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.