The Vagabond Hiker

Hiking, trekking, and climbing the world

A Short Visit to Tunisia – Archeology and Culture

Returning to London from Uzbekistan, the airfare was actually cheaper to go by way of Tunis(!). Tunisia had been on my radar since having to cancel my April 2020 trip there for you-know-why. I spent two days on guided tours: the first of Tunis and its environs, including exploring the village of Sidi Bou Said, the Medina of Tunis, and the ruins of Carthage, as well as visiting the Bardo museum; and the second exploring the farther afield Roman towns of Dougga and Bulla Regia.

Sidi Bou Said

Named after a 12th century Arab Sufi scholar who lived there, this town about 20km northeast from Tunis, is known for its extensive use of blue and white. Wildly popular with tourists, my guide and I got an early start. . .

A typical cobbled street
Bougainvillea and blue doors
Café view with port and Mediterranean Sea

The Medina of Tunis

The advantage (for me at least) of wandering the Medina on a Sunday was that many shops were closed, and the chill atmosphere stood in stark contrast to what I presume is its usual frenetic pace of life. . .

Tunis Medina street with the minaret of Hammouda Pacha Mosque
A fish mosaic in a Medina madrasa. As you shall see, I really love tile mosaics!
Street view of the minaret of Al-Zaytuna Mosque, the main mosque in the Medina of Tunis

Carthage

The ancient Punic (aka western Phoenician or Carthaginian) civilization had Carthage as its capital. The Romans built over the city and little remains from its Punic period. While overall Carthage was a disappointment, it is nonetheless a must-see destination. . .

. . .but first it was time for lunch at a La Goulette (port of Tunis) seafood restaurant! After two weeks in the pescatarian desert that is Uzbekistan, it was a great relief to be on the Mediterranean coast.
The Punic Tophet, dedicated to Tanit and Baal. It is not clear whether the graves are a result of child sacrifice or from other causes such as high infant mortality. It is one of the only areas of Carthage not built over by the Romans or destroyed in later urbanization.
A ground level view of the Baths of Antoninus, one of the largest such complexes in the Roman world

Dougga

The Roman town of Thugga, partly built over Berber and Punic settlements, is one of the best preserved Roman towns in north Africa. In 1997 it achieved UNESCO World Heritage Site status (and consequent flood of funds and tourists!). Most of the mosaics and other artifacts from Dougga are on display at the Bardo Museum in Tunis.

Dougga Amphitheater. The clouds and morning light make this my favorite photo in this blog post.
View from the cheap seats at the amphitheater
The obligatory wildflower photo, a squirting cucumber (Ecballium elaterium). Its fascinating method of seed dispersal had recently been elucidated by researchers at Oxford University.
The Capitolium of Dougga, its most iconic monument
A 600 year-old olive tree at Dougga
The Vagabond Hiker under the Arch of Severus Alexander. The twin forks of an ancient olive tree are in the foreground. In the background in the Capitolium.
A Roman road built over an older Numidian road. Due to the irregular topography, the town was not built to the usual Roman plan.
The Trifolium Villa, the largest structure in the residential area of Dougga. Why doesn’t Wiki, in their otherwise extensive article on the town, call it what is clearly was: a brothel?

For those readers interested, much more of Dougga’s architecture and a bit of its history can be found on this fascinating website.

Bulla Regia

After another 90 minute drive we came to the Roman town of Bulla Regia. That it is not listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site is a mixed blessing: while much has not been excavated, I had the entire site to myself!

A portion of the residential area of Bulla Regia. The olive trees here and at Dougga are emblematic of much of the northern portion of Tunisia. It’s olive oil industry is extensive, though most is exported to Italy or Spain for blending.
The House of the Hunt, featuring its unusual hexagonal windows. The ground floor of these residences was in fact built underground, likely to keep them cooler in the intense summer heat.
House of Amphitrite floor mosaic. Houses here are named after their major mosaics, many of which are still in situ.
Detail from the Amphitrite House floor mosaic of Cupid riding a dolphin while admiring himself. An interesting and more extensive photo journal blog from another American Abroad can be viewed here.
An emperor sans hands and head at Bulla Regia. Detachable heads – and sometimes hands – made statuary easily modifiable when a new Roman emperor was crowned.
The large bear mosaic from the orchestra floor of Bulla Regia’s theater. From here, in 399 CE St Augustine of Hippo famously excoriated the townspeople for their lack of faith.

The Bardo Museum

Known for one of the world’s largest collection of Roman mosaics, to fully appreciate the extent of the collections in The National Bardo museum would require days. I had about two hours, mostly spent amongst the mosaics. . .

A Punic feeding vessel from the 3rd century BCE
An amazing, though incomplete, fish mosaic. . .
. . . and a single fish detail from the mosaic. Most of the fish can actually be identified with some certainty.
Continuing with the piscine theme of this post, a fisherman mosaic detail
Triumph of Neptune mosaic detail, from Neptune and the Four Seasons
The famous mosaic of Virgil, along with the muses Clio and Melpomene. It is the oldest portrait of the poet.

After my short visit to Tunisia, I headed back to London. . .

Bubbly, Tunis Air to London. Cheers!

Now back in Hastings until early November, I am feverishly working to get another two blog posts completed, which will return the focus to more interesting hiking in Portugal’s Algarve and another section of the Southwest Coast Path in Cornwall. Stay tuned!

The Vagabond Hiker

Hiking Uzbekistan’s Mountains

Visitors to Uzbekistan usually confine their travels to the Silk Road Cities of Bukhara, Samarkand, and Khiva, with a day spent in Tashkent where most international flights arrive. While our Mountain Kingdoms group did all that, for 7 days we also trekked around the Nuratau and Chimgan Mountains, visiting remote villages and staying in guesthouses in the former, and enjoying a lake-side resort in the latter.

Nuratau Mountains

A 4 to 5 hour drive from Bukhara are located the Nuratau Mountains. According to Wiki, the Nuratau Mountains are a range of mountains located in Uzbekistan constituting one of the western buttresses of the Gissar Range. They border Aydar Lake to the north, the town of Nurata to the west, the Kyzylkum Desert to the south, and the Sanzar river to the east.

Our four day, 3 night itinerary included 1) a village walk around Asraf village; 2) a hike from Asraf to Uhum village; 3) a hike to view petroglyphs, continuing to Hayat village; 4) and a local hike around Hayat village. Apart from the first walk (where we were nearly benighted due to an inexperienced guide), the walks of 7 to 13 km were rather easy, with no extended ascents and generally good trails. The two British couples that comprised the rest of our group were all very pleasant and interesting, though perhaps not the strongest hikers. Enjoy some hiking highlights along with a couple “city” photos at the end!

Asraf village view on the day 1 local walk. The impossibly late start to the day 1 walk, due to wasted time en-route, made photography difficult, so only this poor photo from my phone is included here.
Looking back at Asraf valley near the start of our day 2 trek. The geology is primarily sandstone and limestone.
View towards Lake Aydar, a large, brackish man-made reservoir from the Soviet era just visible in the distance
A shaded lane in Uhum village
A pleasant valley and stream outside of Uhum village on day 3. The riparian ecosystems were entirely different from the arid mountains.
The petroglyphs we saw on day 3. Although the walk up the valley was very pleasant, compared to those I’ve seen in southern Utah, this one panel of sheep was underwhelming,
Landscape on day 4 outside of Hayat village. Although we did spot a herd of endangered Severtsov’s wild sheep in the tiny nearby Nuratau-Kyzylkum Biosphere Reserve, they were only clear through binoculars.
Spot our group in the hills outside Hayat village
Some hooved locusts near Hayat village. Incidentally, the Hayat Guesthouse was easily the best of the three at which we stayed.

Chimgan Mountains

No question that the Chimgan Mountains were more inspiring that the Nuratau Mountains. They lie about 90 minutes’ drive north of Tashkent, and are mostly known for skiing in the winter, but they are also a popular escape from the summer heat for Tashkentians (?), who comprise about 10% of Uzbekistan’s population. We did 3 day hikes in this area dubbed by Uzbeks somewhat aspirationally as “little Switzerland.” With distances around 13 km and more than 500 m of elevation change, they were definitely in the moderate category, a whole step up from the easy hikes in the Nuratau mountains. Here are the highlights. . .

View from near our high pass trailhead on day 1. Greater Chimgan is on the right, featuring several climbing and mountaineering routes, and is definitely worth a visit on its own. Our much easier objective the following day was Lesser Chimgan, on the left here.
Vista with Lake Charvak on our long descent on day 1. Our hotel was on the lower right portion of the lake from this perspective. Glorious light and clouds make this my favorite photo of this post.
Balcony view from the Avenue Park Hotel across the man-made Lake Charvak reservoir
A zoom view of the mountains to the east as we ascended on our day 2 traverse of Lesser Chimgan. Farther to the east and north are the much higher Tian Shan mountains in Kyrgyzstan, obscured by clouds on this day.
Greater Chimgan (right) from our ascent ridge. Admittedly almost identical to the previous photo, but I wanted to show another perspective of Greater Chimgan, at 3309 m the highest Uzbek peak in the Western Tian Shan. Please forgive me.
The Vagabond Hiker on the summit of Lesser Chimgan (2099 m). Charvak Lake is below.
Our scrambling descent route on the Lesser Chimgan traverse, the most interesting part of any of our hikes.
Our group on descent. None were really scramblers, but they all eventually made it down safely.
Charvak Lake view on descent. Shortly after this, the hike went off-piste, as our inexperienced guide led us traversing around an animal track rather than descending any one of a number of good paths.
Shuldak Village, at our day 3 trailhead in the Chimgan Mountains. From here we did a loop up a ridge, descending another valley.
Geology along the Shuldak Valley in the Chimgan Mtns, near the start of our hike. Marble has long been quarried from these valleys.
The obligatory flower photo. European Michaelmas daisy (Aster amellus), one of the few interesting flowers I saw blooming this late in the season.
Variegated landscape above the Shuldak Valley
Another landscape pic. Again, pardon the redundancy, but the clouds on all three days hiking in the Chimgans made photography so much more fun!
Like a scene from the Old West: a rail car, a remnant from the mining and quarrying days.

Hiking in these two wildly different mountain ranges added immeasurably to the Silk Road Cities on our 2 week trip to Uzbekistan. To whet your appetite for the Silk Road, here are a couple of the many city photos I took. . .

Evening light on the Islam Khoja Minaret, Khiva
Registan Square, Samarkand, featuring a trio of madrasas: Ulugh Beg (l), Tilya-Kori (c), and Sherdor (r).

To save money, my return flight from Tashkent to London was by way of Tunis, where I enjoyed two action-packed days exploring ancient Roman and Phoenician sites, as well as admiring mosaics at the Bardo museum and wandering around both the beautiful town of Sidi Bou Said and the thankfully quiet (this was a Sunday) Medina of Tunis. If I get ambitious I will post on my cultural wanderings in Tunisia, including the Roman ruins of Bulla Regia and Dougga.

Last week was spent in Portugal’s Algarve, and featured 3 dramatic coastal hikes, the subject of another (shortish) blog post. Meanwhile, tomorrow I am returning to Cornwall to hike another week-long section of the Southwest Coast Path, from St Ives to Padstow.

No worries, though. I will eventually post some photos from these adventures!

The Vagabond Hiker

The Southwest Coast Path: Minehead to Westward Ho!

More precisely, this installment of my SWCP odyssey turned out to be 5 days of hiking divided into two parts: from Minehead to Combe Martin, and – after suitable recovery – from Westward Ho! to Barnstaple. Enjoy the photos and chronicle. . .

Minehead, Somerset, has the distinction of being the official starting point for the Southwest Coast Path, now a part of the almost-completed England Coast Path. As I just missed the bus from the Taunton train station, I chose to take a taxi to save nearly 2 hours’ journey time. Big mistake. That 23 mile ride set me back more than 110 GBP, about twice the cost of the First Class train from Hastings! Other than the typical August beach vibe, Minehead has little to recommend it and early the next morning I began walking. As usual for these shortish segments, I carried all that I needed in my rucksack, taking advantage of lodging and restaurants each day.

View of Minehead beach towards the west and the start of the Coast Path, on a gray day.
Minehead Coastguard Cottages in a lush garden along Quay Street.
The SWCP starting monument
A long way to go!
View along the path, with bracken. Despite the overcast, at no time during my walks did it rain.
Valerian. Ok, I was a bit desperate for wildflower photos at this time of year!
Steep descent danger sign. I wimped out and took the slightly less steep, but better protected, route.
Wayside Cottage, looking almost Swiss

Porlock Marsh. It was at this point early on the 2nd day that I performed an emergency duct tape repair on my water bladder. This just about lasted the day.
The remote and picturesque St Beuno’s Church, Culbone
The path through oak woods, with the Bristol Channel below
An elaborate entrance gate along the path. No signage to give a hint of its history.
Two heathers together: common (left) and bell (right). By this point the path had left Somerset for North Devon.
Countisbury Parish Church, appearing half-submerged on its eponymous hill east of Lynmouth
Orchard House Hotel, Lynmouth. A Grade 2 Listed property and highly recommended for an overnight stay if you’re ever in Lynmouth.

Looking back to Blacklands Beach, Lynmouth, on the initial climb to Lynton.
The Valley of Rocks, by a long shot the most popular walk in the area.
A bold robin, hanging out near the bench where I consumed my packed lunch
Looking back on the Coast Path and vertiginous Heddon’s Mouth below
An impressive waterfall. Nearly all “combes” (deep, narrow valleys) had some sort of stream flowing down them to the sea.
An atmospheric coastal view back to the east. This is my favorite photo.
Heather (and gorse) on the Great Hangman
Summit rock pile on the Great Hangman. At 318m, this is the highest point along the SWCP.
View towards Combe Martin. . . still a long ways down!

The first three days of what was intended as a 7 day walk to complete this section of the SWCP ended at Combe Martin. As you can see from the All Trail stats, the walks were long and had many steep ascents and descents. By this point, my plantar fasciitis had become so excruciating that the next morning I resorted to a taxi to my next hotel, and then a bus the following day to my hotel in Barnstaple, essentially granting me two days of rest to recuperate. It was just what the doctor ordered!

After two days lazing around, with limited time completing the entire section of the SWCP was off the table, so instead I chose to walk the last two days in reverse direction (west to east) from Westward Ho! as the path was essentially flat and buses were readily available if plantar fasciitis reared its ugly head (foot?!) again.

The market town of Barnstaple was far better than my (admittedly low) expectations. Staying here the final three nights (that was my plan all along) meant that I only carried a light day pack, taking advantage of the bus connections from the nearby depot. A great vegan restaurant provided a respite from the heavy Devon cuisine. Add in live music one evening and a reasonably priced, yet elegant hotel, and what’s not to like?

Surfers at Westward Ho! beach. Westward Ho! is the only town in the English language with an explanation point in its name.
The natural pebble ridge and sandy beach at Northam Burrows Country Park
Saltwater marsh with Appledore
View from the RNLI Appledore Lifeboat Station. That’s a Tamar-class lifeboat on the right if you’re curious.
Irsha Street, Appledore. The Coast Path follows this picturesque street.
Old boats and the River Torridge

Bideford’s Tarka the Otter, from the book by Henry Williamson. The Long Bridge is behind.
View of the River Torridge
Blue houseboat on the River Torridge
Bridge spanning the Tarka Trail, which here coincided with the Coast Path. The entirety of this day’s walk was on tarmac, hence the 3 star rating.
Barnstaple and the River Taw, end point for my week’s (well, 5 days) walking

A rainy day in Hastings and my mind beginning to shift to my next trip. . .

In six days I’m off to Uzbekistan for some hiking & culture in the country at the heart of the Silk Road. I’ll leave you with two photos from my balcony at Rocklands in Hastings, once again my home away from home.*

Rocklands Dawn
Rocklands Dusk

The Vagabond Hiker

* – when queried about my “home”, depending on the context I respond either “Utah” or “Planet Earth.”

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