Trip report Tunisia: 22nd February to 5th March 1999

ABOUT THIS REPORT

This report is mainly about our first trip, which took place from 22nd February to 5th March 1999, but some experience from our second trip (28th December 1999 to 4th January 2000), on which we have been accompanied by our friends Martin & Chantal Spiess-Guggenbühl, has been included. Of course, site descritptions are after the second trip if we have visited the site twice and if it has changed in the meantime.

Click here to proceed to the Itinerary.

Click here to proceed to the Species List.

Click here to proceed to the Literature.

ABOUT US AND TUNISIA

We are two Swiss students of biology and keen birdwatchers and were looking for a destination in North Africa. In view of a last minute offer we very spontaneously decided to go to Tunisia and therefore had just coarse information about birding sites (see below). So we had to try to find some good sites on our own. The following are some tips and rules derived from our experience and from that of others.

COSTS

We spent about 282.- Dinars (CHF 361.-; exchange rate 0,78 Dinars per Swiss Frank) per person for our last minute flight from Basel-Mulhouse to Jerba, 660.- Dinars for a Peugeot 106 for two weeks, 115.- Dinars for petrol, 24.- Dinars per person for two nights in hotels and about 60.- Dinars per person for food. In total we spent about 750.- Dinars (965.- CHF) per person for the whole trip. This was only possible because we saved money whenever we could. After taking a last minute flight we hired the cheapest car we could find at the airport. Like everywhere in North Africa, car rental is not much cheeper than in Europe. So we guess our Peugeot 106 for 330.- Dinars per week was a good deal - no major problems occurred after all. We spent only two nights at a hotel, normally kipping in the car or just outside, and went to a restaurant only twice. This was a bit of a mistake: towards the end of the trip we realized that restaurants were very cheep and quite good! But be careful: salads, eggs and the kind may cause you problems... (Raffael knows about that).

TRAVELLING

BY CAR
When traveling by car you need the following things: tough nerves, a good new map and enough ground clearance. Tough nerves because there is sometimes a lot of traffic on rather narrow and bad roads. On those roads you better slow down and give way when someone is coming from ahead. Otherwise you will be dazzled again and again with full beam. Anyway it seems that Tunesians flash their lights at every occasion or even without reason. On the whole Tunisia is still driveable, even at night. We didn't encounter really dangerous situations during both trips. The ground clearance of our car was just enough. With many tracks being in bad condition and a lot of sand throughout the country, clearance is an important thing. We often scratched the underside of the car on the ground or hit the highest stones. We had to push the car three times because we slightly stuck in the sand or on top of a bush. Still it was never a real problem to get out and the car wasn't damaged, neither. Car hiring can be expensive. We found the cheapest offer at National's. To hire a car you must be in the possession of the driving license for at least one year or more and ypu must have at least 21 years of age.

BY TRAIN AND BUS
Two of the people we asked for information about birding in Tunisia had gone by public transports. There are more train connections than we would have expected, all cities in the north being connected (down to Gabès in the south). From the cities you can get to the towns with coaches and buses. It is true that finding out where the bus goes is not always easy, but far from impossible. You're allowed 10kg of luggage without additional charge and it's not too expensive. Another mean of transport is the so-called 'louage', sort of a long distance taxi gathering up to five people with the same destination and leaving when full. You can also use them as ordinary taxis. It's relatively cheap and you will get to the birding sites. On the whole public transport is recommendable for a birding trip in Tunisia if you speak some French and if you do not necessarily need to see all species possible or if you got a lot of time. For birding along the coast it is surely no problem and it is probably much cheaper than hiring a car. (Care for cheap fares like 'carte bleue' for trains).

HITCHHIKING
We have seen many Tunisians hitchhiking and we guess it would work very well for tourists. The country is safe, there are many checking points with police and therefore there shouldn't be much risk. Remember two things: do not put out your thumb, but point to the middle of the road with your finger; it is customary to offer a little money if you have been given a lift (for example the price for a bus ticket for the same distance) - although people probably won't take it...

MAPS AND ORIENTATION
We had the map Tunisia from Kümmerly&Frey, scale 1: 1'000'000. This was all right but not more. Smaller roads were often missing on this map, some roads had changed and the villages mentioned on signposts were absent on the map. With signalisation being sparse we would have been glad to have a better general map or more detailed maps of the important birding areas. Twice we drove a detour of about half an hour because of discrepancy between map and reality.
Along roads connecting towns or cities, there are white distance stones. Either the distance to the next bigger town or to the one in your back is marked and this is very helpful indeed. We have often used these stones for orientation and sometimes as well for site descriptions (see below).
You should also know that the translation from Arabic letters to French is ambiguous. An 'h' or unstressed vowels can be dropped, consonants doubled, etc. For example Mahares is the same as Mahres which is sometimes written like Marès. Or El Hassai is signposted as El Hsay or written like El Hessai. If you hear the word pronounced correctly, then there is no problem of recognizing the different spellings. Another thing is that 'dj' is the same as 'j', for instance in Djebel (=Jebel) or Bordj (=Borj). It is always pronounced like a 'j' in 'John' or 'judge'. To make things even more complicated, some names of villages occur several times for different villages. We have encountered three 'Chebikas' and do not doubt that there are even more, but as far as we know, only the one lying between Metlaoui and the Algerian border is important for birdwatchers.

PEOPLE

The majority of people is of Arabic origin, but there are Berber, Jewish and European minorities. The official language is Arabic, the second language, French, being spoken by a majority of people with higher education (at least some words). But shepherds, workers etc. do not speak any other languages than Arabic.
People are very nice and generous despite living in near-poverty. On our first evening we were having lunch in an olive-tree orchard when a passer-by invited us for dinner at his house. We had salad, peas and chicken on an excellent, spicy sauce along with the obligatory tea. When taking such an offer remember that many hosts hope for a little gift - but surely not money! They will then be talking about how much money you have got and that they got almost nothing or something similar.
Kids on the contrary ask for money, cigarettes, ball pens, etc. very directly. If you do not give them anything they will just wait by your side, occasionally they may get very annoying, shouting at you, climbing on the car or just trying to get what they can - so do not trust them! We had problems twice, first at El Hsay near Douz. We got stuck in the sand in the middle of the village at night, and the kids made us sink even deeper in by climbing on the car and rocking. They tried to open the back doors and the boot (luckily they were closed - make sure they always are!) and even hit me when I put out my hand through the window. I got out of the car for pushing and was prepared for a struggle against seven or eight ten year old boys, but they turned very nice immediately and helped me to push the car out of the sand. Result: the kids can be annoying, strange and cheeky, but they are no danger. After some time, grown-ups will normally show up and chase the kids. The second time we had problems with kids was on the track from Metlaoui to Chebika. While we were birdwatching within sight of the car (!), they tried to open it and damaged the lock -so we had to open the car from the passengers side from then onwards... Adults are always helpful, although in touristy areas you may sometimes be cheated with prices - never mind, it will still be quite cheap. For Arabs this seems to be a very popular sort of sport: if you are stupid enough to pay the higher price, then he has simply won!

POLICE

Police checking points are very frequent, especially near the borders to Algeria and Libya. It makes you waste some time showing your passport but nothing else will happen. Normally the policemen are very nice, wish you a pleasant journey or a nice day and inquire about your country's well-being (they knew about accidents with snow avalanches in Switzerland, for instance). Like all Tunisians of age they want to provide the impression of an almost European and absolutely safe country, where tourists are very welcome. Only when we drove in the atlas near the Algerian border at night they were suspicious. We were checked six times that night and had to show our luggage. But even then we could always continue after five minutes. It is absolutely unnecessary to give them baksheesh (tip)- on the contrary: they will probably be offended!

LIFE AND SURVIVAL INLAND

The aim of this trip was definitely to see as many birds as possible and not to spend too much money. So we did not bother much about culture and special meals etc. We took lunch while driving or in the birding area and dinner was after dark. Both consisted of long bread (called baguette), cheese and chocolate, sometimes fruit. We bought all this in small shops, which exist in every village. However, sometimes these shops run out of bread at the end of the day. A baguette costs about 300 Millimes (1000 Millimes are 1 Dinar), small ones even less. It tastes really good with a soft cheese called Riki. Unfortunately the aluminium in which the single portions of this cheese spread are packed, does not open very easily (they have not yet discovered the system with a string you can pull on to open the whole thing)... But it's good fun like this. We tried some sorts of hard cheese - they all taste the same: very mild and quite good if you do not eat to much! Tunisians understand something about chocolate (You can trust us, we're Swiss). 'Saïd' is a good brand, especially the one with hazelnut. But there are others, too. In February/March fruit was less good than we expected. The oranges we bought were not very juicy and so we resisted. This was totally different in winter, when we ate a lot of delicious fruit! In the back of the car a good storage of mineral water was kept, especially before going towards the desert. We never had any problems to buy water, but it just belongs to the feeling of a real desert trip to put up a storage of water... In the second week we afforded dinner in a pub. We had a 'Tunisian plate' consisting of an egg, some salads, spicy sauce, bread and chips (pommes frites), which was really good. It was very cheap as well (6.- Dinars for both) and we were invited for the coffee! Therefore we decided to go to restaurants for every dinner from there on (there were only three nights left). The next evening we asked for something to eat in what looked like a small restaurant. We were served cake and cream because, that was all they had. The second last night was spent in the desert without restaurant and for the last evening we went to see the guy who had invited us on the first evening...
We slept at hotels only when we felt too dirty or when our backs were aching too much. You will only find them in cities, big towns or touristy places,. Hotel Amin in Sfax was very good for 18,2 Dinars per night and person with bathroom, shower (warm water) and television in the clean room. The hotel we had in Kairouan was only six Dinars per person, but to be honest: it was not much more than a roof above your head. One shower for ten rooms, cold water only, smelling blankets, etc.

WEATHER

During our two week's stay weather was nice and sunny. Some clouds on Feb. 21st, a little rain in the night from 1st too and many clouds on 2nd Mar., as well as much dew and a bit of mist on the 3rd in the atlas didn't harm at all. However it was always windy (as well on the coast as in the desert) and sometimes the wind was strong enough to disturb our birdwatching. All nights and mornings were very cold, sometimes even near freezing temperature. So, when we started birdwatching in the morning each of us wore a jacket, a pullover, gloves and a scarf. During the day it was normally mild and we sometimes could even wear T-shirts. In the desert the days were even hot.
In mid-winter, we had more clouds and strong rain on the coast and it was slightly colder. In the desert the temperatures fell clearly below zero at night. One morning we had the low ends of our sleeping bags frozen...