borogove

serge here. after staggering out of the sahara we left douz for parts west, to a town called tozeur that is apparently a vacation destination for tunisians and other arabs from the region. it has a huge palm plantation and, my favorite, the beginnings of a golf course. it's still under construction, but i'm sure it will be surreal when it's finished--acres and acres of lush green grass right in the middle of the sahara. the locals seem to enjoy the novelty of running across a field of grass for what could very likely be the first time in their lives. well, we liked tozeur a lot, and we made it our base for a few days of visiting local oasis towns.

pretty much every town in southern tunisia is centered on a small palm plantation, most of which have been inhabited for a thousand years or more. we went to visit nefta, where we avoided the heat of the day in the narrow, high streets of the old town and had lunch at a cafe in the palm plantation. the next day we went to tamerza, a small town high in the mountains near the algerian border that is home to two very improbable waterfalls (there were ducks! in the desert!) and a relatively intact old city. apparently the residents of tamerza moved en masse into the new town one day, rather than slowly replacing the old town over centuries, so the ruins of the old town are still standing just outside the new town. we enjoyed the ancient feel of the place as well as the spectacular views from the mountain south across the seemingly endless sahara.


when we left tozeur we headed deep into the sahara to a place called ksar ghilane. we had to hire a 4-wheel drive to take us across many miles of unpaved road through nothing but desert and wild camels. the town is a very small oasis with a spring-fed pool about 20 feet wide and 4 feet deep. near the pool is the start of a sea of sand dunes--just picture the classic saharan photo. if you add camel trains returning to the oasis from a crumbling roman fort at sunset, you have an idea of our evening in ksar ghilane. especially if you add a bunch of french folks on package tours and one of them has a very funny mustache. we slept in a tent with sand for the floor and then headed back into the mountains to a town called matmata, where everyone lives underground.


apparently a long time ago the matmata tribe realized that their mountain territory was perfect for digging homes out of the ground. so they dig huge courtyards, sometimes several are connected, with rooms dug out of the walls. the earth insulates it so it's cool in the summer and warm in the winter. our hotel was a converted pit dwelling and, on our hottest day so far, it was extremely comfortable. another hotel was the setting for a scene in the first star wars (the set is still in place, in fact), and apparently lots of the films have scenes shot in tunisia's desert. i'm told there is a significant amount of star wars-based tourism.

now we're back on the coast to cool off, and tomorrow we go to tataouine, where they apparently have another kind of strange housing, but i don't think any of them are hotels.

tunisia has been lovely so far, and the people have been warm and friendly and very patient with my abysmal efforts at speaking french. and we both have very nice tans.