Met at Louage station in Douz by fellow who talked us into looking at his hotel. Was good enough for only 10 dinar a night; also signed up for an overnight camel trek the following night (Douz is the “Gateway to the Sahara” in Tunisia). Not a lot going on in Douz; ended up at the Magic Bar for lunch and a non-alcoholic beer. Bar owner was very animated and friendly (everytime he’d hand you something, he’d pull it away and give it to someone else)… decided to come back for dinner as he had some good Bob Marley to listen to.
Walked through the palmerie to where the dunes start and sat for a bit; very cool to see… looking forward to the “real” ones we will hopefully eventually see (ie. 300m high mountains of sand!).
Up until this point I’ve been wearing pretty much the same pair of pants everyday. I brought some shorts ‘n stuff of course but the locals always wear pants and I feel like a tacky tourist whenever I don the shorts. So I found a second pair in Douz the next day. Camels didn’t leave until 4pm so we had to keep ourselves busy for the day with not a lot to do.
Rode for 1 hour or so out to an area that has tents, bathrooms, etc all set up. Riding a camel didn’t strike me as all that comfortable a ride; at times I was wanting to get off and walk to give my back and ass a rest… perhaps I’d feel differently in the middle of the Sahara somewhere. For part of the ride when looking in the right direction, the scenery was amazing with only a sandy sea and blue sky to look at. Other parts had scruby brush around (near various palmeries), and it was a bit disheartening having to pull the camels over to let the odd car pass (as well as the guide talking on his cell phone as we walked), but alas… we were on camels in the Sahara.
Once at the camp, tried to start the generator but it wouldn’t go; so we lit a fire, lit some candles, had hot food anyway… I figured the generator (or lack of) was a blessing in disguise. Were shacked up with an older couple from Switzerland (Sicilia and Claude) who were very cool and well travelled; translated all the various European conversations around the fire for us, and eventually drove us back to Douz in their rental car.
Sleep that night was cooooold (somewhere around the freezing mark); surprised Jen survived. Up the next morning around 7am for breakfast, back at the hotel by 10am. I was hoping for a blanket of stars overhead but I think we were too close to town for that, plus the moon was out in full force.
So there ya have it… a camel trek in the Sahara (well… sort of). You can do other ones that are much longer (as in, 5 days or more); we may end up signing ourselves up for something like that (maybe Libya or Egypt??), but until then…
Sunset in palmerie
Jen checking out camel
Ninja on a camel
Camel shadows
Eddie on camel!