I wrote about my first trip to Tunisia in this blog, but not about the second. I didn’t give it much importance since I was only there for a week.

But on this third trip, which I came for a month and stayed for almost three months, I feel like writing about it for my own memories.

It started with the idea of ​​going by car. I have just bought a car in Switzerland and the truth is that in Tunisia without a car you can’t do much and we prefer, my partner who is Tunisian and I, to make the trip by car.

I looked at the option of doing it by boat through Algeria and we planned both the outward and return journey on the same route.

Valencia, Mostaganamem (Algeria) by ferry and then about 1000 km to the city where my partner is from in Tunisia. And the return journey was the same. The idea was to make stops in Algeria and thus get to know the country a little.

The plan was to leave Madrid a week before, spend two days in Alicante to visit a very good friend, then go to Valencia to visit another friend for two nights and take a boat to Algeria.

Well, the trip started as we had not planned.

It turns out that just one day before leaving, the car broke down.

On the trip from Switzerland to Spain, the car was perfect, but then it started to leak coolant.

My very stubborn partner said that if I had brought it from Switzerland, why wouldn’t I go to Tunisia? The trip by car was on his mind and as a thirty-something that he is, he thought whimsically, but not intelligently. I thought, well, let’s see how far he takes us and where we would take him in case of a breakdown in the middle of the trip. I became a member of RACE and said, I’ll leave it in the hands of fate.

Luckily, just one day before we wanted to leave Alicante, the breakdown became bigger, and we had to take the car to the garage. Luckily, a friend of a good, trusted friend took the car from me the next day.

It turns out it was a hose and I was lucky that they fixed it from one day to the next.

Of course, the Alicante plan failed. Shame because I had everything planned with my friend, but we agreed that we would see each other on the way back.

Anyway, every cloud has a silver lining, because my friend had been ill a few days before and it could have been Covid. Imagine if it didn’t happen and we took Covid through Algeria and Tunisia.

We left two days later than planned and went straight to Valencia.

And what happened in Valencia? It turns out that thinking that we would fill the tank in Algeria, I put in just the right amount, €15, and it turns out that I was mistaken, that I put in Super Unleaded Gasoline, instead of Diesel. It’s a habit to fill up the motorcycle.

At first I didn’t notice, but it turns out that we were driving the car, we stopped it to go somewhere and when we started it again, it wouldn’t start.

I thought at that moment, the trip was over, a downer. And suddenly the image of the gas station came to my head, as I had taken the super gas hose. Wow!!! Thank goodness I only put in €15 and it went from gasoline to diesel. If it was the other way around, I’d screw up even more.

I had to use RACE, a tow truck came, we had to start it to lift it, because when stopped it locks the wheels and you can’t move it. The surprise is that it started and it didn’t before and we took it to the gas station. As it wasn’t a lot of diesel, I put in €60 and we started it, I drove a few times and the car was already running fine. Thank goodness!!!

That happened at 7 in the evening and we finished everything at 11 at night.

Fortunately we didn’t have to take it to a garage, which was also on a Friday and on Saturday almost all of them were closed and the garage that accepted the car told me that if it had started and was running well, it wasn’t necessary to take it to him. If I had another problem, I should call him, but fortunately everything went well.

Next day, boat to Algeria.

Boarding a boat that goes to Algeria is a bit of a pain. They do two checks before you get on the car. I had a little marijuana and you get nervous about that little bit to see if I’m going to screw up.

Everything was fine, we got on and it already seemed like I was in Algeria.

Every corner of the boat was taken by the Moroccan passengers, who were preparing with inflatable mattresses, blankets and other things to sleep on, since the crossing was mostly all night. We left at 6:30 p.m. and arrived at 9 a.m. the next day.

We took two seats that were left by chance, which we didn’t use in the end.

It was fun, drinking beer with the Algerians, some of whom came from Belgium, others from France and one from Valencia. A Spaniard also joined us for a while, although he was the first to leave, he had taken a cabin.

I stayed, there were about 8 men and I was just one woman. The common language was French, and the truth is that it was a nice and fun time.

I was the next to leave, I looked for a place to inflate my inflatable mattress and the truth is that between the earplugs and the mask, I slept all night.

We arrived in Algeria, disembarked slowly and many more slowly, we went through the controls.

The first passport and visa control. At the end of the day, we were able to get to the airport.

We were almost the last ones to get off the boat, when it was our turn, we had been there for about an hour and a half. They were surprised that we were going to Tunisia via Algeria, since I had to ask for a visa just to pass through their country. A one-month visa with two entries and two exits.

Then there was another checkpoint, which I was amazed at. They emptied your car and looked at everything, suitcase by suitcase, box by box, everything.

I was scared with my little marijuana. But the truth is that they look for other types of things or of course, if you carry large quantities of drugs and what I was carrying was not even noticeable.

It had been about four hours since we disembarked, but we were finally able to continue, that is, when we left the port, they stopped us at two more checkpoints that are on the road. Since I speak Arabic and my partner is from Tunisia, everything was easier.

The first thing we did was go buy a SIM card for the mobile phone and put the GPS on. Without GPS you are lost, you don’t even know where to go and using the Spanish SIM card didn’t work for us.

First we had to find a place to change it. Paying by card doesn’t exist.

At the port a policeman wanted to change it for us, but he charged a commission and we didn’t accept it. There was a moment when we regretted it, but then we found the right place, a bank and in the end we were right not to change it with the policeman.

We bought the SIM card, ate and set off for Tunisia.

We decided after three hours of travel to stop and spend the night in a hotel near the capital. Very cheap, at the exchange rate it wasn’t even €30 for two people and it was a nice place, apparently it was a suite, because they didn’t have any regular rooms left.

Dar Tlidjene Hotel
1 rue de l’Hôpital, Aïn Taya 16611, Algeria

https://maps.app.goo.gl/4YLYpP3wQwvLaoycA?g_st=com.google.maps.preview.copy

The next day we got up and headed straight to Tunis, with the GPS.

At first we went for a good run but as we moved away from the capital, we were already on country roads. The kms became slower.

By the way, Algeria is super cheap, the hotels, the gasoline (poor quality, apparently), the food. The money is five times as much. Tunis is more expensive.

We arrived at the border between Algeria and Tunisia and first went through customs control at the exit for Algeria. An hour and a half to do everything. Again they wanted to take everything out of the car, but they trusted us and only looked at two or three things and left us.

I hadn’t mentioned it, but the car was so good that we looked like North Africans too. Well, my partner is, of course!

I had cleaned out my wardrobe of clothes and shoes and I had two boxes full. Some paintings too that my mother had insisted on giving to the family. My mother’s two suitcases, as she was going to visit us for two weeks and we agreed that we would take everything with us and that way she would travel without suitcases. My suitcase, my partner’s, etc… Taking everything out again was a real pain.

They should have put everything through the security belt, but fortunately they only put one suitcase in and they looked over the rest and let us continue. After an hour and a half we went through.

Again, Tunisian border control.

Here they should have checked all our suitcases, but it turns out that while my partner was at passport control and so on, I was talking to a policeman and we talked about a bit of everything. Life in Spain, his job, the reason for my trip, that he liked me and they decided not to go through the security check of the things we had in the car. I had exaggerated saying that it was the fourth time they made us take everything out, that we had nothing.

Another hour and a half, we had to get a driving permit for a month and car insurance. The European one is not valid and the insurance company does not cover in foreign territory.

By the way, in Algeria it is also mandatory. When you leave all the controls, the first thing you find is an insurance office to do it on the spot.

Finally, after the controls after four hours.

When we had arrived at the border it was about 8 o’clock or so and it turned out that we were leaving at 12 at night.

We continued with the GPS which said about 300 kms to the final destination, but of course, what it did not say was the type of race and it meant about five more hours in the car.

The sim was from Algeria so it didn’t work in Tunisia.

The GPS, if you don’t move it, still shows you the way, but it turns out that the point we set as our destination wasn’t the house, it was in the middle of nowhere.

We asked around a little, because at that time you don’t meet many people, and in the end, Ahmed recognized the area and we finally arrived at his house.

The whole family woke up, the brother was waiting for us, who by the way, we had called from a phone that someone left us, to inform him that he was almost there, it was, we still have to go and we don’t know how much.

We chatted for a while and went to sleep.

We finally arrived at our destination.

Oh! By the way, the car was great, it was perfect for the moment.

I haven’t said it, the reason for the trip was to go to the wedding of my partner’s older sister. My first Tunisian wedding.