In reply to Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) :
I've been trying to catch up and have been overwhelmed by how you seem to have been able to live and relate more about it here than I've even been able to read...
It's been so worthwhile, though; the places, the adventures, the bonus geekery, the bonus cats... 10/10 A++.
In reply to Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) :
No problemo. I was disappointed that I came into work early for a quality audit and she was 2 minutes behind me, so no goofing off over coffee. Turns out I didn't miss anything AND I had these waiting for me when I got home!
Ok when you said you were going to send me something, I assumed you meant the postcards. This showed up today.
The jar got broken but the desert rose is safe, and I'm glad I didn't just dump the box. I plan to filter out every bit of glass and save the sand in a container! The bag of whatever got punctured so I trashed it, I'm assuming the red stuff is some spicy seasoning of some sort? And the magnets immediately went on the refrigerator.
In reply to Jerry :
oh NO! What in the world happened to that package, I wonder... Wow, well if I was feeling bad about stealing sand from Tunisia to protect the desert rose then I certainly don't anymore 
The bag with the Ukrainian writing is eggplant mixed with horseradish. It's REALLY good on a sandwich, but honestly I just threw it in there as another method if insulation from impact damage. If it got punctured then it did its job.
The Eros Pista is spicy hungarian paprika. Put a little in your soup, but work your way up slow. I find it's best in a beef or a pork base, but it's a life-changer for sure.
In reply to Jesse Ransom :
Thanks man, and the bonus cats were definitely the icing on this cake. Probably the ONE thing the eldest was constantly interested in.
So there I was up in the morning by 5:45....
Actually it was a bit earlier than that, and everyone was up. Remember those "diverse birds" I was talking about? Well the rooster among them is announcing it's morning. Ugh.
I plug back in my camp stove and realize that it has a locking feature!!
That's right. All through west Africa and now half-way through Tunisia and I JUST realized that if I push AND twist, the burner locks on to the can...
Bill smart.
The kids in the camp are up and moving about while coffee is made, and by now it looks like they're loading up on the bus for their next destination. Mrs. Huntswoman is feeling the clothes that we washed last night, and the darn things didn't dry!
We have no idea how this is possible, but don't have much time to think on it as I'm busy washing up our dishes from last night and the owner of the camp comes over to give us two fresh chicken eggs to cook! Then he invites us over to the kitchen to make our breakfast (and it only took me three trips to bring all the cooking utensils over... Bill smart.).
The kitchen I don't have pictures of, but it seemed to have everything we needed. Breakfast was eggs and baguettes and oh my goodness did the boys eat SLOW...
Of course, it didn't help that they found the cat again.
By 8am it was time to clean up camp and pack it all up. The camp director gave us all packaged sweets as a bit of a treat!
It was good, but mid-packup my body decides it's going to use the head, and it's going to use the head NOW.
Honestly, I think it's the pro-biotics that are doing this to us but I'm at the truck when it happens so my butt RUNS to the bathroom where it gets to hover over a seatless toilet... (I got hissed at by a goose along the way 
)
Now this part, I don't understand. Why not install the seat??? I mean is it THAT much more to clean??? Do people just break them??? what is it???
The reason I ask is because about half-way through my legs give out and I'm now sitting on the rim... not fun. Not too much of a problem as I have facilities to clean myself, but still...
I swear it takes us 100 trips to the truck to get everything packed, but eventually we manage. Looks like it's going to be a sandal day for us boys (Mrs. Huntswoman wears boots and socks). And speaking of Mrs. Huntswoman, she's doing her final checks around the camp and finds the eldest Huntsman's pocket knife between the mattresses.
Man, you can not get complacent on this trip....
The Huntskids are loaded up in the truck when it's time to go, and we elders notice the workers building wagons on our way out so we walk over to say goodbye but I can't remember if we gave them coffee mugs or not...
Either way, we start making plans. 2 possible stops on our way to our next camp in the Northwest part of the country. 4.34 hours of drive time total, and our first stop looks to be Roman ruins.
Here we go!
Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to Jerry :
oh NO! What in the world happened to that package, I wonder... Wow, well if I was feeling bad about stealing sand from Tunisia to protect the desert rose then I certainly don't anymore
The bag with the Ukrainian writing is eggplant mixed with horseradish. It's REALLY good on a sandwich, but honestly I just threw it in there as another method if insulation from impact damage. If it got punctured then it did its job.
The Eros Pista is spicy hungarian paprika. Put a little in your soup, but work your way up slow. I find it's best in a beef or a pork base, but it's a life-changer for sure.
The package looked normal from the outside, not sure what happened. Honestly, you could have sent me a big bag of sand and I would have been happy.
We're going to be blowing that place up in 30 minutes anyway. ;^)
Jerry said:Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to Jerry :
oh NO! What in the world happened to that package, I wonder... Wow, well if I was feeling bad about stealing sand from Tunisia to protect the desert rose then I certainly don't anymore
The bag with the Ukrainian writing is eggplant mixed with horseradish. It's REALLY good on a sandwich, but honestly I just threw it in there as another method if insulation from impact damage. If it got punctured then it did its job.
The Eros Pista is spicy hungarian paprika. Put a little in your soup, but work your way up slow. I find it's best in a beef or a pork base, but it's a life-changer for sure.
The package looked normal from the outside, not sure what happened. Honestly, you could have sent me a big bag of sand and I would have been happy.
We're going to be blowing that place up in 30 minutes anyway. ;^)
Probably not the best time to tell you this, but uuuuhhhh. You might want to check your exhaust port.
In reply to Jerry :
Ok, but seriously though. That's epic! When I glanced at the picture I legit thought it was a screen shot from one of the films 
In the truck we fire up the Youngest's playlist and it immediately fires up "Sunflower"
Despite our best efforts, it's getting harder and harder to not admit this has become kind of our theme song for this trip. It just sets a chill mood in the truck and we all kind of roll with it for the rest of the day.
Our phone charger situation hasn't improved much though. We got that wall plug, but when you're in the grass huts, there are no outlets. Here's how we're sittin'
My phone: 34%
Camera phone 100%
Huntswoman's: 17% (and charging) currently being used for nav
and our bluetooth speaker is charging.
Also, I made mention that my front suspension sounded noisy. I poke my head under and behind the front tires and don't see anything, so we continue as is without issue. And not too far down the road, this happens:
It's around noon or so that Mrs. Huntswoman and I are having a "enough vacation" conversation... I mean, we're on day 12 at this point? It is kind of hot, and we have gotten used to being dirty all the time... Whatever internal batteries we had that were drained have long since been recharged. We both agree we could probably head home now and it would still be a good trip.
About now we notice some military vehicles driving through a field and shall we say "re-entering pavement"?
They're coming back in to the oncoming lane. One is a Humvee, one is an equally capable off-road type with big tires, but more cargo...
I dunno, I'm not good with wheeled military vehicle ID (better with aircraft).
And that's when we happen upon a traffic jam. A first on this trip!
You can tell its a strange sight for the locals too, because they're all just sparsely parked.
We weave our way up and things get tighter. No sign of movement though, so the road must be blocked ahead.
"aha" thinks I, "this explains the military vehicles re-entering pavement"
yeah, they must have gotten bored and just decided to punch through a field. I'll be honest, I'm thinking the same thing. The only thing stopping me is I can see a road about 300-yards ahead that T's into our road, and I'm not big on driving through farmer's fields. On either side is a berm and I don't want to start to do something idiotic unless I know I can finish it. If I bypass traffic and get stuck on that berm, people will make a meme out of me, I just know it.
This other truck apparently had no such reserves, because he went for it.
I cross the street to the right and scope the ditch. There is some tall grass, but nothing that would stop me... just a bunch of big rocks, but I can handle those... There's also no t-junction on this side... And I wouldn't be driving through a farmer's field.....
it's decided. I'm going for it.
I put in the hubs just in case. Back up the truck and here we go!
Dropping into the shallow ditch was no effort. Some people look to see what's going on as we pass, but otherwise don't mind us. It's fun bouncing over the rocks and the kids think I've gone absolutely crazy. We pass almost all the traffic and RIGHT at the site that's causing this, a previously not seen policeman steps into view from in front of a truck and holds up his hand to stop.
oops!
eh, it was worth a shot. I stop.
The police man though, he's pointing at something. I step out to look.
We cant speak but I can see he's pointing to a driveway I'm about to run into. I saw it, the grade up it is shallow (we're talking like one stair step here). I make a motion like I'm going to bump over it with my hand and he nods in understanding. He takes a step back, and i hop back in the driver's seat. I put it in 4-low now and start off in 2nd gear. I'm being watched now and don't want a bunch of wheel spin or anything when I bump up on the driveway.
bump!
I'm motioned to stop again, so I do (and take the opportunity to shift back into 2wd)
The police officer's attention is on a large group of people. I have no idea what's going on, but this is not a "happy convention". People are walking into view and back out... There's a semi that's preventing me from seeing everything, but it's not a "riot" or anything. Maybe a bus had a car accident and...?
I don't have time to think further. The path ahead of me is clear as far as I can see and the police man (finished looking at whatever he was looking at) motions me on my way.
"move along, move along"
And I do.
once clear of all the traffic on this side (and there is a lot) and back on the road Mrs. Huntswoman says "holy crap, that probably saved us about 3 hours"
I agree.
That hill over yonder ways is where we're headed today. A place called "Dougga" and it's supposed to have some roman ruins
and boy did it ever.
Our GPS guides us to a gate where an attendant sits. I park the truck under a tree in an effort to get some shade. The attendant speaks English and welcomes us. There's also a man in a yellow vest hanging out with the attendant, he tells us he's security.
I don't remember what we payed for admission but it wasn't much at all (couldn't have been more than like $3 a person), and it was only about a 200-yard walk to get to the ruins from there.
And guys, that was that. We were 100% left to our own devices in this place. Like, there was NO supervision and this place was HUGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LIKE WAY HUGE!!!!!! It just went on FOREVER
This right here? This marks the half-way point in the photos I took of this place, and I didn't even share all of the ones I have up and to now. But I want to leave some mystery for future travelers so this is where we're going to stop.
Again though. Never a doubt in my mind... when I was watching "Clash of the Titans" or "Jason and the Argonauts"....
when I was learning of Greek and Roman architecture.... When I saw those giant marble columns in books...
Zero doubt whatsoever that I would never set foot in such a place. Not even in my wildest dreams. No question whatsoever.
and here we are.
And it's not lost on me either. I could hang around a place like this for the rest of my life and I don't think the "awe" would be lost... I really don't want it to end.
But alas. it IS hot, and the kids are starting to argue. And it is getting close to lunch. so for my souvenir from this place, I decide to kick off my sandals and walk around the capitol barefoot.
Books can tell me when Dougga was built. How many people lived there. Who the temples were dedicated to. When it became a fort... But they can't tell me what the warm stones of the Roman capitol feel like under my bare feet on a hot June day...
Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to Jerry :
Ok, but seriously though. That's epic! When I glanced at the picture I legit thought it was a screen shot from one of the films
The two rooms next to our dressing area were epic. Union Terminal in Cincinnati, now a couple museums. They just finished filming part of the new Superman movie here (The Hall of Justice) so they may have used these exact rooms. We took A LOT of photos before the event started.
Heading back out the way we came in, there are two restaurants off to the opposite side of the parking lot. The first looked like it was the "fancy joint", so we started walking to the second only to hear the guard shout "it's closed"!
ah well, we tried to save money.
The restaurant though, is pretty fancy (especially the garden/grounds). We try to order a vegetarian meal for Mrs. Huntswoman (like veggie cous cous) but we're told that all they have is tuna salad, and skewers of chicken. We work our angle a bit and eventually are told they can make her a vegi plate.
They don't have coke to drink either. I'm thinking this is all a part of us being here on a shoulder season and probably isn't par for the course. Of course, there is a bonus cat:
All the huntsmen get chicken breast which is so delicious it STILL makes my mouth water just thinking about it. Mrs. Huntswoman's plate is just grilled onions, peppers, and tomatoes. I mean it's better than nothin, but lets face it. She's mostly eating the bread...
Some Americans come in for lunch but we don't strike up a conversation, it does remind me that we're hoping to pay by card (we could not). We should be good-ish (we were), but I'm worried that if the cost goes much over what I have calculated in my head then we might be breaking out our hidden stash of USD (it wasn't, so we don't)
It's about 1430 by the time we're done with the whole shebang and while the kiddos use the head, I duck out to catch up on my notes (I didn't bring my notebook in with me). When Mrs. Huntswoman and the children join me at the truck she informs me we have 15TND ($5) left in our wallet. The guard asks for his share for watching the truck and we give him 5TND. He's happy.
After this, our drive gets a bit of contour. I tried to capture it in the photos, but I would call what we did next "mountain driving"
We stop in town around 4pm to get groceries. We decide at this point to skip our second stop for the day.
We 100% expect this place to be every bit as good as the place we just left, but honestly we're just tuckered out. Looking at the map of where we are VS where we would have gone we can see that HAD we gone to this site, we would have driven near "Jendouba" which is a "no-no" spot. Good to know we're checking on things. We're so near the border now that we knew we should be exercising caution. But still, walking around this store, we have ZERO motivation to cook dinner tonight. I also have to split off and pull money out to pay for our camp tonight (I grab 300TND). Once back in the truck, it's 58 minutes to our final destination (and final camp for this trip) tonight. Kind-of sad, really. And probably the reason for our low motivation.
Man the trees are getting TALL, and the vegetation is getting GREEN, and there's even STANDING WATER!
Crazy to see the climate differences in this part of the country versus the other areas we've traveled through. Our proximity to the no-no zone is re-confirmed at a police checkpoint. It's the usual conversation at first, but then he starts diving deeper. Where are we staying tonight?
No problem, we have our presentation printed out and show him the relevant page.
A LONG conversation (that I don't understand) follows as he calls up the camp and talks with someone on the other end. When it's over, he wants to look at our paper map we have. I try to unfold it in the car, but it doesn't work so we head over to the hood of his car to map things out. It turns out, he just wanted to give us REALLY good directions.
"ok, drive down this road. You're going to see this city, keep going through. Then you'll see a mosque and a school, turn right there. 1km later you'll find the camp"
Then he helps me pull up the spot to turn off the road on my phone's GPS. This guy definitely gets a coffee cup.
We're off and it's only 12 minutes until our turn but the short version is none of the directions we have are correct.
bugger
the officer's directions take us to a big city. Mrs. Huntswomans takes us absolutely nowhere. We're going to keep at it, but the big city has some very nice hotels if we need a backup place to sleep tonight. It's about now that Mrs. Huntswoman notices that there's a camp with the same name about one city back. With nothing to lose, we double back and have an "aha" moment along the way.
Looking out the left side of the truck there was a mosque before we hit town. Could that be the turn we were supposed to take?
Well, if it is then that is one VERY narrow dirt road we're taking to get there... We're talking mountain-side, tall tree, access roads at best. Something you'd expect to find in Northern California!
Figuring we've been down worse on this trip we decide to see where this road leads. It's so unkept I'm actually looking for wild camp options if this campsite doesn't work out. And boy-howdy do I see LOTS of options along the way. I'm getting kind of excited about the prospect when we spot the camp, pull up at the gate, and Mrs. Huntswoman heads in on foot.
Spotting a man inside the fence, she asks "can we park?"
"Yes!" and he walks off...
ooooh kay... I guess WE'LL open the gate then. and so we do. and then we pick out our camp spot too.
Man, it is so nice and cool under this canopy of trees. It doesn't even feel like the same country anymore!
We re-park to get a better flat spot for our tent, and then are approached by the man that runs the place and his co-worker. We're going to need to stop by the office with our passports (kids included) to do some paperwork.
So we do, and the younger Huntskids play on their devices while we're gone.
Honestly, paperwork for all four of us does take a while (and 28TND, or $9) for the campsite for the night. While this is going on, we're talking to the owner (who is very friendly) and find out that the scouts stop here as well!
Back at the campsite the overly helpful worker wants to help set up our tent. The ground is too tough for our plastic tent pegs, and while I do have metal ones as well, he INSISTS I use his beefy metal ones.
So I do.
And are we SURE we want THIS site? He thinks this other one is better.
nah, man. We're good
Eventually we're set, and what a peaceful place this turned out to be. And there are dragonflies everywhere! I'd really like to pour a drink, but it's time to start dinner. I set up a double boiler again to cook whever we have left in our stores.
I'd REALLY like a drink at this point (we have some rum left) but the overly helpful worker is sitting at the door to his room in the building facing our camp site (see? shoulda taken that other site) and he's been joined by the camp owner. They're just having long chat, but they are looking RIGHT at us because of the way the building is facing, so I decide not ta. I feel it's a case by case thing when it comes to alcohol, and would prefer to keep it discrete.
To kill time,the cards come out and the boys gather sticks for a fire. They want to roast marshmallows later.
Before we turn in the overly helpful worker warns us via google translate not to leave our furniture out overnight, lest thieves might take it.
So when it's time for bed the truck is loaded up, and we're reading "Little Prince", then it's lights out.
Glad to see this pop back up! Man Dougga seems to live up to it's reputation of "the the best-preserved Roman small town in North Africa". The whole trip looks amazing.
johndej said:Glad to see this pop back up! Man Dougga seems to live up to it's reputation of "the the best-preserved Roman small town in North Africa". The whole trip looks amazing.
Honest to goodness, I'd go back just to be able to kick around that place again. It was crazy just being left to our own devices like that (of course, we were extra careful to be respectful of the place as a result) but man, if I were a researcher or a college student I'd be on that place like a thing that's on things.
Up in the morning around 5:30, the kids aren't up yet. Since a tent zipper is the loudest thing in the camp site Mrs. Huntswoman and I decide to stay inside and wait on coffee. She tells me that the youngest woke up in the middle of the night. something about a "moth" in a dream that scared the beans out of him.
The cat from last night is still outside and is trying to crawl under the tent. We get a good kick out of that.
When we DO get up, breakfast is a mish-mash of cooking decathlon muzli and making coffee. We're also packing up the campsite to the tune of the kids arguing about a game of hangman. Everything's a bit of a mess since we just tossed everything in the truck last night.
Since today is "ferry day" I decide to dump our jerry can into the tank. No need to be carrying extra fuel with us now, I think.
The Huntskids aren't impressed at all with the freeze dried muzli. We had to drop in a few sugar cubes to get them to eat it. The funny thing about those were the instructions "fill with water to line zero..." but there wasn't a "zero-line" so we just guessed.
Man, it is just so nice and cool this morning though. It's like we've entered a completely different climate!! Still though, their is that feeling that everything is coming to an end now. We of course notice that this will be the last time we change clothes in country (no laundry the night before...).
boo.
I mean, I know I said yesterday that we felt like we "had enough vacation", but we still don't want this to be over. And right on cue, a goat herder passes by with his goats and reminds us of that night under the oasis.
oh well, nothing else for it. Time to get back to reality.
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