Sailing with the Treleavens

Arriving here on the 20th May we are put between a Japanese and German boat and being the innocent party its all about whose electric point is whose. These people have been here too long and territories are drawn, Ian stakes his claim and comes down stairs mumbling about who won the war.

From Hammamet we up anchor and sail to El Kantaoui, a marina full of yachts with great facilities and beautiful surroundings. Its tourism at its best but we enjoy a little luxury, very different to what we have had on this trip. We have 3 nights here; the only problem with this place is that's its 8km to Sousse to get some supplies.

In Monastir a lot of ' winter over boats' are still here because of the late summer and now we are holed up here waiting for the wind to change direction. Malta is our next stop 190 miles away where friends Nick and Michele Smail are joining us for a week. Nick is an old school friend, dinghy crew of Ian's and they are looking forward to the 400 mile sail from Malta to Crete.

The De Torres and ourselves hire cars and taxis and take day trips visiting inland Tunisia. Visiting Kairouan, the spiritual centre with its magnificent 8th century mosque, the oldest in Africa. It's very hot inland and its only May. The Arab Summit is on as we visit Tunis and Carthage; the very historic Punic city totally destroyed by the Romans, flags and flowers line the streets. We pass the Presidential Palace and visit the neighboring marina Sid Bi Bou which seems to be booked out most of the year.

Tunisia is an Islamic state but not fundamentalist like a lot of Arab countries and women have rights. Everyone speaks French as well as Arabic and all children are educated. The coastal area is certainly more advanced with wealth and tourist hotels but inland it can get very basic, dusty and millions of olive trees.

Another day we visit El Jem inland 70kms to see the Coliseum built by the Romans in 238 AD, the most impressive amphitheatre in the Arab world and second most preserved to Rome. The museum is built around the recently discovered roman villas. They have not been looted over time and are really well preserved. This small village is surrounded by the never ending olive trees that are neatly spaced and in perfect rows. Thank you Swanny for keeping us up to date with the score of the Super 12 final and we are soon in our own stadium, only ours has history of Gladiators and Lions. Is there any difference? Now used for Operas in the summer, it's nice just to wonder everywhere with very few tourists.

As we continue to see Tunisia I am the designated loo paper holder. I could tell you a lot about loos but some things are worth forgetting.

Howard and Valmai have now left us and we decide to take a train to Tunis, stay a night, and see the Bardo Museum, famous for the largest collection of Roman mosaics in the world. This is fantastic, telling the stories of centuries of an illustrious past. As for Tunis its dirty, rubbish everywhere but the people are well dressed and very happy, friendly and no sign of crime. The Medina the old walled town we pass in a taxi and that's enough. Our night in Tunis we find a traditional local restaurant with a live band playing their own folklore and full of ambience. We soon get into the Arabian music and enjoy watching the locals enjoying themselves.

For lunch I take Ian into an Islamic Restaurant not of his choose as there is no beer but I am determined to have a Tunisian meal. We have 4 courses - Tunisian salad, chili veg couscous, fish or chicken with chips and cream caramel .All for $4 each and it was delicious. Our best takeaway was a bag of hand cut chips cooked in olive oil and sprinkled with onion, parsley and small olives -$1.00. The boat is starting to smell like a fresh herbs and spices shop and I am looking forward to cooking with them.

Our plan is to winter the boat over here as its cheap and out of the EU which suits us and means we can return to warm weather rather than the cold of Croatia. We didn't know what to expect in Tunisia and have been pleasantly surprised with yachts being welcomed and the few marinas are excellent. We believe this undiscovered paradise for yachties will be the next Croatia.

Next time we would love to take a safari trip to the desert and visit the island of Djerba where the brochure refers it to the Polynesia of the Med.

Ian is looking forward to bacon and eggs in Malta as pork is non existent in this Muslim country.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 28th, 2004 at 8:02 pm and is filed under 2004. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.