Mediterranean

Day 11 - Tue 23 Oct 07

Up at 07:15 for a cold shower (If I'd let the water run a bit more then it would have got warm!) and paid my 25Dn to checkout, dumped my stuff in the car and headed out to see the Grand Mosque. I arrived there at 08:00 on the dot but there's no one to sell me a ticket. I chatted to the local postcard sellers on the gate and after a bit they let me in on the promise of getting a ticket on the way out. The advantage of this is I beat the tour group that turned up.

The mosque is very nice but it's not really up to the scale of the one in Allepo or Damascus. On the way back to the car I stumble upon the camel powered mill.

On the drive out of town I stopped at the reservoir and climbed the tower. Thrilling. Two circular pools of water. Back into the car and off to Le Kef. Drove through some amazing countryside, it reminded me a lot of New Mexico in the USA. Some of the roads were very good, but others were just dirt, all of them were very narrow.

Stopped off at Makthar to see the Roman ruins there, very good and I had the entire place to myself.

Tunisian Countryside

I arrived in Le Kef, dumped the car and went looking for a hotel on foot. Found one with a good view, and checked that it had a working heating system! Last night it was cold, and Le Kef is that much higher.

On the way over here I picked up to separate hitch hikers. The first one seemed to have washed in diesel, the other was more fragrant, but neither could speak any English.

Once I'd negotiated for the room - no discount here - it's 28Dn with breakfast. I moved the car to right outside the hotel, and then went for a walk around the town. There are great views over the plains and onto the hills in the distance, and even into Algeria. I even stumbled on an old synagogue which has been restored, but the last user left in 1984.

Then it was down to the supermarket, quite a depressing experience really -like something out of soviet east European times. Little of any worth to purchase, so I got a couple of tins of pop and ran for it.

Went out again in the evening and got some great shots of the sunset. Got some spicy street food a kind of pancake with stuff in it. The call to prayer is much more pronounced here then elsewhere, maybe it's because it's a bit smaller.