Traveling to the Great South of Tunisia is the best option, due to its proximity and safety, to navigate large dunes from Spain. But some unforeseen events that arose hours before starting the trip shook an adventure that we had all been anxiously waiting for weeks. Here is the chronicle of the journey that a group of women, men and children from Territori 4×4 managed to overcome successfully, overcoming as if gladiators were dealing with all the difficulties that appeared before and during the journey.
Friday and Saturday 14-15 March 2008
Like most of the trips that Territori 4×4 makes to Tunisia, the departure was scheduled for Saturday from Marseille, but this time the destination in the form of a strike played a trick on us.
On Friday at 10 a.m., 24 hours before boarding, the shipping company informs us that there is a strike that cancels the departure of the ferry to Tunis from Marseille, with more than 40 vehicles on various routes between Tunisia and Libya, we managed to get a large part of them to leave with CTN from Genoa, In this way, all these participants will not lose any day of their vacation and will be able to comply with the pre-established routes. In that group from Genoa there is a group of pilots and 4×4, the Tunisian Gran Sur Xtrem, who will try to make the crossing from Borj el Khadra to Timbaine, crossing the eastern Great Erg in its central part.
Sunday 16 March 2008
The Tunisian Gran Sur group will leave on Sunday at 5 p.m. from Marseille, with a loss of almost 30 hours over the established schedule. Many participants of the Raid decide to go on Friday night to Provence, and spend Saturday in a relaxed way visiting the Parc de la Camargue and the mouth of the Rhône.
On Sunday at 3 p.m., the entire group is boarding the Danielle Casanova, one of the best ships on SNCM that in a few hours, if all goes well, will set sail for Tunisia.
Finally, at 5 p.m. on Sunday, March 16, we set sail for North Africa. With the ship following its defeat in the Mediterranean and before dinner we have a meeting in the Conference Room of the ship to discuss the strategy we will follow. This meeting demonstrates the unequivocal will of the group to maintain the route envisaged by the Organization to the end.
Monday 17 March 2008
The hours of placid navigation pass until we reach the Port of La Goullete in Tunisia, we pass customs and with morale at the limit we start the journey by highway to Matmata, where we arrive at around 11 p.m. We had a buffet dinner that the hotel management had reserved for us and the group retired to sleep, tired but very happy to be at the point where the Organization had planned to stay.
Tuesday 18 March 2008
Today we make a very interesting tourist route, on asphalt and tracks, visiting some hidden Ksars and charming villages of this ancient Berber region in central Tunisia.
Our friends from the Tunisian Gran Sur Xtrem inform us that they have already reached Borj el Khadra, but that all the rules have changed and despite the great kindness and help of the Tunisian officials and military, they have started the descent at 8 pm on Monday.
With all the permits in order, with all the favorable reports from the Tourist Police, with our Tunisian guides hired almost two months ago, the new regulations that appeared as a result of an incident with some tourists lost in the desert, mean that the rule has been modified and the delivery of the authorization of the Governor of the region is delayed for more than 5 hours.
Finally, at 6 p.m., the group regroups in Remada, unfortunately Toni has bronchitis and must abandon the idea of going down to the Great South, together with his travel companion Joan, it is the second time they try and fate prevents them from doing so again.
We had dinner in a field at the gas station, while we waited for the military authorization that we got late at night. With all the authorizations and permits in order, we started the desired path to El Borma.
We arrive at the military checkpoint, and finally, they open the barrier that guarantees us that all the papers we have are correct and will allow us, in shalah, to comply with the planned route.
Around 11 pm and about 10 kms from the entrance of the Borma station, we camp on the dunes to spend the night.
Wednesday 19 March 2008
With the first rays of the Sun, the camp begins to rise, the faces reflect a lot of joy and satisfaction, of all the groups that had left Marseille with us on the Danielle Casanova, we are the first group that has managed to get here without problems.
After about fifteen minutes along the wide track surrounded by dunes, we arrive at the military control of the Borma, without problems they let us enter, on asphalt, we continue passing controls, where we are treated with exquisite politeness and kindness, we know that they do it for our safety and this reinforces our will to start as soon as possible the great sea of sand and dunes that is almost about to touch.
We leave the Borma station, and the track is becoming more and more a river of sand, at about 20 kms we deflate tires at a pressure of 1.2, we reset the 4×4 odometer to measure how many kms we will do with the tires deflated. After traveling many kms of soft sand and some small dunes, we arrive at a small military detachment that gives us the go-ahead to freely start the Great Tunisian Eastern Erg, the objective of this trip. Without having started the most complex part of the route, there is already a distance of about 12 kms between the first car and the last.
The route begins to become interesting and above all entertaining, large dune ridges with climbs where you have to mix technique and power in equal parts, Balbino and his HDJ 80, uncovers himself as an expert dune breaker and his skill makes this entire first group of 4×4 ask him to open not only until he reaches Borj el Khadra, but throughout the tour of dunes.
At a waypoint pre-set by the organization, we eat and all the groups meet, there are no incidents to highlight except for the Tunisian support car that has broken the cardan, and has had to abandon the crossing and return to Matmata to repair it.
The wind that blows does not make this moment pleasant, which should be relaxing and relaxed, nor does the protection offered by the 4x4s formed as a caravan of the old American West allow us to shelter from the uncomfortable element. In any case, hunger overcomes discomfort and we eat sitting down despite the annoying air and sand that make themselves felt in a heavy and relentless way.
After lunch, the groups restart the march each one taking their time, without haste, the large cordons and the great climbs are waiting for us. This section of the route of about 50 kms, combines adrenaline climbs with placid sandy slopes, which allow participants to take it as a quiet walk in a landscape of indescribable beauty and only comparable to the Libyan Awari. After each cordon the group that opens marks its willingness to advance, a fact that is followed by the subsequent groups, finally Balbino’s group reaches the mythical point of Borj el Khadra, the commander-in-chief of the settlement, bordering Libya and Algeria, welcomes us and informs us that only we and our comrades from the Gran Sur Xtrem have reached here in recent days, This, as is normal, gives us morale and fills us with satisfaction and pride.
They let us sleep in a lake surrounded by trees but the mosquitoes that live there do not think it is a good idea and invite us, in their spicy way, to go somewhere else. We do about 3 or 4 kms and camp in some dunes very close to the Libyan border.
Today is San José and the great abundance of people who accompany us with that name makes the cava and the party last a little longer than normal. Dinner is well and abundant, with the camp set up with daylight, people have been able to shower and catch up on all the pending cleaning and mechanical issues.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
When we wake up in the morning, a pair of 4x4s do not have their batteries ready, which forces us to use cables with clamps to start them.
After visiting a field of desert roses, located in a chott on the border with Libya, we resume the march to make the journey to El Borma.
The defined and very well consolidated groups only receive three instructions, respect the wpts, create their own lines and the most important, enjoy the navigation and the extraordinary descents that had to be done.
Thus we began a route that everyone satisfied, that everyone liked, not only for the driving, but for the beautiful and immense landscapes that we were traveling, without a doubt, although we were about 20 kms from the track of the previous day, this itinerary heading north, through dune ridges with impressive descents was surrounded by landscapes of pure desert and pink color that left us all pleasantly surprised.
We passed dozens of dune ridges, with all kinds of descents, choppy, very choppy, slippery, big, small, but all fun and that allowed us in the end to improve our driving in dunes so much that we didn’t even warn about the descents through the station. The route was an experience that can only be described if you live personally, the level of riding was so high that at 5 pm we arrived at El Borma, with a difference of a few minutes between all the groups, which although they had done all the wpts, had done different routes, each more spectacular and fun than the other. At that moment when we had to inflate the tires again, since the sand for today had run out, the odometer set to zero when deflating tires read: 540 kms, FIVE HUNDRED AND FORTY KILOMETERS OF DUNES AND SAND, everything had been worth it, the delay in the boat, the authorizations, the controls, the wind,… For two days we had enjoyed like children doing dunes, large dunes, great climbs and great descents, navigating with the GPS looking for the strategically chosen wpts that forced us to cross the great mountains of sand and dunes.
Upon arriving at the Borma gas station, a participant feels unwell, thanks to the contacts we have, we enter the Ambulatory of the base to the sick person, he is immediately treated by the Borma medical team and the care of our dear nurse Marta, after three or four hours, our sick colleague begins to recover and eats normally.
Meanwhile, the General Director of the Base opens the doors to the group to protect themselves from the infamous sandstorm, in a place restricted and reserved only for the inhabitants of the Borma, it is a real oasis, which protects us from the sand and almost from the wind, we can have dinner and sleep comfortably
in our tents.
Friday, March 21, 2008
In the morning, with all the participants at 100% and cars in good working order, we leave the Borma, along the track towards Matmata, about 40 kms, the arrow of the GPS tells us that we must leave the main track and face some dunes that are on our left, some 4×4 deflate the wheels a little and we face the new challenge of navigation through dunes, this time small and mousetraps, but very fun and entertaining to discover the right step. Between dunes, hamadas, sandy rivers and fast rivers we do about 200 kms until we reach the main track and inflate tires.
We have reduced the initially planned route by four days, in just three days, it has been almost 750 kms on the sand and through dunes, it has been a success that only we, on this trip, have achieved, we are all satisfied when we go to our Hotel in Matmata, where we arrive just with the disappearance of the Sun.
There we meet again with Jordi Gomis’ group who have done the Valley of the Dunes, from Douz to Ksar Gilane. We have dinner, meet and after drinking mint tea, cheered up with a few drops of slightly alcoholic flavoring we go to sleep in the troglodyte rooms.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
After breakfast, part of the group visits the troglodyte houses and the setting where part of the mythical Star Wars movie was filmed, with the fuel tanks very depleted we take advantage of the first gas station on the way to Gabes to refill them.
The group arrives at Jem, a town known worldwide thanks to its amphitheater, the largest Roman monument in Africa and declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. We visit the colossal work of architecture and take the opportunity to eat at a local restaurant, which gives us an exquisite egg “brik”.
After shopping at the stalls that surround the amphitheater, we take the road again and head to Hammamet where we spend the night in an original fairytale castle hotel, where we have a succulent and delicious buffet for dinner.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
The trip is coming to an end, after having breakfast at the Hotel, we go by highway to the Port of Tunis where we are given the exterior cabins of the boat, which curiously is the same one we used on the way out. After a few hours of waiting, we pass the customs controls and embark for Marseille, a port that we reach 6 hours late due to the bad seas that accompany us for much of the crossing, and that thanks to the colossal structure of the ship it is made, between food and food, pleasant and without incidents.
This chronicle does not want to end without an absolutely obligatory section, that of the acknowledgements.
Without a doubt, all adventure trips have moments of difficulty or even uncertainty, but this raid, since before it began, looked very complicated, and it has been thanks to many friends who have helped us that it has been possible to carry out practically without modifications, that is why we want to give our most sincere thanks to the General Director of Borma, its medical and nursing staff, the Commanders-in-Chief of Borj el Khadra and Remada, the Tourist and Military Police, the National Guard, the Civil Governor of Tatouine, the civilian staff of the Civil Government of Tatouine, the Director and all the staff of the Restaurant and Kitchen of the Berber Hotel in Matmata, to the Tunisian team, to Keneth and Marta who helped so much and so well and of course to all of us who were part of this trip that will possibly remain in our memory forever as an adventure that was achieved despite all the obstacles, difficulties and adversities that we had to overcome.
