Weronika Winkowska

The Sahara covers the southern part of Tunisia. This region may seem boring. You can ask what can I see there? Nothing could be further from the truth. I invite you on a short tour of this magical part of the world.

The hot sands of the Sahara hide the houses of the Troglodytes - people who live in caves and the Xsars - people who live in fortifications. There are also "movie sets" in this area. In the Tunisian part of the Sahara were filmed: Star Wars, Indiana Jones and the English Patient. In the middle of the Sahara, which can be reached by 4x4 vehicle, there is a Star Wars village built for the film and the surrounding lunar landscape can be seen in the adaptations. Sahara has also beautiful oases and the Atlas Mountains - this is where the beautiful Chebika is located 6 km from the border with Algeria.

• Matmata- the first stop on our desert route. This region is inhabited by Berbers - more precisely Troglodytes and Xsars - the first ones seek shelter from the heat in caves (200 houses), and the second ones seek shelter in hidden fortifications in the mountains.
• Douz - a place where asphalt roads end, known as the Sahara Gate. A very good starting point for exploring the area. From there, we set off in the desert caravan towards sunset.
• The next point after waking up at 3 am was crossing the causeway by the largest salt lake (Chott el Jerid) in the Sahara. Totally dry at this time of year. It was supposed to be a beautiful sunrise, but unfortunately mother nature wasn’t generous. It is worth adding that this part of the road is several dozen kilometers long and is famous for mirages which happen very often there.
• Tozeur - a city in the desert, a beautiful oasis with countless palm trees and fruit trees. Dates, bananas, pomegranates, limes, and much more growth there.
• Here we change to Jeeps to get into the desert and to the Star Wars village. What is more interesting, we drove a small part of the Paris-Dakar road. Our Jeep journey lasted 3 hours.
• The last point on our desert route is Chebika Oasis - a spectacular place among the Atlas Mountains with a small waterfall and many palm trees. For me, this place looks like an oasis from fairy tales.

Sahara captivated me. Fortunately, the temperatures did not knock you off your feet. On the big minus - rubbish, the whole of Tunisia is one huge garbage dump, even in the middle of the desert, we can find scattered bottles or plastics.