Border towns and oasis galore.

A full day today for sure. Early breakfast at the lodge, then an hour drive west to the town of Chbika. On the way we saw several camels grazing in the meager greenery found among the sand.

Heading out of town

In Chbika we met our guide for the day, Hasen, a young-spirited, 60-something Berber man, quite knowledgeable, with the knowledge of several languages. We ended up speaking Italian, which he claims to be his favorite language to speak, but much English was also spoken for Diane’s benefit.

Chbika is Hasen’s hometown, only 700 souls live here.

Until the 1980s Chbika was a sleepy little place, picturesque to be sure, but with little modern conveniences. Homes made with adobe-bricks. Hasen showed us the remnants of his old home, the place where his mother used to weave rugs, while his father took naps.

Hasen in Chbika

Then, “The English Patient” happened, and that’s when things changed. Parts of the movie were filmed in the oasis that abuts the village; now tourists come from all over especially to get a glimpse of that. The old town is abandoned, and people now live in the newer town built next to it.

Remember the oasis in "The English Patient"? Did you see the movie?

From Chbika we took Hasen, in our car, to Tamaqza, a slightly bigger village that followed the same fate as its neighbor.

Tamaqza, the older part of town

From Tamaqza, we were guided to a great canyon where a trickle of water flows, but which can become as high as 30-feet deep and raging should a great downpour occur. It hardly happens though. Although the area is referred to as mountain oasis, it’s a veritable desert climate, at the edge of the Sahara.

Hasen made hike down to the canyon floor, the problem was hiking back up, in the heat. Of course we managed.

We then went to Mides, and its oasis. Mides is the border town with Algeria. Tunisians cross the border frequently to purchase items, like food and gasoline, which are cheaper on the other side. We had to make do with looking at the tall barbed-wire fence that separates the two ex-French colonies.

The Tunisian-Algerian border. You can see the fence atop the hill (top right)

Mides

Framable?

We had lunch in Mides, in a delightful place, al fresco, near a small waterfall. Hasen and I had camel, Diane stuck with chicken.

Approaching the restaurant in Mides

More off-road dromedaries on the return leg.

In the evening we strolled along Tozeur’s Medina, then we went to the better-than-anticipated Museum of Tunisian History, before heading back to our Maison d’hotes Villa Fatima place, where Mimi, one of the two cats on the premises was happy to greet us.

Back in Tozeur

The museum

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