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Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Bizerte for Kaylee's Birthday


We spent last weekend in Bizerte to celebrate Kaylee's birthday and explore somewhere new.  Bizerte is only about an hour north west of Tunis, but we had done little more than drive through it in the past. We found a cheap hotel on the beach and spent the weekend exploring the beaches, viewpoints, old port, and markets.  The town seems to have been well set up to welcome tourists ... a few years ago, now everything is empty and not well kept.  If things progress well here in Tunisia for the next few years I think Bizerte will begin to attract many more European tourists.



 Coastline north of the city.

 The Harrisons joined us.

 Our hotel, note the nice green pool.  It doesn't get any clearer when you get closer.

 Old Bizerte port.

 Old Bizerte Port

 Narrow "street" in the Kasba

 Tourist restaurant that we ate at in the old port.  The food was good when we ate it, but not great for me a few hours later.

 Coastline north of the city.  This small peninsula is actually the second most northern point of all of Africa.  The farthest north point is actually a few kilometers north west (it may be visible in the distance in the next picture), it is supposedly 30 meters farther north.

 Looking northwest from the top of the rocky peninsula.

 On top of the rock.

 Birthday girl

Looking towards Bizerte from south east of town.

 One of the many trails that we followed trying to find the ship wrecks.

 Ship wreck 1.  Haven't been able to find any solid history on it yet.  If you are interested the wrecks are located in Rimel beach just south east of Bizerte.

Ship wreck 2, appears to be in the process of reclamation.  Many of its former parts are strewn about on the beach and the parts that remain seem to have been cut rather than rusted through.  Once source claimed that this ship ran aground here sometime in the 70's after experiencing an engine fire.  Another source said that it was an Italian vessel that has been there since the 40's.  No idea for sure, but it does appear to be a commercial vessel rather than a military vessel.