The Arabic name ‘Sahel’ means coast or margin. In the case of the sub-Saharan Sahel it is the margin of the desert, but in Tunisia it is the little bulge in its east coast. Ranging back from the east coast these fertile plains have long been the heartland of the country’s agriculture and an important power base – both Habib Bouguiba and Ben Ali come from this region, and it contains Sfax, the country’s most prosperous city. As far as…
Maltese Christmas (2004) Christmas in Tunisia is the antithesis of that in the UK. Being a Muslim country there is no Christmas cheer but also no rampant commercialism. The only similarity is the weather – cold, damp and grey. We decided to risk the commercialism and enjoy a bit of Christmas spirit by heading to Malta for a week. Within a few hours of leaving our cold damp house we were enjoying a bit of luxury, having managed to get…
‘What a hell of a place to put a holy city’, wrote the Times’ military correspondent in 1939. It’s certainly true that for a lot of the year the place bakes on its barren plain. We therefore decided to take the trip to Tunisia’s oldest Arab city and Islam’s fourth most holy city in October. We were well rewarded with certainly the most architecturally interesting city of the region and justifiably a UNESCO World Heritage site. We didn’t stay in…
We were living in Tunisia at the time and wanted a total change of scenery. In fact we fancied a change in continent and Sicily was only a relatively short ferry ride away. Perfect, we thought. I suppose the fact that it had taken us 4 months to get the papers together to legally drive our car in Tunisia didn’t augur well for actually trying to take it out of the country. I was right. Mind you it was my…
This was a trip we did driving along the north coast to Tabarka, then heading south to the Roman ruins of Bulla Regia, onto El Kef and then stopping off at more Roman ruins at Dougga before heading home. All in five days in Spring 2004. We headed off on Monday 5th April. It was a glorious day’s drive across the north coast amid green rolling hills carpeted with wild flowers. We passed through a small forest before arriving in…
Our second Tunisian holiday was between Christmas and New Year. The weather was awful in Tunis so we headed south in the expectation of a bit of warmth and sun. We were in for a rude surprise – we got a bit of sun but it was bitingly cold. The region that dips its toe down into the depths of the Sahara between Algeria and Libya is known as the Ksour and throughout history has been known for its lawlessness…
Finally we had got settled in Tunis and by November 2003 we were ready for our first trip into the country taking advantage of the Ramadan holiday. I’m not sure why, but we chose the Jerid area – an arid land in the South West of the country. The guide book description hardly makes it the most romantic of getaways, “The Jerid is an arid land of bare pink hills punctuated by mining towns and sporadic oases – villages built…
A whole mish mash of photos of in and around Hanoi taken between 2001 and 2002.
26th April 2002 Day One Hanoi to Mai Chau My two years in Vietnam was coming to an end but there was time for one last big bike trip up north. Looking at the map, I had been to most places but there was a gap, the spine of the Hoang Lien Son Mountains. I hadn’t heard much about it but there was a road marked on the map (no doubt just a track in places) and there would be…
As I said in my previous post on Mandalay, the flight to Bagan was (for once) without incident and on time. I stayed in the centre of backpacker ville – lots of traveller restaurants and hotels. The place seems to be really taking off. I booked in to the New Park hotel. $7 for a nice room – big and table and chair outside and I’m glad to it’s still in business today. Like Christmas, I had forgotten it was…