The expedition diaries Tunisia (15-28 April 2003)                                           If you want to have photo or video materials about Tunisia - write us a letter.

The Atlas mountains, canyons & waterfalls Going down farther and farther to the South, we cross the Atlas Mountains. We call them "made of atlas" between ourselves. In fact, they are extraordinarily beautiful at any time of the day. At dawn they pamper themselves in the beams of the rising sun. In broad daylight they tower above us, surrounding the road, their glorious look is symmetric and tidy. At night they vanish slowly in a fantastic way in the darkness. They are not very high, but you enjoy viewing them after a long drive across boundless plains. The serpentine road allows scrutinizing them in all possible foreshortenings. The Atlas Mountains represent ridges and a plateau stretching for more than 2000 km. They extend from Morocco, through northern Algeria, before it touches Tunisia on diagonal. You may meet both green bushes and coniferous forests on striped mountainous slopes. Stone and cork oak grows here. The highest peak reaches as high as 4000 meters. We have a feeling that the nature regarded the mountains beauty to be not very much. And it added to them heaps of canyons and falls. And here we face the first canyon surrounded by an oasis. Vertical cuts of the rocks curve in freakish patterns enticing your attention for a long time. We admire this wild place in the shade of date palm-trees on an improvised viewing platform. It gives a splendid sight of the neighbourhood. One more viewing platform is to be found nearby. Close to it there is a shop of an aged local, who is likely to know the ropes of advertising. At least, his attempt to attract visitors greedy for keepsakes was a success. Rushing up and down an old jingling bike in a bright red scarf around his head, he shouted in fluent French in a persuasive way that the distant platform holds a better view of the canyon. Moreover, polished souvenir semi gemstones are of superior quality, his dates are cheaper. "Besides, be conscious, I have to keep my family somehow!" This last reason was a success, and we bought something there, certainly, considering his condition. The vicinity of the canyon offers one more must - a Berber city of ghosts. Many centuries ago it was abandoned. Nowadays only the wind blows in desert streets, making jingle a few wooden doors remained undamaged. A brief excursion of the city left to the mercy of fate is not expected to be romantic at twilight. You give a sad look at empty yards. There would be no harm in saying that we attempt to guess, for what reason and in what times the city was left. When asking the locals about it, you get a laconic answer: "Long time ago". That's all. You don't feel phantoms. Maybe, they are languishing in the heat like the authors of this roadbook tending to hide in the shade. A waterfall is located several kilometers from the canyon, near the oasis SHEBIKA. According to the locals' words, it is "the first and the one". Frankly speaking, this place of interest can't be named "a falls". Stream, watercourse, rivulet, but the FALLS! That's not the case. However, the fact is quite incredible that the border with the Sahara has a notorious falls. As a result, we feigned to be very surprised, nodding in reply to enthusiastic descriptions of the locals. If truth be told, we were amazed, visiting "the second and one of its kind" a falls in the Sahara, not far from the first one. This must was more worthy - wider, deeper. Furthermore, it enabled us to communicate with the indigenous people. They are nice, quiet and open-minded. It is not surprising, that people are easy to meet in close proximity to water. Only in the desert you realize the fact (known by everybody since your childhood), that putting an equal-sign between words "water" and "life" is possible. In fact, sweet dates grow here thanks to this "moist miracle of desert" - it'll make you long for more. Every morning we "sweep away" them with pleasure from a tray at breakfast. Having bathed in the falls, we look for a place to stay. Our rally team intended to stop at the neighbour town of TAMERZA. Here a strong astonishment was lying in wait for us. We didn't aim to describe places to stay. Hotels and campings (small and big, high-quality and bad ones) don't have particular features and are alike in all countries. But we opt for portraying one of them. When we found ourselves at the entrance of a low one-storeyed building of clay colour reminding of poor small houses of the locals, we got disappointed a little. Judging its worn exterior this hotel gave an impression to be tiny and badly maintained. And how much we were looking forward to having a rest and shower after a long drive! However, when we dared to come in, we looked all round remaining open-mouthed for a long time. Fountains, marble, exclusive design and appealing luxury. The hotel turned out to be rather wide with a full set of different swimming pools, restaurants and other places to entertain visitors. It was sited on the steep slope of the mountain, towering over a precipice. Only its roof and doorway came into sight from the road. Plus, it was getting dark that also confused our first impressions of this hotel. After that we meandered through the interior a whole hour, admiring perfect architectural and design forms. The most striking of all was the rooms. Their glass walls overhang the precipice giving a fabulous view of the dry riverbed and the ruins of the old city below. Next: >>>  Great race over the Sahara

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