It was Homer who first paid tribute to the allure of Djerba. In Odyssey, Ulysses almost loses his men when the beautiful maidens of the island feed them the lotus flower. The men are so intoxicated by the lotus that Ulysses finds it a challenge to get them to return to their ships.
The legend continues today with visitors so enchanted with this North African island that they keep returning.
Certainly having an international airport with direct flights from Poland, France, Italy, Germany and Belgium makes getting here painless.
Mediterranean blue seas, sandy beaches, traditional souks, good coffee, cous cous and friendly locals are further reasons Djerba is a magnet.
First thing we noticed? The island is big – 624 sq kms to be exact and boasts 133 kms of beaches.
The feature photo for this blog shows the beach on which the Radisson Thalasso is perched. Like other large hotels here, it specialises in thalassotherapy, where the sun and sea water are used to treat a range of medical conditions. Expect ‘sea-water pools, hammams, treatment cabins, and massage rooms with views across palm trees to the sea’.
Away from the beach is Houmt Souk, the beating heart of Djerba and capital of the island. We enjoyed laidback and easy wandering in the cobbled laneways. It was here I bought a bottle of Tunisia’s prized Prickly Pear Oil. Supposedly works wonders!
In the souk, this man, intrigued with our Australian accents struck up a friendly conversation. Tourist season hasn’t started yet; it will in May. The hope is that tourists keep arriving since the industry supports a lot of people. It’s a fickle industry though. The revolution has left its mark.
Fluent in Arabic and French (as Tunisians are), this man also speaks some English as well as Deutsch and Italian. Listening to and practising with tourists has its rewards. Anyway, he wants to know when more Australians will be coming to his country.
A short taxi ride away is Djerbahood where we thoroughly enjoyed our 6 night stay at Dar Dhiafa, which is a little bit traditional, a little bit modern.
So pleased that Ramadan was made a whole lot easier for us at Dar Dhiafa where breakfast, lunch and dinner were provided for guests.
In Djerbahood in 2014, a street art project involving 200 artists from 30 nationalities brought white washed walls to life. As you can see, the artwork is excellent; adds a colourful dimension to the area.
Djerbahood is where Muslims and Jews coexist and have done for hundreds of years. The well known El Ghriba has been a holy place for 1400 years; the synagogue is 75 years old (Africa’s oldest still running synagogue). Non Jews are welcome.
The synogogue is a heavily secured area complete with machine gun armed guards; the result of terrorist attacks in 1985 and 2002.
Update: On May 9, during Lag B’omer (Jewish Pilgrimmage to Djerba), a gunman shot dead 2 worshippers and 2 policemen at the Synogogue and injured others. Of course, the Synogogue is now closed.
We opted for a louage to get us from Sfax to Djerba. Again, it was a simple process of arriving at the louage station, buying a ticket, being guided to a louage, waiting for it to fill up (10 mins), then travelling to our destination.
Along the way, a number of police checks were conducted – seems to be common practice. Tunisia is often used by sub Saharans (those who live south of the Sahara Desert and not considered part of North Africa) as a jumping off point to enter Italy illegally. The price is high, the boats unsafe. Just recently, 29 people drowned.
On this louage trip, papers were not in order for one passenger – a sub Saharan, and he was escorted off the louage by 3 policemen.
Certainly we’re chalking up a range of travel experiences as we make our way around Tunisia. Anything though, that fosters understanding, empathy and awareness is always going to rate high on the travel appreciation spectrum.
Heading off to the desert tomorrow
Fuelled by travel 
Been a good trip so far. Easy to get around and found the people really helpful.
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