On the road to Chebika:
Chebika is an abandoned Berber village which only survives today as a tourist attraction. Still, it provided the opportunity for a wonderful walk through the mountain oasis and then for a sweaty and hot climb into the rocky hilltops above the village. The photos I took don’t do the view justice.
Views from Chebika:
From Chebika we drove to Tamerza. The highlight of Tamerza was the goats roaming all over the road. We pulled aside onto a viewpoint above the town to take photos. Unfortunately we were so far away from the ancient village that it was impossible to get a good shot.
On the road:
Our next stop was another mountain oasis village, Mides, which is located close to the Algerian border. We didn’t stop in the village but instead drove past it to a viewpoint. It was well worth the stop because Mides is located above a river canyon that is nearly 80m deep. The sight was almost spooky, given that we’d driven for nearly an hour across flat, flat desert.
Views from Mides:
Our final stop was the Grand Canyon, which is an oasis that actually has an 8m high waterfall. It was surrounded by the typical array of stalls selling everything from water to carpets. It was possible to walk down a path to the base of the waterfall, which we did. It was really pretty and you could feel the moisture in the air. On the way back up the path a man approached me with some lizards. I said they were nice and the next thing you know he put two on my shoulders. I asked Mom to take my photo. It’s pretty funny – my hair is an absolute mess, topped by lizards. Zexy.
Views from the Grand Canyon:
The Land Cruisers dropped us off at our hotel in Tozeur, the El Mouradi. It’s probably the most modern hotel we’ve stayed in so far. It’s also the first hotel with a decent swimming pool. The others have been small, closed, or dirty. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to go for a swim.
Half of the people on the tour opted to go out tonight for a “traditional Berber dinner”. They had lunch at the hotel and then took the afternoon off. Those of us who opted to stay home tonight went out for lunch in the town. Our driver, Sharif, drove us into town and found a nice restaurant for us. He was supposed to join us after he turned the bus around and parked it. Strangely, he never showed up. We thought that perhaps he’d been too embarrassed to eat with us.
The lunch was terrific. Most of the ladies opted for salads because the dinners here are heavy on meat and light on vegetables. I really wanted to try camel meat, so I ordered Couscous Berber, which is couscous with a skewer of roasted camel. It was delicious and I cut up a few pieces so that everyone could try a piece. They all agreed that it tasted better and was more tender than most of the meats we’ve eaten so far. (For some reason, the hotel chefs are terrifically skilled at overcooking everything. Even the chicken is tough.)
Mohamed showed up near the end of lunch to tell us that Sharif did not return because the bus broke down and he had to fix it. We wanted to take him some food but Mohamed said that the bus was too far away. He told us we had to take a taxi back to town.
Outside, Mohamed started walking up the street with the intent of hailing a cab. I noticed a line of horse-drawn cabs. I asked if anyone else would like to take a horse-drawn cab back to the hotel. Mohamed was unimpressed (it’s more expensive than a cab, and doesn’t have air conditioning) but relented and we climbed into two different cabs.
I took some great movies of the ride back to the hotel. It was one of the highlights for the day, at least from my perspective. I love everything about low-tech, close to the ground travel.
Back at the hotel we discovered that we’d locked ourselves out of our room. When I left I pushed the button in on the door handle, which is what we would do at home to auto-lock the door. Here, it doesn’t just auto-lock the door, it completely immobilizes it. We had to wait several minutes for the staff to wrangle it open with a master key.
Once we gained entrance to our room, Mom did some laundry and I changed into my swimsuit and headed down to the pool. It was absolutely brilliant. Unfortunately, there was a sandstorm blowing in so I kept getting sand in my eyes, nose, and mouth. There’s something completely wrong about swimming in a clear blue pool and eating sand.
I came back to the room after about an hour and did some more laundry. I hung it outside and it was dry within an hour. It was also covered in sand. Heh. So, that’s it for now. We’ll have dinner at the hotel and an early night. Tomorrow we leave for Douz, which is where we ride the camels into the Sahara at sunset. Yay!
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