This is part of the twelfth section of our around the world trip.
Complete Trip Overview & Map

Coming from Algeria or read our previous visit to Tunisia
 
23/10/06 Also a slow entry to Tunisia. We had been advised in Dakar that visas could be obtained at any border crossing. It seems an unusual event at this border and took an hour to get through the problem. Customs stamps, 10 each, had to be stuck into our passports, $US 8.00, and we were riding in a country that had ended Ramadan last night. It seems Libya ended theirs, so Tunisia followed, but it will be another day for Algerians. Instantly a different country feel. Tunisia is a secular country where Islam is moderate. Women are about the streets in greater numbers and are less conservatively dressed than we saw in Algeria. The countryside is largely clean of blowing plastic bags and the buildings are privately built and owned giving a variety of designs and garden shrubbery shows a house proud peoples. The first day following Ramadan is a festive holiday and a street party was underway as we passed through Tabarka. The Roman ruins at Bulla Regia were closed for the holiday but a group of Swiss tourists managed to talk the curator into opening them and we tagged along. Famous for their underground villas and mosaics they are well preserved. We stayed in Jendouba for the night, more relaxed after the tight security in Algeria. 

24/10/06 Expecting yesterday's festivities to be over and businesses to be open we rode into Tunis early morning to find everything still closed. Grimaldi Ferries web page showed a ferry to Civitavecchio just north of Rome was leaving late tonight but we had to wait till eight pm to confirm we could get a seat when the office at the ferry terminal opened. 243 Euro's total for the eighteen hour trip leaving at midnight and arriving six pm tomorrow. We filled most of the day at the beach side area near the port drinking coffee like locals in a couple of the dozens of local street side places. Kay was the only woman we saw in any of these places, a man's domain, a bit like the old public bars in Australia twenty years ago, but without alcohol, but some had found alcohol as attested by their breath and word slurring. The weekly ferry only had a few passengers arriving, mostly full of containers and new motorcars. Leaving, there were just 16 vehicles and less than 50 passengers. It is the fringe season and with the Ramadan holidays people have already arrived and are not yet leaving. We set up our mattresses on two deck lounges and slept in sleeping bags as the cold off the ocean pre-warned us we are moving to Europe's late autumn. 

25/10/06 Our twelfth boat trip in the last nine months it has lost the novelty. Comfortable and a smooth crossing we awoke to sunshine, listened to the satellite radio, boiled the billy and made a cup of tea alone on our outside deck.          

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