The weather sucks. But so much!
We drive to the Ischkeul National Park. We drive as close as possible to the lake in joyful anticipation of seeing many birdies.
The national park is an important wetland area that was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980. The 12,600-hectare park is home to a significant bird population, including ducks, geese, storks and flamingos, which rest here on their migration across the Mediterranean.
Furthermore, the Ichkeul is the last remaining lake of a formerly flourishing chain of lakes and also serves as a drinking water supply for the Tunisian population. Due to increasing salinisation, it was classified as endangered in 1996, but was removed from the Red List in 2006.
We arrive in the romantic evening light, see no birds of course, take one or two more photos and end the day with a cosy round of SkiBo. Oh yes, we eat the last pieces of cake that Cherif gave us.
The night becomes windy, almost stormy, and it rains all night. Next to me, my beloved tosses and turns restlessly. At some point I ask what's wrong? "Have you seen the path? It's probably just mud! We'll never get out of here!"
Around 6 a.m. - the sky is slowly turning light, the sun is hiding - we see the dilemma. I think it's just normal wet ground, Gerd can already see us sinking in up to the windows.
So we drive off, I look outside to see how the ground is (quite OK!), Gerd drives carefully back up the muddy path. I'm filming, still making fun of myself and thinking, such a 4×4 wouldn't be so bad after all. Gerd slides towards me, I get in and all is well.
The last climb still, Felix elegantly glides off the road with his thick 3.5 tonne plus rear end, but bites hard at the front and Gerd steers our little house onto the tarred road in a funny skid.
"See, I told you! Good thing we didn't wait any longer!" I smile, pleased that he was right (or I was, but I don't say that out loud) and we are both wide awake just after 7am.
So off we go, in the direction of: yes, where actually? The weather is stupid, the birds are probably already further south or sleeping in the reeds and we are fed up with the weather here in the north.
PS: I was only filming, so there are only pictures from the movie. The last picture shows the mountains of rubbish in the UNESCO World Heritage Site. Well.
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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Good morning you two dear ones.
It's good that you got Felix back on solid ground. 👍
Have a good onward journey!
Thank you! Yes, it was a little adventure! After all, we are rather minimalist adventurers anyway...
For us, such small highlights are enough.
Kind regards - Heike