Jewels of the Tunisian Sahel

The Arabic name "Sahel" means coast or margin. In the case of the sub-Saharan, Sahel it is the margin of the desert, but in Tunisia, it is the little bulge in its east coast. Ranging back from the east coast, these fertile plains have long been the heartland of the country's agriculture and an important power base - both Habib Bouguiba and Ben Ali come from this region, and it contains Sfax, the country's most prosperous city.

As far as the tourist is concerned, the region's main jewel is Kairouan, the country's spiritual capital. However, for this little travelogue, I am going to concentrate on its other jewels, the towns of Sousse, Sfax, Monastir, and Mahdia.

Sousse rivals Hammamet as the centre of the tourist industry in Tunisia. This is evidenced by the continuous strip of hotels stretching from the city northward for many miles. In the past, the tourists baking in the sun and enjoying the soft white sand were in the main Germans. Lately, however, they seemed to have been usurped by the British and the East Europeans seeking bargain basement prices for four-star hotels with one-star food and service. These hotels are all much of a muchness, but I would recommend one restaurant - l'Escargot, which serves excellent French food in a delightful environment. It is opposite the collection of Hana hotels in the town centre.

Sousse is not just a strip of hotels and a tourist trap, however. The medina or old Arab city is full of interest and has a host of interesting medieval buildings, such as the Great Mosque, Ribat (monastic fortress), and Kasbah (administrative centre/fort), which contains a very interesting museum and great views over the city. In addition, its narrow maze of alleys hide a number of interesting old buildings, souks (covered markets), and the usual souvenir shops.

A little down the coast, Monastir is growing into another huge tourist centre. There are ever growing numbers of package-deal hotels filling up the beach space between the town and Sousse. It even has the second busiest airport in the country, constantly loading and unloading pre-tanned and tanned tourists and shuffling them to and from their hotels. The town itself has also been transformed, as if for the tourists. The area around its two great monuments - the Ribat and Habib Bourguiba's mausoleum has been totally razed, and so the place has a sort of fake Disneyland feel to it, with none of the rough and readiness of some of the other Tunisian towns. Having said that, it is still very picturesque and pleasant for a wander, especially with the two fine buildings noted above.

Forty kilometers farther around the coast is Mahdia, and although tourism is stretching its tentacles this way, at the moment it remains relatively unspoilt. The old city (the medina) is much smaller than its Sahelian counterparts, but retains a certain pride. There are fewer alleys and old buildings to explore, but it is more a place of reflection to enjoy the peace and quiet and soak up the light and colour of the place in one of the delightful cafés, perhaps sharing a table with some of the old men in the Place du Caire enjoying the shade of the fig trees.

It is also one place where you don't have to stay in a big tourist hotel a few kilometers out of town. The Hotel Jazira is a small bed-and-breakfast within the old town and is only a few metres from the sea. I was tempted to cast a line out from my bedroom window to join the other fishermen who were close by in their rowing boats. Another highlight of Mahdia is going for a sunset walk around the rocky peninsula. Here are the remains of a port built by the Fatimids in the 10th century and now used by local fishermen to tie up their rowing boats. It is surrounded by a sprawling cemetery, itself a botanist's delight, with many wild flowers carpeting the graves and meandering paths.

Heading inland from Mahdia, we come to El Jem. In fact, a number of dead-straight roads seem to converge on this little town. Not surprising, I suppose, as its main claim to fame is Roman, and that of its huge amphitheatre nestled in the centre of this small Sahelian town. Built around 300AD, the amphitheatre is better preserved and not much smaller than its more illustrious counterpart in Rome, the Colosseum. Estimates of its original capacity run to 30,000, much more than the present or past population of the town. There is also an interesting museum not far from the amphitheatre if you can follow the signs around the back streets for a kilometre or two, containing a number of interesting mosaics and the remains of a Roman house.

One place that has no need or desire for the tourist dollar is Sfax. It has grown on the riches of phosphate, which is mined deep in the interior, but which is shipped from here. Also, there are the millions of olive trees that dominate the interior of the Sahel region. Sfaxians are famous throughout the country for their business acumen and are known as the "Jews of Tunisia," perhaps a compliment or perhaps not. Despite that, the medina is worth a wander, having many of the goods to be found elsewhere in the country, but at much cheaper prices. Despite their business acumen, the Sfaxians are less inclined to rip the tourists off. For me, however, the main reason to come to Sfax was to catch the ferry to the Kerkennah islands. But that's the subject of another page...

If you want to see the pictures from my trip around the Sahel and read about other sites in Tunisia and North Africa, visit the website Wanderings Africa.

We’d first heard about the Kerkennah Islands from Paul Theroux’s book about his trip around the Mediterranean. Theroux is known as a crabby individual who seeks out places to visit where no one else goes – usually with good reason. He went to the Kerkennah islands for two days in winter and described them as desolate, flat, and arid, with dying palms and ratty fronds. However, I also read the more charitable Rough Guide, which informed me that many people return year after year and describe the place as the most beautiful spot they know. The clincher was the fact that our neighbour had been recently and had a very relaxed, faraway look in her eye when extolling its quiet virtues. In any case, we had seen pretty much the rest of Tunisia in our two years here and thought, why not. It would be excellent place to chill out for a while, and there would be few tourists.

The first problem, however, was getting there. We knew the ferry left from Sfax and presumably left from the port. We found Sfax and we found the port – but there was not a single sign for the Kerkennah ferry. Once we found the ferry, we were told, "Sorry, this is the wrong entrance. You need to go out of here, turn left, turn left again, and look for a small gate with no markings on it and you’re there." This was Tunisia after all. Fortunately, we had arrived in plenty of time. Although there was no timetable as such, we were told the ferry would be leaving in two hours time, and amazingly, it did, and we were disgorged at the other end just over an hour later.

Our first view of the islands from the ferry was as a thin smudge on the horizon, which later revealed a rather flat island covered in palm trees. We soon left the ferry dock behind and were driving through a rather arid, flat landscape, noting that, close up, the palm trees were rather straggly and certainly not the fine variety most often seen on beaches in Bounty Bar adverts. Despite this, there was a pleasant otherworldliness to the scene as close to rural idyll as you can expect on land that is bone dry and supports nothing but these frail palms and the odd fig tree.

There is only one "resort" on the islands, resort being rather a misnomer. What it means is a beach with four or five hotels strung along it. In fact, two of these hotels are not even on the beach, but curiously, a kilometre or so inland, as though shipwrecked in an area of windblown scrub. On the map, the area appeared built-up, but, in fact, there were only the hotels and nothing else. Anyway, we decided that we would start with the first and then see which one we fancied. As it happened, we stopped at the first, the Cercina, and went no farther. It was just what we wanted. In the Asian style, there was a restaurant building with a large, shady terrace and then the accommodation block – maybe five or six rooms each with their own little balcony and the whole lot facing a picture-perfect bay. The rooms were basic but spotlessly clean, and you simply couldn’t beat waking up in the morning throwing open the shutters and looking out to the placid waters of Sidi Frej bay. There was only one drawback to the place. The islands are very low-lying, but that also means the water is extremely shallow. It only gets to thigh depth even quite some distance offshore. And it’s the same all the way around the island.

One of the reasons we came to Kerkennah is that we wanted to chill and not do too much, but that doesn’t stop a little bit of exploration. The Kerkennahs are really just two islands – a small southern one where the ferry docks and a larger northern one connected by a causeway apparently built by the Romans. We completed our explorations in a day. There were lots of quiet, pretty, sleepy little villages often near sheltered bays, separated by the endless palms – it seems nothing else can grow on these barren, low-lying islands. The small towns also seemed remarkably free of cafés packed with men smoking and drinking coffee, which you see all over Tunisia. In fact, there were plenty of houses, but where were the people?

Using the Rough Guide, we spent some time trying to find the best beach on the island. We did find a nice beach, but I don’t think it was the one mentioned, as it was no better than any other, but also no worse, just extremely quiet, not a soul about. It didn’t matter. We didn’t even have the energy to find the one "sight" on the islands, the Borj el Hissar, a ruined fort on the coast built a few hundred years ago. I think we had already switched into "Kerkennah time."

Back at the hotel, after our exertions, we enjoyed cold drinks and some of the best food in Tunisia, especially the seafood. The Kerkennahs are famed for their octopuses, and indeed, at the little ports, you see plenty of the pottery jars used to catch them by luring them into a false sense of security. In addition to the restaurant in the hotel, we also went to the Sirene, an excellent restaurant in Remla, the main town on the islands and the only place with a petrol station and a bank. Here we dined on the seafood platter on successive days it was so good.

After three short days and nights, it was time to leave. Paul Theroux and the Rough Guide were both right. It is a bit of a desolate place, but also one of the most relaxing and, somehow, rewarding places in all Tunisia.

For more tales of Tunisia and many pictures, visit the website Wanderings Africa.