and we more or less
headed straight to the capital. After Libya and Egypt, distances suddenly
seemed very short here ! On the map above, the black dotted line
represents the Tunis to Sicily boat we had intended to take. The red
dotted line is the Tunis to Naples boat we took, slicing of a trip in
Sicily and southern Italy.
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Queuing at the Tunisian border whilst smuggling is taking place
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| Our last experience of border
crossing had been quite disastrous so we were unconsciously wondering what
this one was going to be. Luckily, leaving Libya proved significantly
easier than getting in and the only dislike we had of the Tunisian affair
was cars jumping the queue. Sitting in the queue did prove interesting as
we were watching a man go from car to car, pretend to fix a light or a
bumper and exchange little packets with the car drivers. The waiting went
on for an hour and then we were free to go ! Our 30th border crossing this
trip !
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On our first road in Tunisia
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| Our first impression of
Tunisia was one of cleanliness. This seemed easy to achieve after the dirt
we had seen in Libya but we noticed that the south east of the country was
significantly cleaner than the north. Another difference with Libya was
the influence of everything that is French. From cars to newspapers, from
the quality of the bread (and croissants !) to the fact that nearly
everyone speaks French. This proved quite dangerous as we were no longer
able, as we had been for the last year, to speak out freely in the streets
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French influence in Tunisia. Three generations of Peugeot pick-ups in Tunisia : 304, 404 and 505 ?
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Where did I leave the paint ? A house is Sfax, Eastern Tunisia
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The amphitheater at El Jem
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Camping in Tunisia
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| Tunis |
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We settled into a small French-managed hotel
in the centre of the city as soon as we arrived and immediately felt at
home. We were happy to be able to walk around the city, shop for clothes
and books, buy newspapers and magazines, go to the movies etc.
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Street life in Tunis : all street names are in Arabic and French (left), the latest Tunis beauties (centre), "Bondin, la cafe des connaisseurs !" on a van (right)
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The inside of the main mosque in Tunis has used Roman columns from Carthage
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Traditional Tunisian architecture and colours (left), our first breakfast in bed for a very long time (centre), a street in Tunis (right)
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The first thing we did in Tunis is buy tickets for a Tunis-to-Sicily ferry. On the day of our departure, April 12th, we were told our boat had been cancelled. The next boat for Sicily was a week later but we could take a boat to Naples two days later which is exactly what we did. Having planned to spend a month in Italy, we had had to change our plans due to the delays in Egypt and we were eager to be in Italy.
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What a delight ! Leaving Africa to cross the Mediterranean to Italy
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5 am on our Italian registered "Anna Maria Lauro" nearing Naples
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| Here is the first of our extra pages on Tunisia : |
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We are going home !
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| Coming from Libya | Back to Trip page | Heading to Italy |
