Still tagging along.
Still tagging along.
Joe's Garage and Apostrophe / Overnight Sensation were my intro to FZ.
This thread is AMAZING!
Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) said:This thread is AMAZING!
Thanks Doc!
Ok, there I was. Rested up from the weekend.
So it was the middle of the night when both younger Huntsmen woke Mrs. Huntswoman up. Someone was in our campsite and messing with the chairs we had left out. She pops her head out and clears her throat, and in her best mom voice says "um, excuse me"
Turns out the irrigation system was going to be turned on. The guy was a worker that wanted to make sure our stuff didn't get washed away. Looking at the site in this new light, we can see how the high vs low lands serve as spots to pitch your tent, and as channels where water flows. our tent was in no danger, but there was a low pool area where we had set up to sit.
Next morning it's camp coffee and life. LOTS OF LIFE!!!
We had left our trash in a trash bag (tied 0ff) next to a tree in our camp. Well, cats must have found it because it was ripped open (in a very cat-claw like way). Then the ants must have found it, because they were everywhere (in the trash, in our dirty dishes, all over the truck....). To shore up the situation I decided to tie the trash to a tree branch (which is what I should have done last night) and when I did so, I saw someone had done the same and left their stuff behind. (when we leave, I will have collected this bag and added it to ours before disposing of properly.
Also looking at the site in this new light, we have a LOT more room than we suspected the night before and even had a table/sitting area
Breakfast is going to be eggs and baguettes. yum!
On the toilet is the largest praying mantis I've ever seen. I'm not usually bothered by bugs to much, but I decide to let the guy finish what he's doing and I head to the ladies head instead. Later, the youngest will see the flattest spider I've ever seen and I'll be called back to the head to avoid that too.
Since we have a water source today, and lots of free space, we decide to catch up on laundry again, and whatnot. When we update our bingo sheets the score is as follows:
Youngest: 2
Mrs: 1
Me: 0
Boo...
So today is what Mrs. Huntswoman and I call a "free day". We always do this during our big trips and historically it's worked out very well. In fact, our "free days" tend to turn out better than anything we usually have planned. That being said, we do take some time to discuss what we want to do today as there is a lot to see in the area.
Desert run? Find some national parks? All of the above?
One thing for certain is we want to wild camp again. There are some workers taking care of the palms in this camp and of course they're doing it RIGHT at our site. It's kind of annoying not having a bit of freedom/privacy...
The Younger Huntsmen are off exploring the camp. They find chickens, ducks, a peacock, and even a dog!
Anyhoo, it must have been REAL early when we woke up because after all of this we start our showers and camp packup around 7:30. It's nice not knowing what time it is.
Once done we're set to head out and of course, on cue the workers have all disappeared. This figures because all their stuff is not only blocking the truck in, but one of them parked a motorcycle in the middle of the road to head out. We set out on foot to find them and all was taken care of.
There was no one at the gate either, so Mrs. Huntswoman had to woman-handle that thing open (I'm driver because she doesn't like driving a stick).
She's using her mom voice again to tell that kitten to stay put.
Back on the road and the Youngest Huntsmen is waving at everyone. This started yesterday with the truck full of children and now he waves at all the drivers. By his count he's got 5-million-and-three waves yesterday and is hoping to top that today. And by the looks of it, it might happen. We saw people setting up yesterday evening when we were driving back, and today there is a HUGE market happening! (and a flood of people in attendance as a result). It looks like a farmers market but we decide there isn't really anything we need, so we head on through.
In town, GPS tells me to hook a right and just like that the pavement is gone!
I dunno what the heck it had us drive through, but it must have thought it was a shortcut or something. Out the other side the pavement is restored and by the looks of it, we are heading to the desert!
And when I say desert, I really mean it. Shortly after this photo a motorcyclist will flash his light and gesture at us. We're not interested in stopping or turning around (hubs still in) so I wave and carry on. Up ahead we see what we think he was on about when a CAT-950D looking piece of machinery is stopped in a HUGE sand drift and the driver is out taking a leak.
Of to the left the sand looks shallow (if not soft) so I build momentum and hit it in 3rd. We're definitely slowing when we hit it, but we make it through. This will happen on again and off again many times before we get to our destination (Which has the youngest SUPER excited. He's really wanting to bomb around the desert today). We wont see a drift as big as the one we saw with the CAT, and there isn't anything that makes us consider turning around either. When events transpire later, I'll begin to suspect that the motorcyclist spotted tourists and wanted to see if he could make money off of us as a guide or something.
Which reminds me: Today's destination? Mos Espa!
Still nerding along. And when we did Disney/Galaxy's Edge in Nov 2022, we did Sunday eve until Friday morning with Thursday planned as a "free day". Then a hurricane happened Wednesday afternoon into Thursday afternoon, so we pretty much stayed in the room until dinnertime. I found a place that rented assorted machine guns and they had a Sterling (what the stormtrooper's E-11 were based on) so it wasn't a total loss. Plus a decent Chinese buffet down the street.
In reply to Jerry :
hahahahahaha! Love it! I've rented a few autos in my day, but never a sterling.
So, pulling up to Mos Espa the first thing I notice are the vehicles parked off to the left. I'm trying to get an idea of who's here and they're obviously not tourists. This means they're either workers or salesmen, and I'm betting on the latter. And holy smokes was I right...
The first one to approach was the "camel guy" and we've already talked to the eldest about this. At first they hand you the rope to the camel and ask if you want to take a picture. Being handed something and having your brain distracted, you tend to grab the rope. Now it's nothing to hand over your phone for a photo. You pose, they take it, and now that they have your phone/camera they ask for money. Mrs. Hungary and I have run into this before.
Sure enough, the eldest (ever the animal lover) in his distracted slow motion has his hand coming up to accept the rope. A stern reminder from Mrs. Huntswoman snaps him back to reality. "No thank you" we say, but the man persists until we stop replying and just start to ignore him.
Another man arrives on foot offering desert roses (a crystal that forms with water in the desert), and talking about post cards and magnets. We're not even 5 feet from the truck at this point. "no thanks" "No thank you".
Reaching into his pocket he pulls out a thunder rock (looks like a rock on the outside, lots of crystals on the inside) "no. No thank you"
Another approaches (now only 6 feet from the truck) "Camel rides? guide? there's another filming spot just 5 minutes from here. I'll take you"
This is beyond annoying "no. No. we're good, thank you". "maybe later" "no, not now. thank you" "we want to look first"
none of our attempts are falling on anything other than deaf ears.
still being followed, and different attempts to sell us something still being non stop, we arrive at the gates to the film site:
I don't remember how we got those photos, but I'm assuming the salesmen were still behind me. One comes back with a magnet of the site "look, look. This photo is there"
"Yes, I see"
All of us overstimulated at this point, and the heat doing nothing to reduce our annoyance at the constant hounding, we do a 180 and head back to the truck.
"Rally?" one asks (hopefully) pointing at the truck.
"No. Just for fun" I reply to his disappointment.
At this point we're loading up and I think I was even offered an off-road tour (to which I raised one serious eyebrow) and punching the heck out. There are dunes a little further on and I'll head that way for our next photo op. I do NOT want to stay here a single moment longer. Our total stay in Mos Espa was all of about 5 minutes and we didn't see much of anything beyond what you see in the photos (didn't get to poke our heads into the houses, or walk anywhere beyond that first square).
Between the road we came in on and Mos Espa was supposed to be a path to the right. We didn't see it, but it's on google maps. We decide we're going to drive into those dunes a bit beyond Mos Espa, unwind by taking some photos, and then figure out how we're going to find that path without attracting the attention of any of those high pressure salesmen. But first:
Look, sir! Droids!
For the record, we didn't have to 4x4 out to get this photo. It was all hard packed sand to where we parked (along with some trash) and then we footed it up a dune from there. There were two Landcruisers descending one STEEP dune in tandem (I'm guessing an off-road tour group) but there's no way they ascended that slope. This tells me that path I'm going to be looking for after this must exist. (Sorry if it seems like I'm way over-focused on this. I'm still really irritated by the souvenir salesmen and do not want to do anything stupid (like get stuck) and have to go back to them for help.)
Still though, nice views.
Theres Mos Espa in the background for reference.
Photo op over (and I gotta say, it will be a while before I remember that I brought a cheap black comb with me to take a picture of us "combing the desert". I blame the lapse in memory on being wound up and suffer second wave irritation at those salesmen) we head back towards the road we came in and give Mos Espa a wide berth. To our left about 8 tourists are egressing vehicles and walking towards the filming site. I silently hope their strength in numbers will give them a less stressful visit. With 8 adults, the salesmen will be more divided than they were with us.
About 2 seconds after we pass them, I spot our path!
Honestly, this road is AWFUL! on many many occasions we simply slip it into 4hi and bump over in the sand (as it appears many others have done before us) for a softer ride (and it IS softer). Also, I think I hear something loose in my front suspension. Like the swaybar. Definitely driver's side.
Our first destination is simply a photo opportunity that was listed on Google maps called "Ong Jmal". I mean, this is our question mark day, why not be spontaneous?
There's a pretty clear path all the way to this photo site. There's an abandoned souvenier stand on the way, and you can see where 4wd drivers have made shortcuts (like straight up a steep hill) but we stick to a path that almost any car could follow (save for our times where we're driving next to it in the sand). Ong Jmal is simply a rocky-ish jut in the sand in an otherwise dry lake bed. Of course there are 4x4 and quad tracks around, but we're just sight seeing.
The youngest is still SUPER excited to be in the desert right now. He makes me walk with him a decent distance into the dry lake bed.
There's a tea shack with what looks like cold drinks and a bathroom just to the right of that photo. We're still avoiding people though, so we don't go.
And then it's back on that path. We opted for this route as it will eventually terminate at a highway. Somewhere along the way is a film site for "Kingdoms of Fire", but have never heard of it. 
I mean, how often do you get to drive a Toyota out of a castle???
It's also cool to see what it looks like behind the facade.
Alright, that being done we just have to navigate our way through the desert and back to civilization! We got done with this set early enough that we decide we want to hit two national parks nearby (both in mountains). iOverlander says there is a wild camp option after the second one so we set that as our destination and head on out north-west-ish.
When visiting Alexandria Egypt, we called them "Hey Joes" because that's all they kept saying over and over to get us to buy their cheap crap. It was brutal at the port where our little boats pulled in from the carrier. One time someone kept shoving a handful of trinkets at my friend, he got pissed and yelled no, throwing the trinkets on the ground. Kids came from everywhere to grab them up, Hey Joe was not happy.
And visiting the pyramids/Sphinx, they were doing the same thing out front. Camel rides, etc. Worst part of the whole trip, but I got visit the pyramids. Didn't help that I'd been up all night before, on watch in the engine room.
There I was, heading out of the desert...
So, navigating out wasn't as easy as navigating in. The road turns into a network of roads and we begin to think that we're doing things backwards (people usually come FROM the direction we're heading to, and then culminate at those dunes we saw the 4x4 Landcruisers descend down). That's about par for our course. We take lefts at a Y, we take rights at a Y, the washboarding is still awful, and I swear I hear a sound like my swaybar hardware is loose...
meh.
Eventually we start to see signs of civilization again
Sand turns to gravel, gravel turns to pavement, and we even get to see some camels!
(Well, WE see some camels. The eldest is reading his book and sleeping through all this)
Somewhere out there a mall crawler is sitting broken in a parking lot.
Meanwhile in Tunisia, the mighty Isuzu D-Max...
We saw billions of these doing exactly this (or more) on the trip. Me thinks Toyota's reputation is about to get surpassed.
Two hours it takes us to get back to civilization. We're pointed north-west and headed to a mountain called "Obata" and then a national park called "bou Hedma".
Around lunch we stopped in a decent sized city named "Gafsa" and Mrs. Huntswoman spots a VERY nice looking restaurant off to the right. I don't even question at this point, our luck has been so bad with those pizzarias that if she's saying it's there, then I'm swerving for all it's worth. Luckily for me I swerved RIGHT into a parking spot along the curve (not that that matters much. I could probably park on the sidewalk and get away with it).
The restaurant IS nice, and it's called "76". It's three floors with a bar on the second and a restaurant on the third with an open terrace. We get a slight glimmer of hope as we climb the stairs and feel the air conditioning, but that's all dashed when we get to the top floor and feel the heat again. I mean, it's KINDA cooler than it is outside, but not by much.
I gotta be honest, I feel a bit gross sitting in a nice place like this. We are FRESH out of the desert and completely covered in sand.... I mean, I had my arm out the window not thinking about it and then went to re-apply sunblock and I just ended up making a VERY abrasive paste on my arm... 
The next problem with this place? WESTERN MENUs!!!!!!
That's right. Burgers and fries and cherry pies. And our nemesis... The darn pizza...
It is as good as it looks though, and we do enjoy. The gloves were a hilarious but nice touch (especially considering we weren't given napkins).
Kids...
With lunch in our bellies it's time to turn our attention to fuel and groceries. We don't need much of either, but both are across the street so it's best not to miss this opportunity.
And we're off!!!
We're stopped at a police checkpoint just out of town. I'm really starting to dislike introductions because I haven't bothered to learn any French or Arabic before this trip and communication gets difficult as a result. The officer and I go through the "Bonjour" and get to the "enna Ameriki" which is usually enough, but this guy is still asking questions and I think it's a bit strange. Normally we're waved through...
Eventually we pick up that he's asking where we are going. "Orbata" Mrs. Hungary replies (and a good thing because I had our final destination in mind, as that's how my brain works)
"Orbata?" He asks. "No. Trrrrrrrrst"
"Yes, tourists!" I say, happy to finally understand something.
"No" He says sternly "'TER-OR-ISTS'. Kill you" and he pokes me in the chest sharply to drive the point home.
oh.
Well, E36 M3.... what the hell do we do now?
In reply to Jerry :
"Hey Joes" is a good one. On the Bamako run it was "petit kadoo?" (probably not spelled correctly, but it means "little gift?" in French). I never ran into much of that on our wespacs, thankfully. Hong Kong, Singapore, and whatnot were all pretty big areas and could absorb us pretty easily. Still though, I would like to visit Egypt someday. Maybe there's a way to plan something where I use my POV to avoid the Hey Joes...
So we take a minute to take in what the police officer just said and Mrs. Huntswoman is looking at the map. "Bou-Hedma"? she asks
"ah, yes. good." he says, and lets us go.
Ok, that's where our camp is supposed to be, but it really isn't far from the mountain where he's saying the terrorists are. I don't think Mrs. Hungary or I are alarmists, and if we were by ourselves we could probably proceed "as is" without deviating course but we have the younger Huntsmen with us so why take the risk...
We drive off about 100-yards down the road and pull over under the shade of a big tree. We pull out our binder and look at our notes. One page involves "no-no" spots, and sure enough we're heading right through one...
Well, that's a bummer.
Mrs. Huntswoman is on iOverlander and finds a wild camp through Kairouan. The drive is a bit further north so we should be able to dodge any dodgy activity. It's 3 hours though so we're not going to be getting any rest today.
Add into that we're on high alert now and our energy was already a bit sapped from the desert run, AND we don't have much confidence in this new spot.
See, a lot of places on iOverlander can be really cool. But a lot of times they could be just where someone parked for a night and called it a camp site. A parking lot at a lookout? yup, all over Italy. Random field next to a building? Yup, all over Tunisia...
But it's a destination, so we figure it's better than nothing at the moment. To get to Kairouan, we have to travel back to Gafsa, take a right onto a new highway, and then we're out. The problem is if you look at the map, we're kind of splitting "no no" spots so keeping situational awareness will be pretty high on my list. To our advantage though, the chassis is pretty tight (with fresh Bilstein shocks), engine and tires and everything is above-average, and the hubs are still in so I think the cards are stacked in our favor.
Honestly, it was all for nothing. Absolutely nothing changed but the scenery. We looked again at our camp site and decided it was bunk. Mrs. Huntswoman pulled up google-maps and started looking for hotels with "secure parking". She finds three and makes them our destination, starting with the cheapest one first. All are in Kairouan, so it's 100% on our way.
I will say that our truck is getting a bit more attention from the locals. I attribute this to this area kind of being off the beaten path. They probably don't get too many tourists out here. In one town there were kids selling things on the side of the road near an overpass. One makes motions like he wants something to drink. I slam the brakes and he runs up. Mrs. Huntswoman gives him 1.5-liters of water and he ran off (quite happy).
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