Tunisia - off to the Sahara Desert 

In camp we see all the four-wheel drive jeeps and expedition vehicles with double and multiple tyres and traction control in all directions. The tyres have profiles that you can hide baguettes in.

And then us: record-slim summer tyres. Probably also a bit overweight. No winch, of course. Getting stuck in the sand? Somehow a nightmare scenario. 

And yet: we want to go into the desert. Our plan is as follows: the asphalt road leads about 50 kilometres into the Sahara (there is a natural gas drilling area back there), after that it's just "sändele". We hope to find a quiet spot on the side of the almost traffic-free tarred road. And to experience desert feeling-light.

So we roll into the desert, deeply moved by the possibility of being in the January still being north of the Arctic Circle at -30° Celsius and rolling into the Sahara in Africa today. The view wanders into the distance, the sand dunes are lightly overgrown with withered gorse and other undergrowth.

At the end of the tar road we find the last café, here we are the only guests, the landlord enjoys us, makes us a creepy powdered mint tea and sits down with us as a matter of course.

Now we learn all about his family, the military, gas drilling and rally drivers. He also advises us not to go any further with our Felix (of course, we super-heroes wouldn't have done that anyway) and then he comes up with some more stories. About his family, the gas wells and the rally drivers. 

He seems to miss the fact that we are sitting right next to him. At some point, due to the loudness of the host, I have to let Gerd know with a look that I would like to move on (and actually: leave).

So we roll back a few kilometres and find a beautiful spot on the side of the former road, which is only a few metres from the current one and offers a bit firmer ground. And we cherish the hope that we won't get stuck.

We get out our chairs and actually camp in the desert. I keep a lookout for camels, Gerd wishes to see a desert fox. I collect scrub and dry camel poop and before we freeze to death in the sunset, we light a small fire and are a bit excited about ourselves. 

We're really doing this, aren't we?

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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.

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