Leaving Sicily for Tunisia.

/ Tunisia / By

In our previous blog we joined a street-food tour in Palermo and provisioned the boat for the onward journey.

On Sep 22, 10.00am looking back to Palermo, feeling sorry we had to leave and feeling sad because of the wildfires in the surrounding hills. We have witnessed too many wildfires in the tourist areas around the MED.
Eight hours later and approaching San Vito beach where we would anchor for the night we were appalled to see wildfires again. Human indifference is the cause of 90% of wildfires. NOT climate change! Capo San Vito visible on the horizon.
San Vito has a beautiful beach and it turned out a lively place
The streets were packed in the evening since the tourist season was still in full swing, end of Sep, in San Vito. Our favourite pastime became people watching and eating ice-cream on one of the many terraces.
It turned out that the couscous world championship was being held here and on the beach were stalls selling the contenders dishes. Later that evening there was a beach party with various artists.
In the subsequent days the weather was not cooperating with strong winds and an occasional rain storm. The anchorage became too uncomfortable so we moved the boat to the visitors' pontoon inside the fishing port. The fishermen stayed in port as well, and better do as they do!!
This is what the weather looked like on Sep 25, 09.00pm. Shown is the average windspeed but you should add 5 to 10 kt for the gusts. The weather was slowly improving and we decided to wait for another day before moving to the small islands West of Sicily. The following day we walked to the cape to look at the sea state.

On Sep 27 we left for the island of Favignana where we had been 4 years ago when traveling from West to East. Guess what?? The fishermen left port as well, so we made the correct decision.

We pas the tiny island of Formica. The island is cared for and maintained by “Mondo X”, the therapeutic community that owns it, and can only be visited after management authorisation. On the island there is a, now defunct, tuna cannery second to that of Favignana, and now housing a "therapeutic" carpentry. There is also a fully functioning light house and a few other structures.
We drop anchor to the East of Punta Longa on the South shore of Favignana island, and take our Ferrari ashore the following day to have a drink in the same kiosk as 4 years ago. Little has changed. Click on photo for the link of this interesting island.

We prepared ourselves and the boat for the 130Nm overnight sail to Bizerte, Tunis. It would take around 24 hours and we left Sep 29, early morning.

A full moon adds to the magic of a night passage and is a bonus since both of us cannot sleep if the trip takes only one night.
Early morning the following day we arrived at the huge and relatively new marina of Bizerte. The clearing process was friendly and quick, after which we were assigned a berth in this well protected and safe marina.
The area around the new marina is still under development and has not much to offer so we went to the "Vieux Port", old harbour, now used only by the fishing fleet.
Restaurant Le Phénicien, is a typical "tourist trap". The only one in the port that serves alcohol and the "ships theme" adds to the atmosphere, but there is better food to be had elsewhere, so we were advised.
View of the medina with fort, guarding the entrance of the harbour.
We had dinner in Restaurant EL KSIBA, right at the waterfront of the old harbour. Good, honest and tasty food in a great setting, at a great price.
Another fortress on the opposite bank of the Medina at the harbour entrance.
We booked a rental car for a 12 day road trip, crossing Tunisia from North to South (and back).
First we visited Rami, a long term friend from the Middle East. Same as Frits, he is also retired from Oil & Gas and is now running his olive grove, not far from Bizerte.
He is a certified bee keeper as well and explained the workings of a bee hive and how to select and exchange queen bees with other bee keepers to optimise the health of the bee population.
A big thank you to Kawthar, Rami's wife for the hospitality and the excellent dinner. No joke; it is the BEST couscous we have tasted EVER. Dinner talk was filled with shared memories and Rami gave us some tips for our road trip. Thank you guys, stay in touch.
Our next stop would be the ancient city of Kairouan, (C) on the map.
We found the remains of the Zaghouan Aqueduct along the RN3, about 3km south of the village of Mohammedia. It was build around 130 AD by emperor Hadrian and supplied water to Cartage from Mount Zaghouan, some 120 Km further South. It remained in service until around 1250 when it was restored by Sultan Hafsid to supply water to the Kasbah of Tunis.
About an hour later just outside the village of Sbikha, this lady was crossing the road with a sizeable flog of sheep and goats. We saw similar hats in Morocco.
We stayed for two nights in "Dar Hassine Allani", a home stay in the Kairouan médina. Liza sipping welcome tea in the courtyard of the "dar".
The water well in the dar, accessible from the courtyard and still functioning but no longer in active use. Note the wear marks in the stone, made by the ropes when hauling the buckets.
The food storage in a vault also accessible from the courtyard.
The entrance of restaurant "Dar Abderrahman Zarrouk", the green door to the left.
A "Dar" is Tunisia's answer to the Moroccan "Riad", a boutique hotel or restaurant in a traditional townhouse. The building can be several stories high and usually have flat roofs. All rooms are arranged with the door and one or two windows facing a more or less square courtyard. The courtyard is open to the sky and the lower floors are surprisingly cool.
The courtyard of the restaurant.
The opulent decoration of the restaurant. If you take away the table it might as well be a "dar" hotel where you sleep in a similar recess.
Street view in the médina on our way back to the hotel.
Our romantic bedroom, a bit damp but clean.
Shared sanitation, one shower, one ladies toilet, one men toilet. Was not up to par with the rating for this dar.
Acceptable breakfast.
Different view courtyard of our dar.

Kairouan is the most ancient Arabo-Muslim base of the Maghreb, founded in 670 AD by the Umayyads, the second caliphate after the death of prophet Muhammad and one of its principal holy cities. The site had housed a Byzantine garrison before the Arab conquest, and stood far from the sea, safe from the continued attacks of the Berbers who fiercely resisted the Arab invasion. It became a powerful trading hub and center of Islamic scholarship in the 9th century, when Aghlabid emirs ruled Kairouan and built many of its monuments. The Great Mosque, on the edge of the medina, with its marble columns and imposing minaret, dates from this period and is a major pilgrimage site. For Muslims, 7 trips here are said to equal one hajj to Mecca.

The 31.5m heigh minaret of the Great Mosque seen from the huge courtyard.
Lay-out of the Great Mosque.
The skilfully carved main entrance doors in the Southern portico to the central nave, seen from the courtyard.
The central nave looking towards the Mihrab (facing Mecca). Note the giant chandeliers with oil-lamps.
The marble colonnades of the Southern portico and around the courtyard.
The Lalla Rihana Gate in the 8m heigh surrounding wall, seen from the outside, makes it feel a bit like a fortress.
In front of the fortress walls of the Great Mosque is this small cemetery with whitewashed tombstones in the proper orientation. The graves are perpendicular to the direction of Mecca so that the body, placed in the grave without a coffin (merely wrapped in kafan) lying on its right side, faces the Qibla. The grave marks used here are quite elaborate. In the Middle East they are no more than a simple stone because outwardly lavish displays are discouraged in Islam.
A now defunct water well next to the mosque, which was common in the old days.
2009 Capital of Islamic Culture Monument, outside the médina walls.
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Street views of the médina around the Great Mosque. Click image to enlarge.

The next site on Kairouan's world heritage list is this quaint little mosque.
It's called the Mosque of the Three Doors, that represents the most ancient existent sculpted facade of Muslim art. The mosque's construction is dated to 866 AD. The inscription on its façade records the name of its founder as Muhammad ibn Khayrun al-Ma'firi al-Andalusi. He was most likely a former slave from al-Andalus (Spain!), possibly a merchant. Only the mosque's façade remains from the original construction. The minaret was added much later in 1440 AD.
Tied to the mosque was this textile shop that drew our attention because of the clack - clack - clack sound.
Inside this man was working on this loom, manually shooting the shutter from left to right and back with his right hand, operating the beater with the other and operating the treadless with his feet. Painstakingly slow the cloth grows, millimetre by millimetre. We admired his stamina and bought a scarf from him.

We stroll further into the medina and it takes a while and some asking around before we found the Bir Barrouta.

On the first floor of this dome shaped building, a camel walks in circles, drawing water from a well dug in 796 AD. Legend goes that the well communicates with the famous sacred well of Zemzem in Mecca. Another legend claims that he who drinks Barruta water, will surely return to Kairouan one day. These "pumps" were developed by muslims and spread as far as Andalusia, Spain for irrigation purpose.
The "noria" technology.
Every morning the camel comes up the same stairs........
.......that we will go down now in search for lunch.

We headed around the corner to “take away restaurant” Kamatcho Kafteji, that makes a type of deep fried flat bread called; bambalouni. Locals come here for breakfast and/or lunch. 

These bambalouni are surprisingly filling and with our stomach satisfied with Tunisian fast food we criss-crossed the medina towards the third world heritage site of Kairouan. Kairouan’s medina (old town) is the most atmospheric and best preserved in Tunisia. The video quality below is not the best but it gives a good impression of daily life in the medina. 

Kairouan is not near a river or other water source, which meant that water was a major concern. The Aghlabid ruler Abu Ibrahim Ahmad (r. 856–63) commissioned the construction of large reservoirs, of which two have survived and are still visible today, the third world heritage site of Kairouan

The smaller basin was a settling tank from which the water flowed to the larger one that had a capacity of 50,000 cubic meters.

Water from the countryside was channeled into the basin first, where sediments fell and were deposited. An aqueduct was also built that brought water from springs in the Shreshira (or Chrechira) Mountains, 36 kilometres west of Kairouan. When the water level was high enough, water from this basin then flowed into the larger basin. Here water was stored for further use, while undergoing some further filtration. Lastly, the water flowed into two small rectangular cisterns. The vaulted ceilings of the cisterns were pierced by six openings through which water could then be drawn.

Many of the city’s residents lived in houses that were supplied by their own private wells and cisterns, so the water from these reservoirs was used to supplement them in times of drought or to supply water to livestock and caravans.

The following day we will drive further South, deeper into Berber country, but that is for our next blog.

Thank you for reading our stories. Liza and Frits.