Take our coffee to the lounge at the end of breakfast and sit overlooking the pool. A woman with a cane gets up to shut the door against the breeze and we meet Sandra from Edinburgh. A lucky meeting as we might well have assumed that she and her husband were German and not have opened a conversation. They're here for 2 weeks but unfortunately will leave on Sunday. An interesting conversation with her husband as well. He's sunning himself by the pool and chats with us for a half hour. He lived in Rhodesia at one point and they still go back regularly to Zimbabwe to holiday and because he is involved with a charity tht supports an enormous game reserve there entirely run by volunteers.
Further explorations in the midday which is very warm in the sun but with a bit of breeze from the sea. We're even closer to the centre of things than we realised yesterday. We're within 500 metres of the ribat (a ribat is a fortified monastery). This one dates back to the end of the 8th C and has a giant fairy tale sandcastle look. The complex has appealed to others as well, as it was used in the filming of Monty Python's Life of Brian and Zefferelli's Life of Christ. We'll definitely go in another day. We're a similar distance from the tozn centre and well under a km from the train and bus stations. We stop at the Monoprix Supermarket. It's not especially cheap by our standards, although most of the people shopping there are local. Prices at the little restaurant cum café we pass on the way back are pretty reasonable though - espresso at about 55 cents a cup (25 p) and crèpe suzette at a dollar thirty-five CAD or 65 p UK.
After dinner have a drink in the lounge with Sandra and John. Hebuys the first round when we have the local Celtia beer, a pleasant enough light lager, so we have no idea what beer costs. However the bottle of Tunisian red wine that J buys for us to share is 15 dinars - about 13.60 CAD of £6.50 UK. Admittedly less than one would pay in Canada or the UK in a bar, but a pretty fair mark-up locally for a wine that was nothing like as good as home made, despite its being one the AA Tunisia guide refers to as drinkable and despite its 2003 vintage - not enough people over the past 5 years have cared to drink it? Good conversation, though. And John points out that Johnnie Walker in the supermarket is £80!
JAWORSKI TRAVELS