Sailing the Med in Eye Candy- Tunisia and the end of the season

Enjoying berber tea and bread Clare and Andrew Payne

Central square and mausoleum in Monastir Tunisia © Clare and Andrew Payne

the deck. I have also kept the laundry busy running back and forwards with doonas, quilts and lots of linen.

With most of the work behind us we now have time to do some sight seeing. Our English friends John and Jan on 'Brigantia' came with us on a land tour of the central west of Tunisia. We traveled some 1200 km and saw much, including an amphitheatres, museums, Berber villages, Bedouin tents, cultivated oases, canyons in the Atlas Mountains, waterfalls, camels, The Grand Mosque, souvenir shops and carpet shops.

We had a great time and the three days were full on from 6am to 6pm. Our guide spoke five languages but English was his weak suit. We had to really concentrate to understand

Roman amphitheatre at El Jem © Clare and Andrew Payne

what he was saying. Fortunately Jan could speak French and so with her interpretation and John’s imagination, whatever was lost in translation was certainly made up for in laughs.

Our guide Hammet also talked non stop about his broken marriage and women. By nightfall we were bored stiff and plotting how to avoid him. We considered asking him not to dine with us, ut he had other ideas. He joined us for dinner and pre dinner drinks in the bar each night and then left us to pay the bill – smart move.

Hammet told us the average wage is 300 Dinah a month (a Dinah equals 80 cents). The prices in the shops and supermarkets are about

Rubbish along the roadsides © Clare and Andrew Payne

equivalent to home. However the Tunisian people look well dressed and well fed. Something doesn’t add up. Maybe there are two different prices, one for tourists and one for locals.

We were told by other cruising people to expect to pay Bakhshish to officials when entering Tunisia, We also heard that they would come on the boat and ask for spirits (alcohol) or some other form of gift. We have seen very little of this but as wages are low we do tip everyone who offers a service.

Random Observations:

Firstly, I have never seen so much rubbish. It is in the streets, the paddocks, building sites, the neighborhood, the market, rivers and waterways.

Berber houses underground © Clare and Andrew Payne

Plastic is everywhere.

In Monastir and every town we passed through, there are endless Cafés with men sitting around drinking coffee – there are no women present.

Smoking is permitted in most places and a lot of Tunisians smoke.

Public rubbish bins are not washed and stink of 'bin juice'. You smell the bins long before you see them.

There are a few beggars on the street and children come and ask for money,

I’ve seen sheep in the backseat of the car. They are brought into the busy town to graze on a little patch of grass. The sheep leave droppings, but no one

Unusual back seat passengers © Clare and Andrew Payne

removes them.

In the country there was a market day for second hand clothes. Everything was piled on the tables in a disorderly fashion and women were foraging through it – no waste here.

Petrol in Tunisia costs 1 Dinah a litre. However petrol is brought across the border from Lybia for one tenth of that price and sold in 20 litre cans on the side of the road.

The children in the country seem happy and wave and speak to you. They certainly haven’t been taught about 'stranger danger'. I guess it’s not necessary.

The young Tunisian people are very good looking. Many of the girls are so gorgeous it is

Canyon in the Atlas Mountains © Clare and Andrew Payne

hard not to stare at them. There are plenty of attractive young men also. They don’t seem to keep their good looks as they grow older though.

This is the end of our cruising for the year. Sunday there is a regatta of sailing boats and a BBQ. Soon we'll fly home for the European winter.

Oasis worker, at 74 © Clare and Andrew Payne

Roadside petrol station - cheaper from Liberia © Clare and Andrew Payne