Day 8 Chott el Jerid to Tozeur

7 am leaving comes early! The first part of the day was our time to see the Atlas mountains up close. It has been the site of the filming of 2 well known movies Star Wars and The English Patience. Groups of 4 boarded our jeeps – really land rovers. That was our transportation for the next 6.5 hours. 10 “jeeps” in all set out in convoy fashion for the long drive. Our driver spoke a bit of French and no English that we could understand.

It was an education in Tunisian “outback?” driving. I was in the front seat picking up clues. There were these red signs at main crossroads which I think the driver understood to be go fast through the intersection before someone from the other direction does the same. The white line dividing lanes I think means having the midpoint of the car aligned along it. Occasionally he would move a bit to the right. There were signs like camel crossing. We did see a number of camels in the desert during the day that seemed to be lost with no one around. Then we had to stop for a heard of goats crossing. What they could find to eat is a mystery. After driving for about an hour through an absolute desolate landscape we turned and were surrounded by green palm trees. The change to the oasis needs to be experienced. It was a true oasis!

That first stop included a walk on a short trail to a higher location and experience what an oasis is like in real life from a higher elevation. Seeing the stream emerge from the rock and feeds the palm trees that the people tend in an absolutely dry environment was educational. I think the real living is made from the tourists. Of course no matter where you looked there were vendors selling their wares. There were tables of desert roses rocks and multi coloured geodes, scarves, fossils etc. Seems that every turn had a duplicate stand, even up the mountain. The Atlas mountains are not the same as in Canada.

The second stop was at a waterfall. It was not of great height but it was fed by another spring. It had a pretty steady flow. Of course more shops! The caravan headed back towards Tozeur with a few more stops. From a pass we could see Algeria a few miles away. We have seen guards at some of the crossings. They did not stop the rovers but they were carrying rifles. Then a sharp turn and we were crossing a “salt lake” on no defined road! The rovers were driving all over the place but generally in the same direction. We passed one broken down structure used in some film and then stopped at the site for the filming of the English patience. There was not much there.

The final stop was at the site of the Tataouine village in Star Wars as well as scenes from Mos Espa in the later movies. We visited the Lars Homestead the other day. Fake building build with chicken wire (?) and plaster. Very realistic looking until you looked inside the building and could see everything is propped up by wooden beams. Tunisia is currently refurbishing the site as it is a big attraction.

After the awful ride in on the “non” roads over the salt plain, the driver took us over some high dunes (think attraction park rides) but then hit the newly paved road back to Tozeur. That ended the morning portion of the day.

After lunch (we barely made it back in time) we had some free time before heading out for dinner at the Eden Palm of either lamb or camel was to be served during the folkloric show. Mostly music with a bit of dancing tossed in.