Tunisia - Cave Dwellings in the Dahar Mountains 

Cave dwellings in the Dahar Mountains

On our tour through the mountains we pass some cave-dwelling mountain villages. 

The cave dwellings in the Dahar Mountains are a fascinating example of alternative forms of living in nature. The Dahar Mountains (or Djebel Dahar) is the mountain range we are currently exploring. It is one of the oldest mountain ranges in Africa. 

The cave dwellings, however, in this region date back to Roman times and were used by mountain dwellers as shelters (great word, isn't it?) and living quarters. Apparently they offer protection from the high temperatures and strong winds. We learn that it rains here on average 15 days a year. And sometimes not at all. Everything here is dry as a fart!

As we don't want to look at the tourist cave dwelling complexes (or later on in our journey, as the case may be) we stop at a couple of smaller, seemingly empty "villages" and send our little flying spy into the air. 

I take the helm on a quiet road and drive comfortably through the first foothills of the desert, only to get stuck in total traffic chaos a little later in the completely overcrowded Douz. Nothing works here any more.

We learn: everyone enters the roundabout at the same time. The traffic policeman (aha!) regulates some kind of traffic. Which leads to the fact that now everyone is also stuck in the roundabout. The pedestrians and market traders sneak past us, the scooter drivers jet towards us in the opposite traffic sense. Horns, whistles, silence and, with some distance, party music.

Yes, we have arrived in Douz. Here, the biggest festival in North Africa awaits us with a loud roar! Yes, we are in Africa! Yes, exactly, that is part of our travel experience.

As a side note, the main roads are of course congested and I curve our Felix through pedestrian-crowded alleys to the inner-city campsite. 

(Spoiler: we almost flee the place after only one night. My notoriously delicate disposition coupled with my highly sensitive ears do not cooperate).

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Merci for "travelling with us

We are thinking about taking another break from travelling in the summer and visiting our families in Germany and Switzerland. One of the ideas is to organise a Lecture about our long journey to the Persian Gulf to prepare. If you would like to, what would interest you the most? We will also tell stories here that don't find a place here on the blog. We're thinking of the Bern and Berlin area - simply because we have family there. But other places are also conceivable. Feel free to write to us.

By the way, we are travelling through Iran. It's possible that we won't be writing posts at all or will be late. We first have to see if it works for us. And whether we can even manage to write down all the fantastic impressions in good time.

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Franzi
Franzi
1 year ago

Reading your posts is really fun! Great writing style ☺️. Wasn't the little flight spy (drone) a problem when entering the country?

Heike
Heike
1 year ago
Reply to  Franzi

Dear Franzi
thank you for sharing your joy in reading ❣️❣️❣️

And no, we had no problems entering the country. We were also well controlled, so apparently no one was interested.

However, flying is not really desired here, we are aware of that. That's why there are no recordings in the Algerian border area, which we find very unfortunate...

Kind regards - Heike

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