Visa Issues and BBQ Sheep Heads

We only have 1 week left in Africa before we visit friends and family in England and we are looking forward that.

Luckily I made it to Morocco, after some minor visa issues in Tunisia. About the time of my last blog, Nick was reading through my passport and realised that I had only been given a 7 day visa and it had already expired...oops! All the info we had about Tunisian visa's had suggested Australians are granted a 3 month tourist visa on entry, so I didn't think to check it at the airport when we arrived. We travelled by louage (a form of public transport in Tunisia, which are minivans) the whole way around Tunisia and every now and then we were stopped at police checks where everyone on the louage had to had over their ID. At one of these stops, before we found the problem in my passport, we were questioned by one of the policemen about where we were going and how long we were staying. We were wondering why they were so interested, but it all became clear when Nick read my passport a few days later. Anyway, they let us go without too much concern at the time. So after some calling around and getting the run around, I got some info by emailing the Canadian embassy. As suggested I visited the police station in Jerba to arrange a visa extension, but I couldn't sort this out as they couldn't process it until the day before we were to fly to Morocco. The laid back policeman said I could just sort it out in Tunis when I arrived there. When I did arrive a few days before we were to fly, we went straight to the police station to sort it out and they weren't concerned at all and told me it would be fine. So I just rocked up to the airport immigration with my out of date visa. The immigration official noticed and after some questioning and agreeing to pay for an extension they took Nick off to pay for it, while I waited off to the side. Soon after they returned with the extension in my passport and through we went. No problems, I'm glad it wasn't like Australian immigration!

Between visiting the various police stations of Tunisia we also managed to fit a bit more sight seeing. We stopped at an old Colosseum from the days of Roman occupation during the Roman Empire times, in a place called El Jem. It was cool, you could explore up into the stands and under the false floor where all the gladiators, wild animals etc were kept before the performances and executions took place.

Tunisia was great and the culture is an interesting mix of Traditional Berber, Arab and French etc from years of various occupation while various empires rose and fell and other countries invaded and left. Islam took a strong hold on the people and still does today across all northern Africa. We got to witness the lead up to an important Muslim event, which involves the sacrifice of a sheep. We saw a huge weekly animal market in the town of Douz where men traded their sheep, horses, donkeys, chickens, goats, camels etc. It was quite a sight and I was glad we had just bumped into a French Canadian girl we had met in Tozeur, so I wasn't the only female weaving our way through the mayhem. On this occasion sheep were the main item of trade.

When we arrived in Casablanca, Morocco, we decided to head straight to Marrakesh as there wasn't much of interest to us in Casablanca. Unfortunately, we travelled on the day before the Muslim sheep sacrifice day and this meant we were crammed onto the train with all the people needing to head home to be with their families for the day. We didn't manage a seat on the train for most of the 3 hour trip, so we had to stand in the vestibule area, me right next to the toilet. Nice! At one point I nearly ended up in the toilet as I lent on the door handle and opened the door suddenly. I think some of the men here have ants in their pants and can't sit still, some spent much of the time wandering around the train...to the toilet and the next carriage etc..which was fun on a packed train. I think all the stimulants in their system could be the reason, with all the smoking and tea and coffee they drink. Some tried to smoke in the vestibule area, but not for long, as Nick pointed to the non smoking area sign and told them off. Our new found vestibule buddies were a bit shocked at first, but glad he had.

Marrakesh was very quiet for us, as the Muslim event took place the first day we were there, but it was nice to wander through the souks without any of the normal hassle as everything was shut. We did get to see some woollie heads being BBQ-ed. I think the head must be the pick of the sheep to eat. The following day we walked past an elderly couple struggling to lift the left over sheep into their cart, to take to the butcher, so Nick gave them a hand. The head was missing. You can actually buy them to eat in the main square where there are numerous food stands. One night Nick and I tried some yummy chocolate looking treats from a tea stand, except they weren't so yummy. I couldn't even give it away to the lady begging near us.

After visiting Marrakesh we spent a few days in Essaouira, a fishing town on the Atlantic coast. This was a nice relaxed place. Then we came back via Marrakesh before heading to the High Atlas Mountains, which were stunning! I have written enough for now though, so I'll write more about that later.

It's 5 days till Christmas now, so I hope everyone has a good Christmas day, for those that celebrate it. Nick and I will probably be spending it in the Rif Mountains.

Saharan Recipes, Star Wars and Roman Ruins

We are in Tunisis now, on a island called Jerba. Tunisia has been great, I have really enjoyed it.
Tunisia is all about Roman riuns, Star Was sets and really warm, generous people.

We have seen some really impressive Roman Ruins at Carthage and some at a place called Bulla Regia. The ruins here were well preserved and had the most elaborate mosaics in homes that had been built by the Romans under the ground to escape the heat of the summer.

We have been to a few of the Star Wars sights. We stayed in the home of Luke Skywalker at a hotel called Sidi Driss in Matmata, that was cool. It is built under ground by the local Berber tribes. I can see how much inspiration George Lucas got for the films here. A lot of the men here wear big coats that make them all look like Obi Wan and some of the place names are the same as the movies.

We have met some very nice, generous Tunisians, especially down in the South at a place called Tatouine. We spent an afternoon there having cups of tea given to us as we chatted to some of the local guys, not that we understood much of the French. We had shop keepers giving us sweets for nothing and random people offering us food on the street etc, etc. It has been really nice.

We spent some time camel trekking through the desert South of Douz, I know Nick talked about the overnight trip but I wanted to provide you with some recipe's from the trip.

Dinner - Veggie and Mutton/Goat Couscous

Ingedients

• Potato
• Carrot
• Onion
• Garlic
• Unknown vegetable, add your own varieties
• Salt
• Tin of Tomato paste
• Meat...I have no idea what our guide used maybe mutton or goat??
• Water
• Couscous

Method

• Chop vegetables and place all ingredients except couscous in a big pot
• Cook in the pot on an open fire, until cooked
• Cook couscous separately, fluff it around with your hands until it's light and fluffy
• Mix in a bowl and serve with spoons
• Tuck in
• Finish off with a maderine and some drumming and singing on the tom tom

P.S. Don't forget the washing up, thanks to one of the camels

Breakfast - Bread Saharan Style with Fromage (cheese)

Ingredients

• Flour
• Salt
• Water
• Camel slobber
• Sand
• Ash/coals

Method

• First ensure the fire is cracking
• Then get your camel cleaned bowl from previous night
• Mix the the flour, water and salt into the bowl and make a dough
• Make a small mound of sand about the size of a pizza
• Place your hessian sack over the mound and sprinkle some flour onto the sack
• Kneed your dough so it's flat and about the size of a pizza
• Spread your coals out in the fire
• Place the flattened dough onto the coals
• Cover the dough with more coals, ash and sand
• Wait a while then turn the dough and repeat the coal, ash and sand process
• Wait a while longer then remove the cooked bread from the coals
• Beat it with your blanket to remove all the ash, sand and coals
• Serve with triangles of soft cheese

P.S. But hold on the tea, it's full of leaves and very bitter, so bitter you can't taste the piles of sugar you have put in to disguise the taste.

I haven't made this sound very appertising but believe me it tasted very good. So simple.

Anyway, times up I hope you are all well and looking forward to Christmas.
We are off to Morocco next on the 7th Dec.