A Desert Drive

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

TUNISIA, a small country in North Africa, is ‘close’ to Hollywood. The movie Star Trek was made in the country’s desert. Not many people know that 40 percent of its land is desert. The Sahara, the extensive sandy region making up one-third of the African continent, runs across Tunisia.

The following is a travelogue by Tempo journalist L.N. Idayanie who explored the towns along the Sahara—Hammamet, Sousse, Kairouan, Douz, Chebika, Matmata, and Jerba. They also constitute a portrait of the lives of the Berbers, the natives of the Sahara, as well as the tales from the ruins of the ancient Carthage kingdom.

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SLOWLY we traveled over the region, an expanse of Sahara desert covering almost 40 percent of the Tunisian territory.

It was an early day in April. Our car was moving southward from Tunis to Douz. The sun was shining unobstructed but the chill was penetrating our skin. The Toyota Land Cruiser being driven by our driver Mekki Harrouchi, 38, a Tunisian who resembled actor Omar Sharif (but with no English), started cruising, cutting across the expa

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