Sicily: The Return...

Getting off the ferry at Palermo was true comedy. All the lorry trailers sandwiched in the cars/ vans except for a narrow passage. But most of them had to be unloaded by the buzzing little tractor wagons as opposed to just be driven off. All of the final cars loaded the night before were facing the wrong way, so multi point turns were the only option to start to allow egress. Horns blared, ferry staff shouted and gestured, passengers were generally confused and getting short tempered after a night of being crammed into spaces too small and smelly to sleep in, or in my case, first full volume football on TV followed by the crazy person who thought he was funny shouting and running around at 4am followed up with some sleep next to a droning fridge.

Passport Control and Customs followed, so queues of cars in the cool morning air, all waiting to get let out back into normal life like caged criminals after years in a cell. 

En route to the exit, I passed the Gremaldi office, so stopped to book my ferry for Sardaigne. Sunday morning 7am check in for the only ferry running. £102 one way. 

Once out in Palermo, it was typical Italian craziness. Fuel prices have gone up but the sun is still shining. I decided it was time for a bed and a shower. So a search brought up a hotel just outside of Palermo, with a sea view and everything I needed. I checked in for Friday & Saturday night. Then slept for 4 hours to catch up on the previous nights loss.

Tunisia: Day 10

After breakfast, I checked the oil and other fluids on the Landy. Yesterday's uphill exercise had used a little, plus I've now clocked over 5k miles on this trip so far.

Once I set off, the pass I was traversing dropped eventually to a series of well watered olive farms. 

Then through several villages with large poly tunnels to Sidi Bouzid. The driving here was completely different to the rest of Tunisia, more uncaring and more aggressive. No one would let me out at junctions and they glued themselves to my rear quarter. One nearly hit me as I braked.

A squint at the map showed a way north off the main roads. This took me into some sunken sand roads, through more olive groves. 

The people here were less wealthy, so donkey and cart prevailed for transport, with the odd repair shop on the side of the road with spare lorry wheels and puncture repairs. The trees were smaller, but no less well cared for. Fruit trees were blossoming here as well, with Jay's flitting through the various trees. There is some kind of blight affecting the prickly pear cactus. It's like a white mould. Coupled with the surrounding rubbish at their base,  they do look very sorry for themselves.

Once past this bit, it's all flattish plain to Tunis, so I had the idea to go see what the score was with a ferry to Sardinia. 

En route, I passed more Roman ruins, a two level tower and arch on a hillside and a great viaduct.

No ferries to Cagliari, so for £27 I changed my ticket to Palermo to today, which left in about 3 hours. 

So, with a dirty truck, hardly any food or planning, I joined the queues through check in and customs. Another night of sleeping on a table after emptying the entire truck again for customs. 

Tunisia: Day 9

Dropping into Ghomrassen from my park up point took me down a beautiful gorge.

The light is a bit weird today as there seems to be a haze in the air, which didn't clear, even as the temperature went up. But that haze of the morning seemed to clear as I dropped over the back of the hills, which made me think it was sea fret rolling in to the first uphill. 

There is clearly a fair bit of money going into this area. The properties are being renovated in their traditional style and the fields and water supply are all well maintained. 

At Ksar Hedada, the Star Wars village from Phantom Menace sits. But around this whole area is stunning water cut gorges through the sand and limestone. 

The Canyon Zaafran has both religious, paleontology and geology interest as well as its formation process through hydrology. 

A dinosaur statue sits on a ridgeline at the end of Djebel Miteur, marking the site of multiple finds there. 

I started to meander up the little roads that passed through villages and up onto small passes. At Chouamakh, I spotted a piste heding up to a col and over to Chequimi. 

It was unsurfaced and a bit steep, but it went the way I wanted to head. So I turned up there. It was rough, slightly washed out and steep. Low ratio, with diff lock and 1st gear steep. The views back over the flat plain, with the hills rising steeply to the western edge all looked very dramatic in the light. 

Once up to the col, there was a narrow, winding track to join tarmac at Chequimi. From there, winding tarmac followed the ridges to Matmata. 

A fuel stop at New Matmata, saw my first bit of blatant dishonesty for this trip. I paid the guy with 120 dinar but got no change, the price was 110. He just walked off with a grunt. At first, I thought I'd made a mistake, but then remembered I'd counted out 140, saw it was 110 and so just handed over 120. When I called him, he pretended to have made a mistake, but was so shifty about it. Hey ho. 

North of El Hamma, I crossed the eastern end of the salt plain I'd traversed a few days earlier. The first of the hills I was crossing formed the northern edge of the end of the salt pan. 

Between El Hamma and P14 road, there are three lines of hills, Jebel Chamsi, Jebel Orbata and Jebel Bou Hadma. These effectively form a water shed between the lakes and valleys to the north and the desert plains to the south. All three have distinct characteristics, but Orbata is the highest and a national park, with potential to be UNESCO site accredited.

I headed to a pass called Col du Haddege which runs across Jebel Bou Hadma. It was beautiful, with a narrow road and some lovely scenery on both sides. 

This dropped me to a plain full of newly planted olive groves before climbing again on an unsealed pass running over Jebel Meloussi. Great place to stop and camp, so I called an early finish and settled in for the night.