Tunisia - The Canyon of Tamerza and the largest mountain oasis in Tunisia

Tamerza is located in the southwest of Tunisia (in the border region with Algeria) in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains and is the largest mountain oasis in Tunisia.

The way there is spectacular, the road winds up the mountains and the view is more magnificent after every bend. In front of us, a rusty van struggles up at a snail's pace, suddenly the rear door opens and we look into smiling women's faces! The ladies wave at us as the small truck takes curve after curve. We stroll quietly behind, on the one hand because of the waving women and on the other hand so that we can enjoy the view to the right and left of the serpentines in peace.

At the top we park in front of a restaurant. "Of course, you can spend the night here! When do you want to eat?" (Not: "Do you want to eat?" or "What do you want to eat?"). So it's a deal, dinner is served, and only a little later we fall into bed, tired, full and looking forward to tomorrow's canyon hike.

Canyon of Tamerza

In the early morning, everything in and around the canyon is still asleep, so it's worth being on the road quite early. And we set off without expectations, let's be honest, the Canyon in the Parc National de Dghoumès nothing can top it anyway. Let's think. 

So we start hiking, once again we are all alone and explore the area. 

At some point we meet an Italian couple who watch our self-timer attempts with a smile and then offer to take a few photos of Canyon & Heike & Gerd. (Our variations are "head only" or "Canyon only" or sometimes "feet in the dust").

So we climb for ages through the gorge, my imagination goes a little crazy and I see the masses of water coming towards us around the bends, ready for Hollywood. We climb onto the edge and once again admire the colourful splendour of orange-sandy rock and dark green palm trees. For us: pure exoticism. 

Somewhere we read something like "Grand Cascade", meaning big waterfall. Well, we don't want to say anything and think to ourselves, yes, for Tunisia with the little water this winter, the waterfall is certainly huge.

What a beautiful hike in dreamlike surroundings. And we find ourselves in a dilemma: which canyon is more beautiful?

---

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.

Do you think our travel experiences might be of interest to others? Then you can share the Share post quietly. By e-mail or however you want to do it.

In addition, if you haven't already done so, you can use our Newsletter subscribe. Here you will receive all our experiences in your mailbox whenever we publish something new or once a week on Fridays: live-pur.ch/newsletter

We are also very happy to hear your views, your tips or your questions. Just comment on the post!