Cycling across the Tunisian desert 🇹🇳

Cycling The World – Ep. 36

In this episode of my journey to travel the world on a bicycle, I am sharing my experience cycling across the desert in Southern Tunisia. Discover the landscapes, and the few, yet unique people I meet on the way.

Follow me:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maxroving/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/maxrovingfb/
TikTok: http://tiktok.com/@maxroving
Website (Routes & Gear): https://maxroving.com/

#tunisia #travel #travelvlog

Welcome back everybody. I’m here in a really cool underground Burba cave guest house in southern Tunisia and it’s time to continue the journey traveling across Africa. Today it’s another sunny day and I’m going to try to cover quite some distance today across the desert. So that should be exciting. Let’s go. Yeah. Morning. Good morning. How are you? You’re awake? Yes, I woke up. Yeah. Great night. Yeah. You have enough sleep? Yes. Enough. Yeah. Oh, good. Yeah. Calm, right? Yes. It’s very peaceful in there. Good. All right. Breakfast. It’s over there. Okay. I get my shoes. All right. Very nice. Yeah. Thank you. Looks great. You want me tea? I I take the water is enough. No, really. No problem. If you want. Yeah. But you don’t have to. Yeah. Have breakfast first. Yes. Thank you. This fix you know this fix. I know we we have them in Europe as well. Yeah. What is What is this one? This is obsessive. We don’t have this. We don’t have this. No. This is our cereal. Oh, cereal. Okay. Nice. And this you made yourself the bread? Yeah. Very nice. Yeah. Amazing. All right. Traditional southern Tunisian breakfast. Looks very good. I think I will go for the Amaz style headscarf today to protect me from the sun. Okay. Thank you for everything. Okay. Have a nice trip. It was nice to meet you. Yes. Goodbye. Good luck to you. Have a good one. Yes. Thank you. All right. Let’s go. [Music] [Applause] Asalam. Salam. Hello. You have water at the O. Water the low. What? Okay. Hello. Do simply do three. Mercy. Uh, come on. Now, plan for today is to cycle towards Duce, which will be quite a long ride around 150 km, mostly across the desert or the wasteland. So, there’s not going to be a whole lot. Maybe one or two cafes on the way. And I’m not too sure if I’m going to cycle the whole way today because I’m not in a rush. And maybe I could camp somewhere, do some stargazing in the middle of nowhere. So, maybe I’ll do 100 km or so today. Salam. Hello. So, should be exciting regardless. And this is how the landscape’s going to look like for the next 150 kilometers. Not much going on over there. Actually, like some semi-nomad settlements, I guess. Yeah, there’s there are not really sand dunes in this part of Penisia. There’s not a lot whole not a whole lot going on, but I think should still be fun. Really not much traffic on this road. That was the first car. I love it, man. Cycling in the desert is just something else. Might not be super interesting to watch, but just a reminder how small you are. And the solitude is amazing. Whoops. Oh, look what we have here. A massive flock of sheep and goats. Wow. Oh, they’re fighting. Attention. Out of the way. Salam. Hello. How are you? Oh, wow. Hello. All right. So, there is some life here in the desert, I guess. Over there is I don’t know. It’s not really a house. It’s just like a like a shed pretty much. And there must be enough grass for the sheep and goats. And I think this is a water well right here. Wow. Fascinating. Imagine living like this here. Pretty much no one else around. Oh, wow. Even got a tiny bit of water here, I guess, from the rain. I’m really lucky. There’s another sheep settlement, I guess you could call it. And they’re crossing the road right up here. Over there’s one. And over there is like these, I don’t know, sheep home cover shade installations. Really cool. The road is honestly pretty rough right here. I’m glad that it’s paved, but it’s far from smooth and one of the highlights of the day, an intersection. So straight ahead would be more of a sa sandy desert. But unfortunately there’s no road through across the sandy desert. So it goes along the side of it. And I think ahead there should be even a cafe. So we’ve got a cell phone tower and a cafe, but it looks like it’s closed. Let’s have a look. Yeah, I think it’s closed. Yeah, maybe even abandoned. Luckily, I brought I bought a lot of water at the shop. So, I’m going to take a break here because this is the first shade I’ve had all day pretty much. I guess we do have some nice dunes here, but if you want to see the proper dunes, you’ll have to wait for the videos from Algeria and Moritania. I’ve got some big plans is all what I’m going to say. Asalam, how are you? To do here. Ah, I can cycle. No problem. I have enough water. I have. Thank you. Oh, good. Thank you. Everything good? Yeah. Friendly folk. They offered me a lift and asked if I had enough water. But I’m fine like this. I’m enjoying it. Horse transport. That’s the first. All right, time for another intersection. Making progress 80 km down, a little over the half of the distance. And I believe there should be another cafe here because I will now be crossing onto the main road. I think it should be open unlike the last one. cafe and eat pizza. That would be amazing. Let’s have a look. Doors open. Anyone here? H. Wow. Look at this place. All these signatures from hundreds if not thousands of travelers. But where’s the owner? There’s a doggo. Hello doggy. Hello. It’s open the cafe. We you have a food or drinks uh to m or drinking or Yes. Okay. Perfect. Hello. M we What do you have? Ah, okay. Like sandwich or we I’ll take maybe the the of this and to drink. Uh you have the low we you have. Okay. Okay. Perfect. All right. I’ll sit right here. All right. Despite the language barrier, I managed to get some food. Uh it’s kind of like a sandwich pizza. Let’s give it a try. H I mean it’s basic but good enough for me. Okay. I go to Disc. Yeah. From to D. Yes. All the way. Oh, trust me. Mess. Would you look at that? I even got a proper meal now. Some classic traditional couscous. Hello. The cats already are curious. Here you go. Man, that couscous was delicious. Am I right? So many cats. All right. All right. Do you know uh cafe gizen or like 25 km cafe gizen or no? Cafe. Cafe. No, you don’t know. Okay. Then maybe maybe uh maybe I don’t know. Maybe camping at the So maybe if you have another water. Um I want to camp on the way. So I would like to buy another water because I don’t know if the next cafe will be open. You have Arabi or Arabi or Arab. Arabi. Okay. [Music] You have Yeah. Water drinking. Okay. Wait. Okay. Okay. Messi. I’m going in. All right. Okay. Shukhan, thank you for everything. Bye-bye. What a great cafe run by a lovely woman over there. I paid like $112 for a couscous, two pizza sandwiches, and three bottles of water. I think it’s fair for the location. And now we’re back on the main road. And in like 30 km, apparently there should be should be another cafe, but it may or may not be open. So I got enough water if I if it’s not open and I have to camp somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Compared to the last road, there isn’t much more happening here, but the asphalt is very good, very smooth. Sand danger. Interesting. Love it. Here we have a sign for the cafe. So, looks like it’s open. Salam. Oh, ice cream. Salam. Hello. How are you? Um, let’s have a look. Yeah. I’ll take this one. Okay. Okay. These two, please. Yes. You speak? Yes. No. No. Okay. Dinner. Dinner. Wheat. Okay. Good. Yeah. Nothing better than an ice cream in the heat. This place really quite cozy actually. Oh, very very nice pitch. I’ve never seen ducks in the desert. Yeah, it’s like video. Video? Yes. I make Yes. Like I make like YouTube. Oh, yes. You have you have channel on YouTube? YouTube. I have. Yes. Yeah, just can I see? Okay, sure. YouTube. Yeah, you are YouTuber. Yes, I started. Yeah, subscribe. Perfect. Yeah, just only please uh big uh pub for for this this coffee. What’s the name of the coffee? Gizan coffee. Gizan coffee. So, I’m here in the in the morning make the the traditional bread. Cool. Yeah. Yeah. Very nice. Yeah. All right. Very nice. The name of this coffee. Yeah. [Applause] Gizen. Yeah. Gizen. Yeah. This blue here. This welcome. Yeah. All right. I got it. No problem. Yes. A very nice place. Thanks a lot. All right. You are welcome. Another time. You are welcome. Thank you very much. I am my brother, my friend. Three subscribe now. Three. Okay. Perfect. Subscribe. Growing the community. Keys and coffee. Okay. No problem. Perfect. All right. Thank you. Thank Thank you. Okay. Have a good one. Nice to meet you. Bye. Bye. Bye. Have a nice night. Thank you. Thank you. All right. All of us. Bye-bye. And that was another very nice and friendly hotel. I now continue cycling because I checked the weather forecast and tomorrow I would have very strong headwind. So now I got like 40 more kilometers until D, 1 and 1/2 hours of sunlight. So, I’m just going to see how far I’m going to get today. Oops. When the sun is low, a regular cap is better because it’s hard to see otherwise. There we go. Finally, the first camels. I was surprised where they were the whole time. Let’s say hello. Salam alalayikum. I was thinking about making it all the way to D today, but it’s like 15 more kilometers and the sun sets in like 10 15 minutes, so I won’t make it. So, I need to find a campsite somewhere. Over there seems to be some kind of abandoned shelter. Maybe I could camp there. Let’s have a look if this is possible. It’s not really even. It seems like h if I sleep at an angle, it would work. Huh. I don’t know. Maybe I’ll give it a try. All right, I’m going to give it a go. I’ll have some protection from the wind and also some shade. Okay, I think I’m just going to cowboy camp, you know. No tent and anything because there shouldn’t be any mosquitoes here. There’s no water nearby. Just a few more camels. Just wanted to pay me a visit, I guess. Let’s see if the camels are interested in this disgusting banana that got damaged during transport. You want a banana? Maybe this guy. A banana. No, I guess I’ll throw it. H I guess they don’t like banana. What a beautiful sunset, though. All right, that is all for today. Going to head to bed and see you tomorrow. Good night. Good morning. It’s another very bright, sunny day. And yeah, I had no trouble sleeping here last night in this abandoned shelter. So, let’s continue towards Duce. Let’s go. Oh, there are still the camels from yesterday. And just like that, we’ve made it to D. Now, let’s find a hotel and maybe a restaurant for some breakfast. Salam. Okay. Huh? Come on. Ali. Okay. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Okay. [Music] Bicycle. Yeah. Me. Yes. You like football? He’s crazy. All right. Malawi. Okay, I’ll take it. Malawi for Okay. And food. Okay. Everything. Yeah. All right. Shukhan. Thank you. Okay. I’m good. Thank you. Okay. Bye-bye. I don’t know. Uh, all right. There should be some hotels around here. I quite like the vibe of the city though. It’s a bit more laidback and fairly clean for Tunisian standards. Ahead we have the souk and there should be a hotel right here. Let’s hope they have rooms available. Okay. I’m looking for a room for one person. Yes. Yes. You have available or? Yes. One moment. All right. And what time is breakfast? Between uh 6:30 and 9:30. 6:30. 9:30. Okay. You is this the first? It’s the first one. Okay, perfect. And the bike I leave somewhere here or Yes, from from here. Yeah, we’ll see there. Okay, perfect. Thank you very much. And here we are. This is what 45 dinners or roughly $15 gets you induce. A basic but very clean hotel room with an AC and a private bathroom. Can’t complain. Breakfast is also included. So, I think this is it for this video. Thanks for watching and see you soon.