Tunisia: Day 4

As the sun started to warm the day between the trees, sending some beautiful light across the road, i packed and followed the remainder of the unsealed road back to tarmac. Next up was a huge reservoir, just north of Beni Matir. Heat was starting to obscure the views, so the wide valley that runs south from Beni Matir towards Jendouba was just rolling green fields, with distant low hills. 

I visited my first Roman ruins today. A substantial place with an aqueduct over a wide river, the ruins of a gladiatoral arena, a large keep type fortification and quite a few houses. After a wander around, I headed south again, seeing a rebuilt Roman villas and next door was a walled house, with a roman arch stone above the doorway. Clearly a fair bit of the building stone from the ruins had been repurposed.

From here, I headed to Kef and my day got a little complicated. Upon arrival, I got stopped by the police. I apparently needed an escort into Kef for fuel and shopping. So, about 10 minutes later, two Securite Touristic showed up in a very shiny Peugeot Landmaster 4x4 and took me to a garage, once fueled up, it was to the edge of town and pointed south. Our brief conversation basically told me to forget heading any nearer to the Algerian border and stay further inland. So I did, for awhile anyway. 

At Dahmani, I turned south west again towards Thala, then down to Kaserine and Thelepte. The twatnav threw in some old washed out unsealed roads and one road having some major repairs for added interest. The scenery has changed dramatically now, less green, more brown. The temperature has gone up a few degrees and the crops have turned into cactus of various kinds and small olive trees. Large trees have almost disappeared except along large water ways and the rubbish has increased significantly.

After Thelepte, I tried to cut a corner and save some distance but I ended up almost crossing into Algeria, so some swift nav had me back inland again and down to Gafsa. Here I found a spot up in the hills to park up above Redeyev. 

A strange day of transition from north to south, but another aspect of Tunisia revealed. This western side has a lot of both police and military presence and touring foreigners are tracked each time they are seen around the country. I think it's a safety and security but using people instead of cameras like in the UK. Dramatic changes in scenery and more people wearing traditional desert Arab dress. 3am saw the arrival 5 drunk guys doing donuts and playing loud music at the memorial where I was parked. That wasn't expected at all!

Tomorrow's plan is to visit some local gorges and maybe a Mos Espa visit.