Visit to Tunisia (2): Uthina and Sidi Bou Said
On Saturday afternoon, we arrived at Gatwick Airport the recommended two hours before our flight, only to find that it was delayed and then delayed again by the impact of Storm Amy. So , after a wait of four and a half hours, we finally took off two and a half hours late.
We flew with Tunisair in an Airbus A320. Since we travelled due south, there is no time difference between London and Tunis. Also it is not a long flight: only 2 hours 10 minutes. So we reached our hotel at11.30 pm.
We are staying for four nights at the El Mouradi Gammarth Hotel which is located on the beach close to Carthage. It is huge, modern place with some 500 rooms positioned around a very large open-air swimming pool.
Our first day in Tunisia (Sunday) was wonderfully warm (29C) and the Jules Verne group of 17 travellers (only four of then men) enjoyed a programme that was quite relaxed. Our guide is an incredibly knowledgeable and immensely cheerful, if heavily-accented, man called Mohamed Ben Hammed who suggested that we call him simply Ben (which means ‘son of’).
He told us that there are over 200 Roman towns in Tunisia, of which just 47 have been excavated, and that there are over 100 million olive trees in the country. On the way to our first ruins, we saw plenty of those trees.
In the morning, we visited Uthina, an archaeological site a short drive south of Tunis. The remains are those of a Roman town probably built by the emperor Hadrian in the early 2nd century AD. The amphitheatre seated some 16,000. There are extensive remains of an impressive aqueduct which carried water all the way to Carthage.
Lunch was in a town called La Goulette in a restaurant called “La Victoire” and the main course was fish from the nearby Mediterranean.
Our afternoon destination was the Moorish artist village of Sidi Bou Said. This is a coastal town with cobbled streets lined with whitewashed houses with bright blue doors and balconies echoing the sea and the sky.
Abu Said al-Bali, after whom the village is named, died here in 1231 and is buried in the local mosque. In 1915, the government issued orders that the character of the place be preserved and it has been, making it a charming sight.
All our meals are included on this tour, so dinner – a self-service affair – was at the hotel.