Today we headed to the wilds of the Sahara. They loaded us up into 4×4 Toyota SUVs, and off we went, caravan style, 6 little ducks in a row. The Sahara begins here in Tunisia and then spreads to Algeria and Morocco. Douz, the town we were in, is known as the Gateway to the Sahara for that reason.  Judging by the modifications to the Toyotas–interior roll bars and curtains all around–I thought we might get wild and crazy. But, nope. We didn’t even race the other cars–just drove at a nice, sedate pace to a scenic view with tiny dunes. Scenic view = lots of selfies! Also, lots of sand in my shoes from trying to climb some of the dunes.  I got more sand in my shoes than there is sand in the entire Sahara Desert.  After about 15 minutes or so, it was back to the vehicles for more sedate driving through the sand to our lunch location. Then it was back to the vehicles to take a shorter route on paved roads back to the hotel.

Actually, while at lunch, they showed us how they make bread by burying it in the ground. It’s a round bread the size of a large pizza. They have a  smoldering pile of ashes in a fire pit. After digging a little hole, they just toss that puppy directly into the ashes and cover it up.  I didn’t mention a pan or a jar or any other cooking vessel because there isn’t one. Just the bread dough and the smoldering ashes.  It takes about 20 minutes to cook.  Watching buried bread cook is a bit like watching paint dry, so they sent us in to eat lunch. Unfortunately, this means that I missed the unearthing of the bread. I don’t know if they just wipe it off with their hands, if they give it a good shake, if they have a can of air to squirt on it, if they blow on it, or if they just leave the clinging ashes to it for extra flavor. It’s a very dense bread, but soft and fresh because it’s fresh out of the ground/oven. I did notice some random grit to it, but I don’t know if that was ash on the bread, sand in the dough, or remnants of sand I got in my mouth from climbing on sand dunes and letting sand blow all over me. 

Another interesting part here is this– along the highway were sand dunes. On top of those dunes were reed fences. The dunes were all so nicely placed that they seemed man made. Guess what? They are! The Sahara is growing– at a rate of 1 km per year? Not sure about that number. But, wind blows, sand flies. Sand even makes it across the Mediterranean to cover cars in Italy. So, the dunes are meant to block the blowing sand. And the reed fences are made of palm fronds, so totally biodegradable! Not sure how much it really helps considering that the dunes themselves are made of sand that can blow…. And, the roads are covered in sand, too. But you gotta do what you gotta do to slow the desertification.

And then we were on the road again. We did drive through the salt flats that used to be an ocean. The highway crosses right through it. It’s not like the salt flats in Bolivia at all. It rained a few days earlier, so there were some wet spots where you could see the salt. However, I think without rain, it would look just like the desert.  The only difference if you are paying attention is that there is not a single plant growing there, and the rest of that area has a lot of brush growing. They do extract the salt. It is used as table salt and as road salt in Europe.

And that sums up day 5! Now we are only 3 days behind! Can we get caught up? Probably not. You know us!

Love,

thetwinsontour