This time we’ll ride to a place called “Sidi Ali Mekki” located around 55 km from our nomadic bike cafe in Bardo Tunis. We contacted a few friends to share this experience together. We were happy, Alyssa and me to camp especially with our friend “Taz” for the first time. He cycled the Silk Road in central Asia for one year before the COVID pandemic hit and he needed to come back to Tunisia. In the same group, our friend Iheb that whom we camped a few times together joined. He never traveled abroad before but he would like to ride the Silk Road, crossing many Central Asian countries by bike.
Guérit also joined us. He’s a German friend who used to ride around Mexico and other countries. He’s in Tunisia to learn Arabic at Bourguiba Institute and around the country. Oussama and his girlfriend Nada tried their first cyclo-camping experience together. Nada rented a bike from our bike cafe. We met in Nomadic Bike Bardo, had our morning coffee, and left at around 10:30 am. The road is easy, not too many uphills, and mostly flat. After around 20 km of riding, we stopped by a stall selling “mraweb مروب” and “Tabouna طابونة ” sandwiches.
Mraweb is Tunisian street food: a half-cooked boiled egg that you must drink in one shot. The sandwich that he was serving in the same “Tabouna” bread served with cheese, boiled egg, tuna, and the best ingredient was a homemade: “salad mechweya سلاطة مشوية ” ( a mixture of grilled tomato, onion, pepper to be cut into small pieces )
Our next stop was “Ousja عوسجة”, a small town a few km before Sidi Ali Mekki and 42 km cycling from Tunis. It’s famous for its cheap and fresh vegetables and is considered an agricultural area. We had a coffee and tea there to rest. It’s also an opportunity to decide what to cook for the camping night after done cycling.
Most of the meals in Tunisia are eaten with but this time we tried to change so we decided to cook a “shakshouka شكشوكة ” veggies pasta. We bought enough vegetables for 7 people: onion, tomato, pepper, squash, Arabic harissa هريسة عربي” (a homemade harissa famous for its special garlic flavor). We also bought canned tomato concentrate that we used for the pasta sauce. We usually let one person pay for everything and then we give him/her our parts.
Before Sidi Ali Mekki, there’s an other beautiful place called “Ghar El Melh غار الملح” famous for its beautiful beach and old port where some friends ate “kasskrout lablebi كسكروت لبلابي ” for lunch (a baguette filled with harissa, soft cooked chickpeas, eggs, garlic, salade mechweya, etc.İn “Ghar El Melh” you can also discover the fort, an archeological monument there.
Cycling and camping in Sidi Ali Mekki
Finally, we reached Sidi Ali Mekki Beach after cycling for more than 50 km. After the long ride came the hiking struggle to reach our camping spot. We needed to push our bikes across the cliffs to find a camping spot. There’s a nice place 2 km away from the road called “ El bounta البنوتة” but it was really tough to reach, even harder than riding for more than 50 km. So we decided to find a camping spot at around 300 meters from the beach. We found an empty restaurant in the middle of construction for the summer season.
It was a perfect spot to spend the night and enjoy swimming and cooking. But we were not sure if we were allowed to camp there. İ didn’t wait long after pitching the tent before I jumped into the sea. It was an opportunity for me to prepare for an open water swimming competition happening soon in Tunisia. After almost 40 minutes of swimming, I came back to the camping spot and heard the good news that the owner of the restauruant showed up and was really welcoming. He even offered us a grill to barbecue with. A nice swim, spicy pasta and long gaming night was on the menu.
The next morning, we woke up at around 9 am and helped the restaurant owner put up a huge new sign with the construction workers. We had some extra vegetables and eggs so we cooked a nice veggies and eggs breakfast. After that, we packed up and headed back to ” Ghar El melh غار الملح ” to enjoy a morning coffee at the old fishermen’s port. It was time to head back to Tunis and reach home before dark. What a lovely weekend with amazing people cycling and camping in this beautiful part of Tunisia!
