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Monday 28 June 2010

Our time in Malta is almost up, and despite having a mostly reliable internet connection I haven't had time to write a proper blog update. Obviously there's been too much to see and do. Having friendly neighbours in the marina and a new washing machine to play with probably had a lot to do with it, as well as an interesting city to explore.

Our plan now is to travel to Sicily and Corfu. We have Colin's sister Anna on board for a week, having an extra crew member will help with our overnight watches. This should mean that there will be lots of time to write a proper entry for Malta but in the meantime I have added some Malta photos to our online albums - follow the link on the right to see them.

Monday 21 June 2010

Malta

After a straightforward crossing from Monastir we've arrived in Malta. Grandad, Uncle Robin and cousin Fin are settled on board and after three nights of anchoring around Gozo, Comino and the blue lagoon, swimming and relaxing we have settled into a marina at Valetta (with a wifi signal on board, what luxury).


More to follow...

Last Tunisia entry

From Douz and our creature comforts we headed east and north to the coast via dusty desert roads and the town of Matmata, famous for having been a Star Wars location. We had lunch in a cave where we were served all the usual Tunisian specialities: brik (a fried pasty with egg inside) followed by couscous and for dessert makhroud, a date filled semolina cake soaked in honey. By the time we'd reached Matmata the air temperature had dropped from the intensity of Douz; even so it was much more pleasant to sit in a relatively cool cave to eat.

Matmata



Once we had reached the coast the density of population immediately increased, and the roadside entrepreneurs returned, mainly selling petrol. We arrived in the early evening to Sfax, the second city of Tunisia. Our hotel was in view of the Medina walls, located in the shoe shop district. Despite my best efforts I couldn't find a pair of sandals to replace my much-loved and lost flip flops. We wandered the Medina's streets, which were heaving with Saturday shoppers and few tourists. The district we found ourselves in seemed to be the tailors and haberdashers, nothing to tempt us into buying. The buggy was a bit of a handicap to getting around, and it was getting hot again, so we headed away for Colin to get a haircut. Amazingly this took over an hour (including eyebrows) and made us late for checking out of the hotel though the staff were kind enough not to complain. And so we hit the road once again, for the final leg back to El Kantaoui, passing El Jem and an impressive Roman amphitheatre on the way.

Sfax

Haircut, with World Cup football on TV (perhaps that's why it took 1.5 hours...)

El Jem


After a night settling back into the boat we hung around the marina, took the girls to the nearby zoo then, after paying up our bill which turned out to be double what we were expecting (although they knew we were a catamaran they didn't mention the 80% multihull surcharge when they originally told us the cost...), we set off in good conditions to Monastir, the next marina. This hadn't received a good write-up in the pilot book but it's much more appealing to us. El Kantaoui was busy with (mostly eastern European) tourists and the immediate surroundings to our berth was noisy from restaurants. Here in Monastir it's peaceful and we are close to the main sights of the city.

Monastir was the birth place of Habib Bourguiba, the country's first president, and they have built an impressive mausoleum for him and his family (he died in 2000). It's adjacent to the ribat, a large fort complex, which has featured in a number of films (including Life of Brian).

View towards the mausoleum entrance



Inside the mausoleum

Ribat


We've enjoyed our time in Tunisia, and we hope to return one day to see the bits we missed. But now it's time to leave for Malta where we are meeting John, Robin and Fin and look forward to celebrating Maggie's 2nd birthday. It will be good to have more freedom of movement again too, in Tunisia there is a great deal of bureaucracy, arriving and departing from ports, and no option of anchoring.

Friday 11 June 2010

Hot in the south Tunisian desert

We felt that we couldn't leave Tunisia without seeing some of the south and interior of Tunisia, and having got the boat safely into the marina at El Kantaoui we've hired a car for 4 days.

After negotiating the confusing urban sprawl that surrounds El Kantaoui and neighbouring Sousse we headed south and, much to our delight, managed to squeeze in more Roman ruins at Sbeitla. This site, in the heart of Tunisia, has some spectacular buildings which are still quite complete, which made for some impressive views. However, as we had arrived at lunchtime we didn't hang around for too long, instead finding all the shade that was available to admire the scenery.

Sbeitla



And so onwards to the South. Which turned out to be seriously hot. Opening our air conditioned car door was like opening the oven door with the fan going and getting in. We timed our trip here with unseasonally hot weather, the temperature more typical of July and August. All the locals we spoke to were complaining about it. Today's forecast was 46C - a week ago it was 10C cooler.

Still we didn't let that spoil our trip, we saw plenty of unusual sights through the car windows and spent two nights in the region, one night in Tozeur and the second in Douz.

Sheep on a motorbike!


Safety-conscious goats recreate the Beatles' Abbey Road album cover!


Roadside camels


Say cheese

The roads around Tozeur are busy with tour groups


The journey between Tozeur and Douz crosses the salt lake of Chott El-Jerid with unusual pink streams where the water evaporates in the searing heat


At Douz we've found a wonderful oasis for ourselves, a hotel with two swimming pools, one indoor - essential for the girls - and a huge room to spread out and relax in. The girls loved it. Even the bath was a luxury for them, they had space to stretch out in after bathing in their blue buckets.

Bliss...

Monday 7 June 2010

Sidi Daoud and Kelibia

Since leaving Sidi Bou Said we have found ourselves staying in fishing harbours which have many advantages. Not only are they significantly cheaper than the marina, but the welcome we receive is so friendly. The pungent surroundings are much more interesting, with the neighbours as interested in us as we are in them.

Maggie's day bed


Our first stop was Sidi Daoud, about 30Nm from Sidi Bou Said. This harbour provided us with some welcome shelter from an uncomfortable sea - one particularly big wave came over the side soaking everyone in the cockpit (fortunately for me I was inside) resulting in much screaming from the girls who had been sleeeping on cushions on the floor. Safely tied up alongside we invested some dinar in the local fisherman's catch, only to realise once the girls were in bed that we didn't have the energy to invest in the gutting and preparation of the little fish. Hotdogs for dinner once again.





Our planned departure the following day was unsuccessful when, just outside the harbour entrance, the fanbelt broke on one of the engines, the second time in only a few engine hours. We were motoring into wind and sea and as one engine was not enough to make headway and clear the shallow channel out came the fenders again and back in we went. A moment of stress came when it looked like the engine wouldn't restart for manoevering in the harbour (the boat is very hard to steer at slow speeds with one engine), but phew it came through for us and we were back alongside where we'd left off. Colin quickly changed the belt and one of the fishing boat mechanics offered to look at the alignment of the pullies which looked OK but could have been causing the breaks. After some contemplation by all, it was decided that the problem this time was hopefully a dodgy fanbelt rather than the engine, fingers crossed, we'll have to wait and see if it happens again to know for sure. However, the messing around meant we missed our (already late) window for departure so we decided to spend another night enjoying our fragrant surroundings. We took a trip into the nearby town of El Haouaria where there were Roman caves to see. Colin could barely contain his excitement at the thought of still more ruins, but these sounded a bit unusual being the quarries where stone was excavated to build the Colosseum in Rome with 1km of underground tunnels leading through the cliffs. Unfortunately they seemed to have been permanently closed to tourists for some time (much to the surprise of our 'local' taxi driver), so that left us with a stroll through the town's streets. Clearly they don't see many tourists here - that much was apparent from the excited screech of 'touristes' by a schoolgirl to her friends inside a shop and the girls once again received many 'bizous' (kisses or strokes on the cheek). Our second attempt at the local fish (a small tuna this time we think) worked out with Colin doing a workmanlike gutting and preparation under instructions read out by Louise. The fish was delicious though and left us with full stomachs (as well as a smelly boat for a few days!)

We left Sidi Daoud on the 5th June in much calmer conditions, managing to sail for the first hour and with no drama, travelled round Cap Bon to Kelibia, passing enticing stretches of golden sand. Kelibia is another, larger fishing port with a dedicated yacht quay, which, like Sidi Bou Said and Tabarka, draws the locals to see the visiting boats and have their photos taken by their favourite ones. It's located beneath the watchful gaze of a large stone fort. The views from the fort are fantastic and from the fort we wandered back down to a neglected Roman site, where the lovely mosaics are literally crumbling away in an open and rubbish strewn square.

Kelibia harbour, with the fort in the background

Views from the fort



Crumbling mosaics


More views of the harbour


Our second day here was spent at one of the lovely beaches we'd passed on our way here, El Mansourah. Being sunday there were quite a lot of people, plenty of families and lots going on. The quad bike racing through the sunbathers on the beach was a bit worrying to our British standards - no stringent health and safety concerns stopping the fun here (note to parents/grandparents, we were well out of their way, eating crepes in the cafe, yum!).

On our return to the harbour around 5pm there was another boat rafted alongside us, by 8pm there were 6 of us in two lines of 3 boats. Cosy. This is the most boats we've seen in transit since arriving in Tunisia. Funny how we've converged on the same small fishing port.

Rafted up


Our forthcoming plans are to move south, to El Kantoui, a secure marina where we hope to leave Skyran for a few days, rent a car and take a small trip inland and southwards, to find oases, camels and Berber markets, in the region where they filmed parts of Star Wars and The English Patient. We can almost feel the Saharan sand whipping against our faces already.

Skyran and Oflo

Oflo's arrival

Oflo and Skyran side by side

Tammie and Meg with the girls

Bon voyage...

Sunday 6 June 2010

Tunisia - Tabarka and Bulla Regia





Tunisia - Sidi Bou Said photos

Mosaics at the Bardo Museum, Tunis


The girls in a princess' bed

With Scott and Tammie in Carthage's museum

Isla

Traditional architecture of Sidi Bou Said

View of marina and Cap Bon, Sidi Bou Said