The Lézard Rouge, Tunisia
A wonderful old train journey through spectacular gorges and desert scenery in the luxury of a train that once belonged to the Bey of Tunis.
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We visited Nefta on a day trip from Tozeur.
Considered by many Sufis to be the spiritual home of their faith, Nefta is the destination for many pilgrims. There are quite a few mosques and other religious centres in the town.
We got to ride a camel at the small Berber encampment about 15 kms out of town towards the nearby Algerian border. The few Berbers that live here in their traditional tents make a living (?) selling a few nicknacks to the tourists and offering to take you for a short camel ride over the sandhills. Well, you get to experience what riding a camel is like, I guess.
There is a date processing plant in the town, and this provides seasonal work (mainly) for young women while the boys are out climbing the trees to cut the date stalks. There doesn’t appear to be much else to do when the dates have been picked and processed.
The town itself sits around a huge depression (corbeille) which is ringed by some big tourist hotels, well positioned to catch the sunsets.
The Chott el Jerid (a huge expanse of dry nothing) is nearby. There are friendly cab drivers in the main street and they will be happy to take you for a drive to see the sights.
Nefta is not as big as Tozeur, but it has the same interesting brick patterns in the buildings in the old part of the town. You can walk down into the depression (the Corbeille) and there is a swimming pool at the bottom.
The salt-flats near Nefta were used as a filming location for the Star Wars movie.
A wonderful old train journey through spectacular gorges and desert scenery in the luxury of a train that once belonged to the Bey of Tunis.
We took the early morning ferry from Trapani (Sicily) to sail to Tunis. We got to the dock at around 7am. The ferry had already arrived, coming down from Sardinia, and the semi-trailers were rolling off.
The old village of Tamerza was abandoned in 1969 after 22 days of heavy rain destroyed the traditional mud brick structures.
Ortigia – Syracusa’s Stunning Island The ancient island of Ortigia has many delights. The Fountain of Diana in the Archimedes Square on Ortigia Island. Syracusa
Down the Western Explorer highway, through Corinna, Zeehan and Strahan for a day on Macquarie Harbour.