Tunisia Thalatha (Three)

A couple of days later, we are now in Ksar Guilane in the desert,where we spent last night. I had wanted to visit the hot springs here, even knowing that they were a bit too touristic, as described by Achraf before our departure. Nevertheless, thermal springs, mud baths, and the like, are hard for me to resist. There were three guest houses listed online, and Achraf recommended we stay at this one, called EcoLodge, based partly on not so great recommendation about another one. I knew it was rather touristic, but still wanted to go. Wildyness had given us a choice of two guest houses, and suggested one of them, because the other didn’t have great reviews. The Eco Lodge, where we stayed, was about a mile from the spring. The other one was called the Pansy, and it turned out to be right at the spring. The Eco Lodge was our least favorite of the places we’ve stayed. It wasn’t terrible, and the people were nice. But it was kind of sterile. And we were the only ones staying there. Also, there was supposed to be a pool. There was, but it was empty, no water. Mohsen, our driver, thought the place was just a few months old, and they hadn’t set up the pool yet. That seems likely, but also means that the pool on their website was photoshopped. Luckily, although Mohsen said it was a short walk to the thermal pool. We convinced him to drive us there, and he waited for us for the hour we spent there. I don’t know what the Pansy was like, but think I would recommend checking it out further to anyone considering a visit. As for Mohsen, who stayed at another of the guest places, he said it was terrible, no electricity after 8pm until 7am, and no place to take a shower. The thermal pool itself was a perfect tepid temperature and was teeming with folks at some points during our hour there, and almost empty at others. I didn’t hear a word of English, most folks were French speaking, and a bit of Arabic and a smattering of Italian and German. Some had arrived on tourist buses, others by motorcycle, and others were riding quads either to or from the spring. There were a few cafes around the spring, and a few stalls with people selling crafts, t shirts, and the like. Many of the tourists, women as well as men, were wearing the long scarf wrapped turbans that the local men wear. We actually have not run into any American tourists, or even any English-speaking ones, although many of the French visitors as well as the staff at various places, do speak some English. And our guides have all spoken fairly good English. One of our guides, in El Kef, amused me by repeatedly addressing us as "ladies and gentlemen” although it was just the two of us. The English teacher in me thought about correcting him, thinking that as a guide he might appreciate knowing that it was correct only for multiples. But then again, I didn’t want to embarrass him, and besides, it was pretty endearing. And then, a day or two later, our next guide used the same phrase, so I gather it wasn’t just the first guide, or that it was unusual for them to be guiding just a couple of people. We have moved on to our next destination at Tadarromt Home, a trogolyte guest house. Only 20 people live here in Tadorromt, about a half hour from Tatatouine, where we stopped for lunch. Trogolyte, according to many sources, means brute or hermit or a few other things, but here it means a cave house. This one has only one guest room, or I should say suite. We have a living room, two bedrooms, and a bathroom, all charming and very authentic feeling. Two older sisters live here and run the place. They are probably cooking us dinner now, and will serve us breakfast tomorrow and the following day. I took a peek into their room, at the woman’s urging, and it loooks like our living room, low mattress and many pillows, all in predominantly red patterns. And many rugs covering the floors. It is the first place we’ve stayed, ,other than camping in the desert, where we’ve not had ac. But indoors, it is cool enough that I had to put on a layer! We should be eating dinner soon, since we’ve been served around 7 or 730 each evening. I don’t smell anything yet. But we’ve heard an intermittent beeping which Loring thinks is a microwave. Which seems a bit incongruous, but not unlikely. The most incongruous thing that I’ve encountered so far was on our camel trek to camp out in a tent in the desert, a couple of nights ago. After a ride of about 45 minutes, led by our camel driver, he set up our tent, cooked us dinner, and then answered the ring of his cell phone. Now, I’ll backtrack a couple of days to our adventure camping in the desert. We’d had the choice of camping in tents at the base camp, or riding by camel to camp in a tent in the desert, which is what we chose.My guess is that we’re in the minority of the folks that visit there, although once at our spot we could see a couple of camels a few dunes over. The camels were loaded with all kinds of cushions and cushiony blankets, water jugs, and more, before we mounted them. I soon realized that the blankets and pads were our sleeping matter for the night. Our driver took our overnight daypacks ( an oxymoron?) and tied them on. Mounting a camel is a bit of a challenge, which I remembered from my previous camel ride about a decade ago in Israel. It’s kind of a three step process for the camel to stand or sit. Its back legs have two joints. First the first part of the back, then the front legs, then the other part of the back legs. So you have to cling on as you get thrust first forward, then back, before the animal is fully standing. My camel was tied to Loring’s camel, and his was led by the camel driver. The camels stop at every chance to munch on brush, which the driver sometimes allowed while at other times jerked the anlimals away. Because mine was behind the other, it got yanked more after the first camel had chomped on the bush, And every time I was afraid I’d lose my balance and fall off. Nevertheless, it was a great evperience and I did manage to stay on for a the whole ride. When we got to the camping spot, which the guide seemed to just decide at the moment, he unloaded all the gear, including two modern thermarest type pads, like the one Loring uses on his wilderness hikes. And the tent, to my surprise, was a Quechua brand pup tent with a rain fly. (which was totally unnessacery which he set up nevertheless.). The best part was when he collected some of the sparce firewood and cooked our dinner, and then breakfast the next morning. He set up three empty cans and weighted them down with sand, set a small fire underneath them. From a large cloth sack he took out onions, tomatoes, peppers, ( he gave us a slice to make sure it wasn’t too hot for us), then some frozen mutton, canned tomato sauce, and made a stew. In a second level pot like a double boiler he put couscous to cook above the stew. He wet napkins and wrapped strands of them around the seam between the upper and bottom level pots, perhaps to seal them or maybe to help steam the couscous. And then he made a salad of cucumbers, tomatoes, and onions. It was all delicious. After dinner, he took out a homemade flute that was merely a piece of metal pipe with holes, and serenaded us. Loring videoed him playing and then played it back for him, which seemed to really please him. We watched satellites and shooting stars for a while, then went to bed in the tent. Loring slept inside just for part of the night, then dragged his mat and blanket outside and slept under the stars. I was cosy inside the tent. I think our guide slept outdoors too, on the couch made of multiple blankets that he had set up next to the fire for us to recline on while we relaxed and ate. In the morning he made a dough that we think was just flour and water, flattened it out, and put in directly in the coals, covering it with additional coals. And took eggs and wrapped them in wet napkins and also put them directly in the fire. When he removed the bread from the fire and dusted it brieflly, there was no trace of ash remaining. The eggs were perfectly cooked, and as he asked/told us, better than if they were cooked in water. He put out a small dish of olive oil, and a jar of some kind of jam, perhaps fig. The dishes were washed with sand and rinsed with water from the large jugs the animals had carried. Then everything remaining went back in the bag, we took the tent down, repacked the camels with all the paraphernalia, and made our way back to the base camp and headed on our way to the next adventure.