A bit of North Africa

[netllama]

Continuing my periodic series of trips to the world's deserts, I spent time in February in North Africa (specifically Morocco and Tunisia). This was originally supposed to be Algeria & Tunisia, but for logistical reasons, that didn't work out. I'd never been to Morocco before, so it counted to my total country count (78), but to be perfectly honest, Morocco didn't amaze me.  It was _fine_, but felt like a touristy, vaguely African, predominantly Muslim country sitting at the periphery of Europe. That said, I enjoyed Tunisia a lot, and would consider going again if the opportunity arose. Tunisia was not that touristy, and had a crazy amount of spectacular historic sites to explore (Roman, and also somewhat more recent Muslim). But enough of my rambling, you're here for the photos, right?

First Morocco...

PXL_20240208_080543346 - largest cemetery in Rabat, overlooking the Atlantic coast

IMG_3537 - Roman ruins of Volubilis

PXL_20240213_100210402 - Ouzoud Falls, tallest in the country at 330ft

IMG_3639  - crossing the high Atlas


IMG_3645  - late winter in the high Atlas village of Tadant


And on to Tunisia...



IMG_3660 - the Grand Mosque of Kairouen, and also the oldest (remaining) in all of Africa

IMG_3679 - the Ribat of Monastir, overlooking the Mediterranean Sea

IMG_3690_-_IMG_3729_blended_fused - the amphitheater of El Jem, largest outside of Rome, capable of holding 30k spectators

IMG_3880-bw0 - into the Sahara

IMG_3902 - hours of driving through dunes with wild camels everywhere

PXL_20240217_145534481 - ruins of Guermassa, and its old mosque

IMG_3769 - Ksar Oulad Soltane, used as shelter and storage long long ago

IMG_3748 - ruins of Gattoufa

PXL_20240218_143928820  - Ksar Ghilane, the southernmost Roman settlement

PXL_20240218_151522878 - oasis of Ksar Ghilane

IMG_3897 - a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.  Other than Death Valley, most of the filming locations for the Star Wars films were in Tunisia. This is what's left of Luke's home (on Tatooine, which is actually a corruption of the real city of Tatouine about 2 hours drive away). Screenshot for comparison from the movie is here. Getting there was a 15 minute drive across the dry lake bed.

IMG_3888-bw0 - one more looking east

IMG_3916 - the Mos Espa filming site, now infested with junky souvenir stands

PXL_20240220_063643471 - sunrise at Mides canyon, barely 3 miles from the Algerian border

PXL_20240220_062652800 - old Mides at sunrise

PXL_20240220_132141527 - the theater in the Roman city of Dougga

PXL_20240221_081524732 - spectacular 2000 year old mosaics in the Roman ruins of Bulla Regia

PXL_20240222_111231092 - paying respects at the (only) American WW2 cemetery in Africa. All of the American war dead & missing from the battles in Africa are resting here, just outside of Tunis.


For anyone wanting to read more of my words, a detailed, day by day trip report is available here.  Way way more photos are posted here.

thanks for reading!

[Beardilocks]

Awesome man! Love it. Tunisia looks amazing. Might have to get it on my list.

[netllama]

Awesome man! Love it. Tunisia looks amazing. Might have to get it on my list.

You really should go. There's so much to explore there.

[bbbb]

Really great pictures as always. I was thinking Tatooine, Episode 1, looking at the Ksar Oulad Soltane pic. But lo and behold the Lars homestead was further down.

[netllama]

Really great pictures as always. I was thinking Tatooine, Episode 1, looking at the Ksar Oulad Soltane pic. But lo and behold the Lars homestead was further down.

Yep, there are a bunch of other SW filming sites scattered around Tunisia.

[edward]

Great photos and report. In your blog you referred to a number of police checkpoints. Why so many?

[netllama]

Great photos and report. In your blog you referred to a number of police checkpoints. Why so many?

Thanks!

I don't know why there are so many police checkpoints, beyond some countries are just that way. Some Google searches provide a few theories, but no single explanation.

I've been to other countries that are similar, so its definitely not unique in Morocco or Tunisia.

[DeathValleyDazed]

Both countries look amazing to me and thanks for sharing your experiences!

[MojaveGeek]

Only just getting to this. Too busy - time in Utah, eclipse travel, granddaughter's birth. I love your pix as always and look forward to reading the full report. You'll have a blast in Algeria whenever you get there. Good luck with Libya though.