| Please note that our itineraries are not set in stone and can be subject to change. For those travelling from Cairo to Tunis please follow the itinerary in reverse ( bracketed )
Tunisia - Days 1 – 6 (Days 12 – 19) Tunis is a safe and very easy city to explore. It has a fascinating old walled city, more commonly called the Medina, and is thankfully ignored by most of the package holiday tour operators. Tunis has a strong medieval Arab past and well worth spending a couple of days here before your trip begins. Also, the legendary city of Carthage is only a 30 minute bus or taxi ride from Tunis with it’s Greek and Roman past infused with power, cruelty , romance and decline.
Our first stop on leaving Tunis on day 1 is Dougga, the largest and most dramatic Roman site in Tunisia, and possibly in North Africa. We continue after lunch for the short drive to Le Kef, a mountainous village dominated by it’s fortified Kasbah. We have a free day here as there are many short hikes and places of interest and Le Kef itself is a great place to relax. Only an hours drive south we visit the old Roman city of Haidra, very close to the Algerian Border, before carrying on to Tunisia’s main date growing region at the small oasis towns of Nefta and Tozeur where we have some free time to explore. These towns are closely linked with the mystical brotherhood of Sufism and over the next week in Tunisia and Libya we will pass numerous small white painted dome topped buildings which are the burial places of Marabouts – holy men and religious teachers who travelled to and from Mecca and organised Sufi schools.
Continuing travelling via Kebili we reach Gabes and spend our first day on the Mediterranean coast. Gabes, unlike most of the Northern Tunisian coast, is still undeveloped and hardly sees tourists; so here we can enjoy the long palm fringed sandy beach in peace!
Next we visit Matmata, well known for its troglodyte villages and then head South to Remada and the desert border with Libya.
Days 7 – 11 (Days 9 – 11) We cross the border into Libya at the small town of Nalut, which has an exceptional qasr (fortified granary reached though underground tunnel) clinging to a steep hillside as well as ancient olive oil presses. Our first major port of call in Libya is the UNESCO World Heritage listed oasis town of Ghadames. Situated on an ancient desert caravan route from West Africa there is believed to have been a town here for 5000 years. Here you can feel perfectly safe as you get lost in it’s labyrinthine alleyways. You can also venture out of town and climb one of the sand dunes to view the spectacular sunsets. We now cross the Hamadat al-Hamrah desert to Al Qaryat and then drive to Leptis Magna. This is one of the finest preserved Roman Cities and one of the few where you can actually still picture a living city. With colonnaded streets, a huge triumphal arch, a well preserved Roman harbour with quay side and warehouses still intact and much more, it is well worth investing in a local guide and enjoy the whole day exploring the city.
Days 12 - 14 (Days 6 - 8) We now drive along the Mediterranean coast with plenty of opportunities to freshen up with a swim from one of the many deserted beaches. Our next major stop is at the ancient Greek city of Cyrene. Established in the 7th Century BC it has an outstanding history having come under the rule of Alexander the Great as well as being rebuilt by Emperor Hadrian after destruction by a Jewish revolt. Plato was also a resident of Cyrene.
From Cyrene it is a short drive to Tobruk, the scene of some of the most important and viscous battles of WW 2. Here we visit the well kept Commonwealth Cemeteries, containing 6128 graves of mainly British, Australian, New Zealand and South African troops. We will also see some of the 25 kms of fortified trenches and battle remains that circled the town. Don’t forget to wear shoes here as some of the barbed wire still exists in the sand!
Days 15 - 19 (Days 1 - 5) From Tobruk we cross into Egypt and visit El Alamein. Winston Churchill said ‘Before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamain we never had a defeat.’ This was the turning point of the Second World War. It is well worth paying your respects at the cemeteries and visiting the excellent War Museum which documents Montgomery’s and Rommel’s momentous battles and it also houses much of the abandoned tanks and other armour. Next we stop at Alexandria where we can visit the old coffee houses or enjoy some of the excellent seafood or take a trip to the Catacombs in the eerie subterranean Roman Necropolis full of bizarre carvings and an ancient dining room for mourners! The beaches and diving here are also excellent with wrecks of Roman Galley’s, French Warships, German U-boats and Cleopatra’s Palace.
A half days drive away brings us to Cairo which will be our base for the next week. The first day is spent in Cairo visiting the Sphinx and Pyramids of Giza with a local Egyptologist guide (this also includes a camel ride around the Pyramids), we also visit the Egyptian History museum in the afternoon.
Those on the 19 day trip finish here in Cairo whilst others join us to carry on to Tbilisi, Bishkek & Beijing |
