El Bibane

The preparation for our desert adventure was long and laborious, many months spent getting the cars ready with all those things that normally aren't needed in our home off-roading and that none of us had ever thought of buying: the roof rack that must be light but very sturdy to withstand the terrible stresses of the African pistes, the second spare tyre, the reserves of water and fuel and much more. It's Saturday 11 March, off we go. The sea is rough and we arrive in Tunis very late, throwing our schedule into disarray; the transfer therefore takes place at night, but we're excited by this new adventure and the many kilometres don't weigh on us. The first stop is after about 400 km, where we have dinner in a local restaurant with grilled lamb; here the first real contacts with a different world begin, years away from our standard of living.

A couple more hours and we finally reach the village of Matmata at the hotel "Les Berberes". A distinctive hotel carved into the tufa where we settle into two dormitories. Wake up at dawn, breakfast and off towards Ksar Ben Heddadi, a site famous for being used as a film set and a destination for a great many tourists. After a few km of asphalt, the route turns into a piste, and at last we get to the heart of it. We continue towards Ksar Ghilane over a "tôle ondulée" (corrugated surface) that severely tests our vehicles' suspensions. We can't wait to catch sight of the sand and the dunes, but the hours pass and we see only stones and scrub; as we crest each hill, each of us scans the distance for the famous dunes. In vain! We're impatient, but where can they have gone? Our guides reassure us: the sand is there, they haven't taken it away or moved it.

Reassured, we see the world differently. I forgot to mention that among the many things we had with us there were also lots of toys brought especially to give to the many less fortunate children who have no chance of having any. And it's shortly before reaching Ksar Ghilane that we stop in a small village to hand them out. We arrive at Ksar Ghilane shortly before sunset and suddenly the expanse of dunes appears to us in all its vastness. We didn't think there could be so many! From us to infinity, only sand; we have the feeling of being in front of the ocean. Just time to pitch the tents and then a lovely warm dip in the sulphur waters of the oasis. We have dinner by the spring, we're all excited and can't wait for the sun to rise again to face the real desert.

It's our first night in a tent and it's freezing cold, damn: you think of the desert and imagine sun, scorching heat, and instead we're all chilled… but happy! The following day we reach the Roman fort and approach the El Bibene desert, where we'll finally have our first contact with the dunes and the desert sand. Essential in this stretch of desert is the experience and preparation of our guides from A.S.D. Rollers Adventures, Claudio Coletta and Margherita Fenelli, in picking out the most suitable routes to get our heavy off-roaders through without constantly sinking. In this area the dunes aren't very high but they come one after another, a continuous up and down, and each dune is different from the next; you sink in one and cross another without problems. The first bogging-down stops begin, along with the first tiring pushes and shovelling.

Lunch stop at the Cafè Grand Erg, a bare shack of shrubs offering shelter from the sun, and then off again to discover new dunes. The day carries on cheerfully all the same; this is a dream come true, off-roading, nothing but off-roading. This is life! Since it's good practice not to travel the desert in the dark, in the late afternoon we look for a suitable place to camp. We pitch the tents on a high spot that lets us fully enjoy the majesty of El Bibene. A fairytale sunset with indescribable colours and an unforgettable moonrise! Everything truly perfect: the setting, the friends, the dinner, and amid all this positivity even our vinegar-wine seems delicious.

The next morning, after a particularly demanding stretch, we're forced to deviate from the chosen itinerary because, due to the too-high temperature, the consistency of the sand doesn't let us advance fast enough to reach the next stop. Towards evening we camp in the desert again and go to bed early. The wine was no longer delicious… The following day we reach the Cafè La porte du desert where we have breakfast and quickly set off for Douz, where we visit the characteristic Thursday market where even today the Berbers come to exchange their goods using the ancient art of bartering. We're assailed by the colours and smells of a different world, ancient but real; here life has a value and a pace we've long since forgotten. The merchants, the souvenir sellers, seem to prefer talking and getting to know you rather than actually selling their wares, simple and sincere people.

Here we do our shopping, spending everything we didn't spend in the previous days. Finally we sleep in a hotel, in a real bed with a bathroom where we can have a lovely hot shower. We dine at Chez Magic and after dinner we go to see Lotfi, whom we met in the afternoon in his souvenir shop; he's a chatterbox and likes company, he tells us lots of things, he's a craftsman and with nothing he can do anything, he plays a very strange instrument made from sheepskin, bones and horns… I'd say it could be a bagpipe, though to tell the truth I've never seen a bagpipe! Tomorrow a long drive awaits us. Wake-up at 6 to reach Tunis on time; we pass through El Hamma, Gabes and from here to the port to board. A 685 km long transfer, and with sad eyes we watch Tunis slowly slip away.

Written by Giò and Luca