Day 2: Gafsa and Tozeur

On our second day in the South we got on our minibus and drove to Gafsa. We saw some old Roman pools and checked out a small museum with some nice mosaics. Apparently these pools usually have water in them-- though only about 10 feet or so. Young boys hang around asking for you to throw money which they will dive into the pool to retrieve. I'm so glad these pools were empty, I can imagine how dangerous it would be for them to dive from so high to such a shallow pool.

Next we had a lunch in the Oasis of Tozeur, even further south than Gafsa. I had camel steak for lunch, it was absolutely delicious, especially with a little lime squeezed on top. After lunch we headed out to some buggies drawn by hourses. We trotted around Tozeur, checking out the unique architecture (see the pictures on my Flickr if you are curious) and then headed into the Palmeraie, the area of the oasis that is more or less a palm tree forest. Once in the palmeraie we stopped to learn about the date harvesting process. I had no idea that dates need to be manually cross polinated in order for them to yeild edible fruit. Men climb up the palm trees barefoot and create a chain down the tree to pass down dates as the man at the top chops them free.



We each took turns climbing a little ways up the tree and then headed out to a very very strange cafe/museum/playground a little down the road. Next we went to a park where the national poet of Tunisia used to play as a child. It has been turned into a playground and a memorial to him. We also stopped breifly by his tomb. After a quick jaunt in the souks of the town we got in our bus and crossed the eerie Chott El Jerib (used to be a salt water lake, now it's mostly salt flats with just a little water) to find our hotel in a small town just north of Douz.

More pictures of Tozeur and Gafsa here.