Sousse – Tunisia
What a difference a red cap makes . . . to my photos.
Of even greater importance are bottles of water . . . and a walking stick . . . to my survival in blazing heat here in the souk in Sousse, Tunisia.
Do I care when an Arabian merchant (seeing me eyeing off his range of walking sticks), sidles over to me from his nearby shop and says, “we won’t bargain. I give you best price”.
My US$20 well spent for a smart-looking black walking-stick on which the paint was rubbing-off before I got back to the ship!
I take my hat off (red cap in this case) to personal trainer Joe, back in Sydney for enduring strength in my moving parts, but my ‘many’ physicians still have a little more ‘figuring-out’ to manage the effects of extreme heat on my 80 year-old body. Good fellow traveller Michael Inesta from Miami assures me that it’s mental, and merely fight or flight anxiety, fear of losing balance.
It’s pretty obvious with this post that’s ‘all to do about nothing’ that I didn’t join one of the organized tours from the ship. The most interesting museums (without air-conditioning in this heat) with the remainder of the tour walking for 4 hours, is not even an option for me.
“ i’ll never pass this way again“, Gerhard Haas, bravely embarks on an 8-hour expedition to visit the old Carthaginian town and Roman colony, Thysdrus, with its surviving amphitheater and now a World Heritage site.
I opt to go ashore independently mid morning with friends for a look-see and test my olifactory senses in the open souk. No baking smells or fish markets to report on, but a rare breeze in the souk does carry an enticing scent of spices.
This is the third port where it has not been possible to escape the organised tour and do my own thing. The surveillance might be all about protection. But, I wonder, when the local authorities stand watch and seem to control even the zodiac frequencies, and speed-up beside us in the water as we zip to and from the ship.