Day 117 - Tunisia

Point of departure: Tripoli, Libya

Point of arrival : Medinine

Accommodation: El Kssour Hotel (**)

Km travelled today: 300km Cum: 20 923km (gravel 0km cum 4 649km)

Countries so far: 11/16

Where to next? Tunis

No of photos: 41 (cum 5 400)

Our exit from Tripoli was pretty straight forward with Wesam assisting. At about 68km we stopped at Sabratha to visit the Phoenician and Roman ruins of the city of Sabratha.Not as impressive as Leptis Magna, partly because the earthquake of 365AD caused considerable damage - the city was built from sandstone which is less resistance than Leptis Magna's limestone.While the Theatre at Sabratha is very impressive, it has been largely reconstructed from the original stones/blocks.Despite the destruction however, the site is still worth a visit.

On the way to the boarder we tried at two towns to complete our "Alien" registration (sometimes it feels like Libya is from another planet but it seems they think we are) but they kept referring us back to Tripoli.Not good news but Wesam was confident that arrangements through his head office to complete these formalities would be made at the border.As it transpired, he was right and once at the Libyan border it took about 45 minutes to complete formalities with the Traffic police, Customs and Immigration.

Prior to our arrival we were very sceptical about having a guide but in fact Wesam was very helpful and we enjoyed travelling with him.He was pleasantly critical of our slow progress, especially when overtaking.Having got used to the 30 to 70km per hour range, travelling at 110km felt quite fast to us, but Wesam definitely thought we dawdled and his favourite words as we overtook were "Go Go Go!"Wesam's mobile number is 0917729101 or 0927214006 and his email [email protected] - if anyone needs a guide.Shokran Wesam.