October 25, 2022 Only one night in the Sahara, then two nights without the internet.

Sahara sunrise images.

Breakfast was simple.

Posing in front of our tent.

Tracks where something crawled across the sand last night.

One thing which is always present during the day are flies.

Another bumpy ride out across the dunes.

A road across the sand.

The oil company maintains these roads.

A paved road in the desert, again, thanks to the oil company.

Today was the day to ride the camels.

A foot designed for walking in the sand.

Hands across the desert.

Everyone got to ride.

Some larger dunes.

Museum of life in the desert. This one was displaying wedding dresses.

The sexes are strictly divided, the men on the right, the women who do all the work are on the left.

The fabrics they weave are course but the designs are intricate.

Another design.

Fuel stop near a town market. Buy fuel cheaply in Libya sell it for a high price in Tunisa.

A cobbler near the market.

A true craftsman.

The cobbler’s motorbike. He said he bought new some 45 years ago and the the only two things he would never depart with were this motorbike and his wife.

This spicy dip has been served at many of our meals.

At the end of the meal is a small cup of hot mint tea.

Hot water comes out of the ground and goes through the cooling tower in the background.

Further cooling the water.

Tunisia has a salt lake.

Anything to get the tourists to stop and hopefully spend some money.

A city of bricks.

By decree a certain amount of every structure must be built from brinks.

Inside an oasis.

We stayed in this raised bungalow in the oasis.

The deck where we ate breakfast each morning.

These dates were hanging right beside the deck.

The interior.

October 24, 2022 Have fallen way behind in posting due to no internet for several nights, the app I use to write and post needs to be connected to the internet to work, then too much going on so no time to work on posts. It is going to take some time to catch up.

The pool at the hotel we were staying at was more like a lake than a pool. It was a resort hotel and we were as far from the lobby as one could get. I’ll just say that in no way was it the type of hotel that Linda and I like to stay at and let it go at that.

In this part of Tunisia the way property lines are demarcated is with a raised line of soil. You can see the soil lines on three sides of this small field.

We seldom see bikes as most people either walk or use motorbikes or cars.

Typical public Tunisian restroom. Three of the four stall were out of order.

Doesn’t matter how poor the condition of it is, they want you to pay to use it.

Many of the places we have visited have signs like this.

Stand clear when the ferry arrives .

Our buss driving onto the ferry.

Black market gas station. These are very common away from the larger cities and closer to the border with Libya.

Another one, this time with propane.

You seemingly can buy almost anything alongside the road.

More meat going on the grill.

Ruins of a mountainside village mostly destroyed by flood water pouring down the mountainside a number of years ago.

Rock walls cannot withstand the force of water pouring down the mountainside. Many people were killed during that horrendous flooding.

Guess what movie had scenes filmed near here.

In this are the people often live under ground.

The actors stayed at this hotel during the filming.

They’ve labeled the rooms they stayed in.

They used this room to plan some of the days filming.

This was the night we were staying in the Sahara, an getting to the camp was not a smooth ride,

Ripples

The shadows point the way to our tent.

The sand is extremely fine.

Sunset

Bread baked directly in the coals.

Lamb cooked to perfection. Up above there were seemingly millions of stars in the night sky. It was a great experience.

Ocotber 23, 2022 A day trip to the desert area just north of the Sahara where it hasn’t rained for the last five years.

Yep, that is where we are going.

The name of that fist city is in Libya, but what does the image in the second red circle from the left mean?

It is seriously dry out here.

Hilltop mosque.

Abandoned storage caves and structures of a city built in the 1100’s.

Our city guide was a Berber man in his early forties. Note the red hair which is a trademark of the Berbers.

A very old door.

Ruins everywhere on the hillside above the town.

Look what I saw inside one of the carved out caves.

The wife playing peek-a-boo.

Star Wars fans are familiar with this place.

Closeup of the top.

The town is definitely built on a hillside.

An RV caravan rolled into town.

Think of it as an entrance to the past.

Looking back at the town with the granaries on the hillside all the way to the top. They store 7 years worth of food in them following what Joseph told the Israelites in the bible. Those stores have helped them survive the 5 years of no rain.

Very similar to what the American Southwest looks like in some areas.

Lunchtime on low stools and even lower tables.

A typical everyday local meal was served. The meat was goat. She who doesn’t eat goat because of the taste, ate hers saying it didn’t taste like goat.

One constant around the world.

More granary ruins.

Much of the wood still remains.

Some of the ladies on the tour.

Relief was in the back.

Around the corner from the men’s were these sandals.

A very nice prayer room.

The reflection of the sun setting on the other side of the bus on the window beside my seat. And below is a what we heard while at the last site. we will be staying in the Sahara tomorrow night so the posts will likely be delayed for a day or two.

October 22, 2022 Early morning flight so another long day that included a stop at an interesting pottery.

The bus ride from the gate to the plane took 30 seconds. Enough said.

Selfie aboard the aircraft.

Just to show there really are some mountains in Tunisia.

First time I ever saw this sign on a plane.

A different style of door means a different religion.

Besides the beautiful blooms, notice the gutter.

We stopped at a town known for its murals.

I really liked this one.

I really liked this one so much i almost lost my head over it.

The fish market and souk were busy places when we arrived.

But in the afternoon the souk was nearly empty.

And thus ended the day.

October 21, 2022 One of the highlights of our O.A.T. tours in what is termed A Day in the Life when get to experience how a family lives in the country we are currently traveling in. Today was that day.

The forecast was 90 degrees today so shorts were the order of the day.

You do what you have to live.

Soon we would be leaving the heavy traffic of Tunis behind.

The license plates are a bit different.

I was sitting right behind the bus driver when this took place. All he appeared to do was check a number of papers the driver carried.

Everywhere we go there are vendors along side the streets.

Drivers seem to expect the other person to yield the right of way for them. This person turned left right in front of us.

Something we see everywhere around the world, plastic trash seems to be everywhere. I find it interesting the people who produce the plastics as well as the companies who make products from them and also the companies that use the products claim they have no responsibility for the trash that piles up around the world. It is always someone else’s problem as far as they are concerned because any responsibility on their part could hurt their profits. End of rant.

Scenes from a Berber camp we stopped at which was right beside the road. The tattoo on the older woman’s chin identified her as a Berber.

Later at an olive grove.

I helped this two ladies sort the olives then posed for a photo with them.

Our hosts who would be spending time with.

Scenes from their home.

Then it was off to the town market to buy some items that would be used to prepare lunch.

Seen but not bought at the market.

The best tasting olive oil we have ever had.

Linda had fun grating and chopping vegetables.

Guess who feed the trimmings to the chickens. The “girl” who had the same job when she was growing up.

Trying my hand at bread baking.

Marked with an “L”.

The food was awesome both in looks and taste.

Where’s my bread?

There it is.

Yep, that’s an “L”. We split it in half and each of us at our half, it was that good.

Visiting their orchard.

Our first time ever eating pomegranate just off the tree. There is no comparison to what is in the stores at home.

I do believe the maid really appreciated the tip we left. Long day tomorrow as we travel to an island on the Mediterranean.