Tunisia: Day 7

My parking place last night turned out to be next to another water source. This one was a drop well. There was a pulley system with a plastic 20 litre drum tied to some hawser style rope. You threw the tub down the well, filled it up, pulled it back up. The water either came from an underground stream or lake. The Sahara and the rest of Africa has thousands of these type of wells. 

This afforded me the chance for another wash and a general clean of a few things. So I took the chance. 

The dune sea over looked Ksar Ghilane, which was some 5 - 6k behind me. I'd driven down a bunch of tracks in the fading daylight to get away from habitation and saw this structure. Another peaceful nights sleep followed. 

Once I set off, I followed tracks south until eventyally I decided to turn into the dunes and see where I ended up. For the next couple of hours I rolled up and down dunes of varying height. 

The Landy cruised through these in a mix of low and high ratio gears. Only a couple of times did I need to reverse, engage diff lock and usually 1st gear to get moving again. Engine revs are kept pretty low most of the time, with weight and momentum doing the work. Usually because I'd beached the long 110 chassis on a narrow, soft dune summit. That only changes for sudden steep ups and to get off a narrow top. Even then though, the engine revs stay low. The only concern is the odd creak of a the rear suspension as the truck gets tipped into odd angles and the pressure across the rotating prop shafts under the truck from compressed sand.

Two adult camels lifted their heads and movement next to them showed two youngsters hiding under their bellies. They moved slowly away from me as I stopped to take photos, then I moved on to leave them in peace.

At one point, it was so quiet, I just pulled up and sat to enjoy the quietness of the natural world for half hour. 

Another couple of hours dune surfing took me as far south as I could go without a special permit. So I turned inland. 

Rough piste took me away from the deep sand and back into scrub and mica base trails. I crept along in 2nd gear, wincing at some of the jarring going through all the Landy parts. Eventually, I crossed onto the north / south main road. This part was unsealed and slowly being reclaimed by the desert. 

3000+ miles to the west, behind me, the sand of the Sahara crossed Algeria and dropped to the Atlantic at Nouakchok in Mauretania. 

Imagine the possibility of a journey across that vast expanse. If it wasn't for the utter stupidity of certain humans and their obsession with war, religious zeal and control, it could be done. Now that would be a trip to record and write about. There has been journeys like that in the past, for mapping and military purposes, but just to see whats there has likely only been done a few times and not really since WW2 to my knowledge

At the turning for Tataouine, the road climbs to an upland plateau. Towers and ridges line the surrounding skyline, like something from a spaghetti western. At Guermessa, the old town and mosque are perched on a ledge below a huge circular sandstone summit. The new town spreads out below on the flatter ground, lacks both the grandeur and impact. All along this upland plateau, mounds of rock and soil are being built, creating flattish fields for trees and crops. Water is being irrigated from somewhere and industrial sized piping can be seen at concrete square structures. At Tatouine, I had a scoot at the map. Ksar Ouled Soltane was another Star Wars site from the first film, 30 mins south of me. It was in good condition. It's basically multiple feed stores with narrow steps in a village perched on a hilltop. Locals have made a bit of a theme there. The irony is that these types of stores are still in use every day around here. The biggest one I saw had straw in it for donkeys and camels. 

From there I crossed country, heading east and dropping off the plateau edge. It was Berber country on the plateau and the similarities to the Anti Atlas in Morocco were plain to see. The flat lands below finish to the east of the plateau edge at the sea, some 85k away, with the Libyan border to the south east. 

I finished my day parked next to a large feed store. I had plenty of time before sunset to sort some more chores and clean up the diesel that had leaked from my spare jerry in the back whilst bouncing over dunes.