We want to go high up in the north in western Tunisia, there are incredibly beautiful destinations that tempt us. And once again we realise how much Tunisia has to offer. Our "package holiday" prejudice was really on shaky ground.
Now Chebika. Chebika is one of the 3 well-known mountain oases here: Tamerza, Midès and now the last of the three beauties.
We pick up a few hitchhikers on the way here, so even the ride is fun and entertaining. "Where are you going?" Never mind, just give us a lift and we'll see. Ingenious, exactly our style!
They didn't know anything about Chebika itself, so I read out something about it and we immediately dumped them - schoolteacher-like - at the place of cultural desire.
The main attraction is the picturesque fountain at the foot of the old Berber village with a small palm grove and a waterfall. It supplies a small number of underground streams and a network of underground channels. Thanks to which fruit trees are grown in a completely dry place. This oasis owes its prosperity precisely to this ingenious irrigation system.
I read in the guidebook that you should stay away from the self-proclaimed guides.
Said. Done. Lost.
Instead of believing the local people, we first walked in the wrong direction, reached a man in the fruit-tree forest who asked us what we wanted here. We tried to get rid of him, but he said, "I'm just a farmer here, I'm not a guide! And I think you have to go over there if you want to see the oasis!"
For God's sake, now we've really put our foot in our mouth! We only have a moment to shout "Merci!" and he's already zooming off in his cart.
Eventually we find it, the oasis, the fountain, the palm trees and the many irrigation channels. Simply beautiful. We linger a bit, avoid the other tourists who are driven here by minibuses, and take enough time to hike uphill-downhill.
High up, we squeeze through a crevice and arrive in the village "after work". The guides watch music videos on TV, we are left alone.
The late afternoon sun is already shining rather obliquely in the familiar Sahara sand orange, we crawl into our Felix and finally set off for the mountains. The north is calling!
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.
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