| |
 We
left our Houmt Souq hotel and wound our way through the souq with
people filtering in to open their shops and the occasional child heading to
school. Once on the open road, we coasted the twenty kilometers to the ferry
and rode it to the mainland. We passed many children on the way to school
and got lots of greetings.
  The
direct route to Medenine and Gafsa, is via the
ferry from Ajim to Djoff. Ajim dates back to Roman times, but is better
known in modern times as the location for several Star War scenes,
including Anchorhead, Mos Eisley, Ben Kenobi's house and the cantina.
 Hundreds of thousands of
olive trees – almost continuous for thirty miles -- are the theme
of the day. There is no demarcation between
farms, but the farmers know. A friend in Medenine says some of the farmers have 15 trees and
some have 5,000. A tree can produce 8 to 16 liters of oil per year,
depending upon its age, the weather and its care. When
you figure the number of olive trees in Tunisia (and they are planting
more), with the number of olive trees in Spain and other countries around
the Mediterranean, you have to wonder who is using all of that olive oil.
 Beyond the ferry the landscape is pretty similar to other coastal regions in the southeast --
pretty flat -- so once you have passed you ten thousandth olive trees, it is good territory to practice a paceline.
  The paceline broke up for a stop at
Giktis, primarily a Roman era town/port -- now a ruin. There is a
roman-Punic necropolis dating back to the
 third
and second century BC, and a Byzantine church,
 which
is post-Roman, indicating that the site must have been inhabited in post-Roman times. But the many
archeological sites, the baths, market and temples to gods
 are of Roman
origins. Archeologist estimate
 that the town had a population of
15,000. The site is not excavated enough or too much of the
infrastructure, such as roads, is gone to vividly imagine Romans moving
about, going to market, carrying on business, encountering friends on
the street, children playing, or the other activities of an active town,
but the baths, capitol and market alone provide a peek into their lives.
 Medenine is at least a couple hundred years old because it has a
ksar (plural is ksour), a
fortified group of ghofars (long barrel vaulted rooms for storing grains, olives, beans
and other commodities, that are usually stacked 2 to 5 high and walled).
Usually a family would have one ghofar for its goods. This
ksar
is now entirely devoted to storing
(and selling) tourism curios. Medenine got its big push when the French
 selected
as their headquarters for administering the southern region. It
still has a very impressive group of administrative building, which are
now used by the current government, but otherwise it is a pretty
undistinguished town with relatively low-rise building without architectural
distinction. It is the main market center, with
several weekly markets -- separate days for food and animals. The
markets serve to add a bit of color, character, texture, energy and hubbub
to their immediate vicinity. |
Addendum
An alternative way off of Djerba Island, is by a
five km (3 mile) long causeway said to have been originally built by the
Romans about 1800 years ago. Fishermen anchor their boats off the causeway.
As you cycle along you can watch a few mending their nets and preparing to go out to
work.
Go south and you will get to Zarzis, and go west
and you will reach Medenine.
In terms of tourism, Zarzis is still a backwater,
but like everywhere new hotels are sprouting along the coast each year. In terms of Tunisians Zarzis is a
working town. There are fishing boats along the coast. The is a military base on the edge
of town. It is an administrative center so there is a full range of government offices and
a commercial sector and number of mosques to match.
In the middle of the ride to Medenine there is a depression. In the
depression is a salt lake, where there is an active operation to collect
the salt. And beyond the lake the rows of olive trees start again -- stretching to
the horizon. |
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