AFTER THE SUNSET

We reached Metlaoui and boarded The Red Lizard, the train on which we would enjoy a scenic ride: sheep in the valleys and on the mountainside, barren mountains seeming to stretch forever, and then a photo stop. This was a green area among brown mountains. It was filled with palm trees. One brown mountain had a flat top; a black mountain had rocks strewn on its side as if there had recently been a tumbling of loose rocks. We rounded a turn and entered a tunnel; we passed a narrow stream far below us. Then we stopped. On one side was a short palm tree dwarfed by boulders from the mountain. On another side was a stream curving around a promontory, and at another area were rock ledges in layers with a serpentine waterfall rolling between spaces in the layers. Interesting variety! The sky was brilliant in its crisp blue with a wispy cloud leaning from the sky onto a flat mountain which resembled separate monoliths placed together to form a larger unit. Beautiful! Later I saw effects of erosion and weathering on the rocks, as if some large cat had been clawing them. At the end of the ride, there were machines digging the phosphate from the mountains. We reached Solja Gorge with its spectacular mountains. They were bare and imposing in places. In another view the scree covered more area than the mountains that resembled buttes. And a river ran through it! At the bottom of this section of mountains were rocks of all sizes, lying near a scrawny tree or the curve in the river or on top of a large boulder as though some person had placed them there. Nature can hardly be more beautiful than the scenery on this ride. The engine moved from one end of the train to the other for its return trip to Metlaoui. We tourists transferred to a caravan of seven four-wheel drive automobiles whose maniacal drivers played "Chicken" in the Atlas Mountains en route to Douz. They stopped periodically so we could experience the scope and depth of the mountains and gorges. At one stop there were two waterfalls beside each other sending water to the same stream. It was similar to melting mountain snow after a significant snowfall -- less than Niagara Falls in New York or Multnomah Falls in Oregon, but still pretty. At another stop there were clumps of wild violets forcing their way through scree. Truly this was canyon country. After the mountains we returned to the desert: patches of shrubs, palm trees, and eucalyptus trees. Bright blue skies and white clouds changed their patterns constantly. Douz was the entrance to the Sahara Desert. From my room at El Mouradi Hotel, I could see camels waiting for riders, but my group of intrepid travelers had to be dressed in appropriate clothing before they approached these camels. I was clad in a royal blue "dress" with white pearls and embroidery from the neck to the waist; I wore a turquoise headdress ending in a scarf around my neck. I was properly attired for a camel ride to a Bedouin tent in the Sahara Desert. Horse-drawn buggies were used by those who did not want to ride a camel. One of the ladies told me that ride was very bumpy. What I learned about camels from this experience was to avoid any camel wearing a muzzle for he liked to nip at people. The refreshments were fruit juice, soda, wine, and nuts. As we imbibed, the sun sank quietly and quickly beyond the sand dunes, leaving a yellow fan in its place. "And the desert sands stretched far away," I thought as I watched the sun disappear. The English Romantic poet Percy Shelley (1792 – 1822) once again penned a scene accurately when he ended his poem "Ozymandias" with these words. The next morning, we were again on the bus headed for Djerba. En route we stopped at Matmala where "Star Wars" was filmed. Fans of the film walked through one set, sharing with non-film fans the action that had occurred there. We visited an oasis via horse-drawn carriages and learned the value of palm trees. One tree can provide dates for nearly one hundred years and then be cut into lumber. Fronds were woven into baskets. No part was wasted. We learned that a "ksar" was a castle and a "medenine" a castle home to a wealthy person. All the castles, which were deserted, had two or three levels, but over time, any visage of a house had disappeared through weathering. At the end of the day in the desert, we came to a causeway between the mainland and the island of Djerba, supposedly the island on which Odysseus' men drank a nectar pushing them into lethargy. They did not want to return to their homes in Ithaca. “I myself took these men back weeping by force to where the ships were And put them aboard under the rowing benches and tied them Fast, then gave the order to the rest of my eager Companions to embark on the ships in haste, for fear Someone else might taste of the lotus and forget the way home And the men quickly went aboard and sat to the oarlocks And setting well in order dashed the oars in the gray sea." Thus, Homer left the land of the Lotus Eaters (The Odyssey, part 9) and set a course for Ithaca. The sunset that night was over the Gulf of Bou near Ghrana. The land was black, the water was gray, the sky was inky blue. The sun was a yellow starburst with eight or more pointed tapers jutting outward from the center. It was one of the calmest sunsets I have ever seen. The hotel on Djerba was the Movenpick Ulysse Palace Hotel (I was on the top floor - room 453). It faced the water, had a balcony, two beds and two bathrooms. During my walk along the beach. I had found some pretty shells, but I left them in Djerba. The highlight of the next day was a visit to the pottery "factory" and to the Islamic Arts at the Hammadi Museum. At the former, we learned how the pottery was made. At the latter we heard about calligraphy, clothing, and the carvings in the buildings. Then we visited the crocodiles living in pools in the yard. A man from Florida explained how I could differentiate a crocodile from an alligator. I explained that I should prefer not being close enough to either to identify its ethnicity.