April 2009

Early April and we're ready to set off for the Eastern Med. The boat is in good order, Kit dived underneath to see if we needed a haul-out but the fouling was minimal so he just scraped off the stray bits of weed around the waterline. Although the weather is mostly fine here, out in the Sicily Strait, which we must cross en route to Malta and Sicily, there are frequent easterly gales accompanied by heavy squalls and thunderstorms. So we wait and watch for a more settled period.

Since Xmas we've made two trips back to the UK: in February we spent a lovely three weeks catching up with friends and family on a visit to Plymouth, Coventry, Malvern and London. In mid-March my sister was in hospital so we decided to take a quick trip over to the Midlands and Manchester. Happily all went well and Sheila was soon at home and is now recovering well. Incidentally the latter visit coincided with some of the best UK weather we've seen for ages, and we were able to sit out on my mothers' porch in the afternoon sun!!

Things are livening up here now with the approach of the main tourist season. Around El Kantaoui the cafés are sprucing up their terraces and gardeners have been busily trimming and tidying. Flowers such as sweet peas and petunias are blooming in the hot spring sunshine and look very pretty.

We saw a little more of the country in January when our friends Annette and Peter visited for a few days. We hired a car and drove northwest to Dougga, the most extensive roman site in Tunisia.

Spread over a large area on a hillside, Dougga is designated a World Heritage site and features a partly-restored theatre (where French Classics are staged in summer), several temples, baths, a forum, a town brothel and a Libyco-Punic mausoleum dating back to the 2nd Century BC. We spent a few hours wandering around the site and were again surprised at how accessible such places are. There appear to be few measures taken to protect these ancient places, and nothing to stop people clambering all over the ruins. Completely opposite to the UK where many ancient monuments can only be viewed from afar!

The scale of the site is breathtaking and the buildings remain very impressive despite the ravages of time and plunder: the mausoleum survived the Roman Empire but was dismantled in 1842 by a British Consul, to get at key inscriptions - still on show in the British Museum - and many of the mosaics have been removed to the Bardo museum in Tunis.

I have to mention the journey to Dougga: to save time we decided on the most direct route, using 'B' roads instead of the main arterial highways. This was a big mistake - we hadn't gone far before we encountered major road works. We not only encountered the works, we had to find a way past, dodging large machinery and negotiating the partly laid roads!! In any other country the route would have been closed to traffic, or at least have a safe passage coned off!! It really was quite dangerous but Kit did a sterling job and managed to get us there in one piece - needless to say we took the longer, less adventurous route home!!

With Nett and Peter we also visited Kairouan, Tunisia's oldest Arab city and Islam's fourth most holy centre. As it was a Friday (muslim holy day) we just managed a quick look inside the Great Mosque before the gates closed for noon prayers. Like many others the fortress-like Great Mosque manages to appear both grand and simple. It has a vast open courtyard which doubles as a catchment area, channelling precious rainwater into a central drain leading to underground cisterns. The lowest storey of the tall square minaret dates from the year 730, a century before the present mosque, and is probably the oldest in the world. Although plain, the minaret is cleverly designed with the windows increasing in size as the storeys decrease, so that looking upward, they appear exactly the same size.

We wandered around the medina enjoying the more eastern flavour of the city after the touristy El Kantaoui, and sampled brik a'loeuf and other local cuisine for lunch. In an unlikely setting up a dark stairway we saw 'Bir Barouta', where a poor, dressed-up camel walks in endless circles, drawing water up from a well allegedly connected to Mecca. Kit was the only one of us brave enough to sample this water, a taste of which is said to ensure your return to Kairouan - only time will tell!!