Another tour in the Tunisian Sahara: El Bibane

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Preparing for our desert adventure was long and laborious, so many months to prepare the car with all those things that normally do not serve in the off-road nostrano and that none of us had ever thought of buying the carrier, which must be lightweight but very robust to resist the terrible pressures of the slopes of Africa, the second rubber in stock, the water and fuel, and more. And 'Saturday 11 March starting. The sea is rough el'arrivo in Tunis occurs very late in turning our road map, then the transfer takes place at night, but we are excited about this new adventure and the many kilometers we weigh. The first stop is about 400 km, where to eat dinner at a local restaurant on the basis of grilled lamb, we begin the first real contact with a different world, years away from our standard of living. Still a couple of hours, and finally arrives at the village of Matmata to "Les Berbères". Characteristic hotel carved into the stone where we placed in two dormitories. Alarm clock at dawn, breakfast and head for Ksar Ben Heddadi, famous as the site used as a movie set and a destination for many tourists. The trip after a few kilometers of asphalt, turns on the track, at last we enter the heart. We continue towards Ksar Ghilane on Toul ondulé that puts strain on the suspension of our cars. We look forward to sighting the sand and dunes, but the hours go by and we see only stones and Sterpi, who have passed every hill we seek with our eyes in the distance, the famous dunes. Unnecessarily! We are impatient, but where they will be finished? Our escorts are reassuring, the sand is there, have not taken away and have not even moved. Reassured see the world in a different manner. Forgot to say that among the many things we have with us, there were also many toys brought specially to donate to the many less fortunate children who do not have the opportunity to have it. And it is just before reaching Ksar Ghilane that we stop in a small village for distribution. Ksar Ghilane to arrive shortly before sunset, and suddenly the sea of dunes appears in its vastness. Not thought to be so many! With us forever just sand, we have the feeling of being in front of the ocean. Right time to assemble the tents and so a nice hot bath in the sulphurous water dell'oasi. Dinner on the banks of the source, we are all excited and we look now that the sun rises to address the real desert. And 'our first night in tents and make a cold Executioner, accidents one thinks of the desert and imagine the sun, heat and instead we are all cold ... but happy!
The next day we reach the Roman fort and we get to the desert of El Bibene where we will finally have the first contact with the sand dunes in the desert. Essential in this part of the wilderness experience and the preparation of our companions of the AS D. Rollers Adventures Claudio e Margherita Coletta Fenello, in identifying the most suitable where you can switch to our heavy-duty off-road without sinking all the time. In this area, the dunes are not very high but they are one behind the other, a continuous salt and downs and every dune is different, in a sinking and the other steps without problems. Begin the first stops by silting and the first hard thrusts and Split. Stop for lunch at the Cafe Grand Erg, an empty cabin of shrubs that provide shelter from the sun, and then by starting the discovery of new dunes. The day, however, proceeds in joy, this is a dream come true, off, off-road only. That it is life! Since it is good practice not to travel in the desert with the dark, in the late afternoon trying for a suitable camp. Tents placed in a raised point that allows us to enjoy the majesty of El Bibene.Tramonto fabulous colors with an indescribable and unforgettable rising of the moon! Everything really perfect, environment, friends dinner in all this positivity even our wine vinegar seems fine. At the next morning after a particularly challenging stretch we are forced to divert dall'itinerario chosen as a result of the temperature too high consistency of the sand does not allow us to move forward fast enough to reach the next stage. Towards evening the field again in the desert and sleep early. The wine was not the most delicious ... The next day we reach the Cafè La porte du desert where we breakfast and start quickly at a time of Douz, where we visit the typical market Thursday where even today the Berbers are to trade their goods with the old art of barter. We are assaulted by the colors and smells of a different world, an old but true, life here has a value and a time we now forgotten, the merchants, sellers of souvenirs seems to prefer talking to know who actually sell their products, people and simple sincere. Here we make our purchases, spending all that we have not spent a few days earlier. Finally sleep in a hotel, in a real bed with a bathroom where we can do a nice hot shower. Dinner at Chez Magic and after dinner we Lotfi known by in the afternoon in his souvenir shop, is a chatterbox and likes the company tells us a lot of things, is a 'craftsman knows nothing and do everything he plays a strange instrument obtained skin from bones and horns of sheep ... I might be a pipe, even if I have to tell the truth, a bagpipe've never seen it! Tomorrow we expect a good pull. Alarm clock at 6 am to arrive in Tunis on time, you go to El Hamma, Gabes and from there to the port for embarkation. 685 km long transfer and eyes look sad Tunisi that slowly goes away.

Written by Giò e Luca