It doesn’t matter if the road is long, as long as there is a well at the end. (Tuareg proverb)

“A Street in Gadames” by Giorgio Oprandi, 1929.

Water is our cool elixir, which unfortunately is not available everywhere in the world. But as climate change progresses, desert and semi-arid areas around the world will expand even further, while countries like Spain or Italy are already experiencing water shortages in summer.

Here the water still gushes abundantly in the mountain oasis of Tamerza

From the main road between Tabarka and Bizerte we had to drive 15 km over deserted sandy roads to reach Cape Negro, a forgotten and abandoned place on the Mediterranean coast with typical vegetation, a rather cool wind from the sea and also a long sandy beach without other people, there in the area you can also still find the typical cork oak forests.

Cork oak in a forest near Tabarka not far from the Algerian border

“Hotel Les Mimosas” in Tabarka

Doesn’t this hotel really look very French? The beautiful place is situated on a small hill and offers a beautiful view of Tabarka and the sea.

Sidi-el-Barrak water reservoir near Nefza

This reservoir in the very green north of Tunisia is also a completely untouristy place, but at this moment in the late afternoon, the mood and the interplay of light, clouds and water revealed something different.

The Atlas massif divides Tunisia, and the great Sahara begins at its southern edge.

Consider that 2,000 years ago, Tunisia was still the granary of the Roman Empire. Since then, the warm period after the last ice age and normal climate change have transformed formerly very fertile areas into vast wastelands and endless desert zones. And the Sahara has not stopped its unchecked expansion to this day.

Cracked desert between Tozeur and Tamerza, Sahara

This photo remains one of my favourite travel memories from Tunisia and shows a single hardy bush in an area of cracked and parched ground, probably due to very rare and heavy rains some time ago.

But where are the legendary dromedaries? Not a single one here.

The photo was taken on the main road coming from the north and Tunis, which is now really deep in the south somewhere between Metlaoui and Tozeur.

The cave dwellings of Matmata, also known as the home of Luke Skywalker in Star Wars.

Halfway between Tozeur and the Djerba Peninsula lies the cave village of Matmata, where people have lived for millennia and which was made wellknown by the famous cult film series Star Wars. The landscape is quite barren with only a few dwellings on the surface, but the magic of Matmata goes deeper and reveals itself to guests when they descend into the unique underground cave dwellings, which offered their inhabitants good protection from extreme cold at night and the burning sun during the day.

Arab Scene in Tunisia, Ernesto Quarti Marchio, 1933

Small paradise and tiny water well near the Douz oasis.

The Sahara desert used to be a vast sea where nomads made their endless sailing trips on dromedaries (not camels), some still do. Nevertheless, I really appreciate the desert (as well as high mountains) as a very purist place with a clear, unlimited view to the distant horizon that can clear your mind and broaden your horizons, a really exciting feeling besides all the known dangers and risks.

Nomadic monument at a road junction in Douz.

The oasis of Douz is a real gateway to the Sahara and today has about 30,000 inhabitants. The desert dunes near Douz are famous because they consist of an incredibly soft and almost white sand. The area is traditionally inhabited by the semi-nomadic Mrazig tribe, an Arab Bedouin tribe that left the Arabian Peninsula in the 8th century and settled in Tunisia in the 13th century. Today, many make their living from date harvesting, and probably the best dates in Tunisia come from Douz, called Deglet en Nour. The “gold of the oasis” is therefore more than just any fruit for the inhabitants of Douz.

Death zone of the huge salt lake Chott-el-Jerid after sunset.

Today, the huge salt lake Chott-el-Jerid can be crossed safely on a solid dam with a road that also connects the oasis areas of Nefzaoua and Tozeur. In the past, such a journey was a dangerous adventure.

Not suitable for drinking – only the salty water of Chott-El-Jerid

Ruins of the ancient city and mountain oasis of Tamerza

Now this trip here has really become more of a collage of texts, impressions and diverse pictures collected from various places in the vast and beautiful Tunisia.

Breakfast with fresh flower blossoms in the oasis of Tozeur

International Festival of Sahara at Douz 2019

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