Syrtes (Parte correspondiente a Túnez)

Hello from Port Yasmine!

We have already been sailing from Bizerta towards the south, Djerba, and back to the north. We are now at Hammamet. During all this time we have seen seagulls, dolphins and Calonectris diomedea (sea birds). We showed those birds in the first blog of this year, which are very numerous around the north coast of Tunisia. In the north we also saw a breeding colony of yellow-legged seagulls, in the island of “Djamour el Kebir” ( 435m). In the south we hardly saw them.

Concerning the dolphins we saw them a dozen of times. All of them were “mular” dolphins. Also some sea turttles were on our way …

http://youtu.be/tIr9FDgHvQ4

In Kelibia we found a little swamp at about 100 meters from the beach in which a group of around 20 common herons eat and rest.

   

During the different excursions on the land, not far from the coast, we can see at all times swifts, swallows, common and moorish sparrows and blackbirds. While we stayed at Sfax port a group of swifts is continually fliyng above the boat, always with its characteristic strong sound normally associated to the arrival of good weather.

   

In some ports, like in Monastir, we find plenty of “charrancitos” and we have the chance to see how they throw themselves into the water in order to get their food. In the port of Sfax we can observe thin beak seagulls, clearer in color compared to the yellow-legged ones, and with a beak that seems black at a certain distance.

In a little laguna just besides the lighthouse of Teguermes, in Djerba, herons, “espátulas”, and some slime birds eat and rest, just besides a little port where fisherman capture shrimp.

The tides are significative in this area, every 6 hours it changes. During the low tide some pelagic jellyfish remain on the sand.

During the whole trip we observe horses and dromedaries, and specially in Djerba where we find a large number. Plus there are sheep, goats and donkeys. We only observed cows in the north side of the Tunisia. The dromedaries are still a transport mean in the desert, and also an attractive point for tourists.

   

For a couple of days we were able to visit the Sahara, closet o the zone of Matmata and Tataouine, and just to the oasis of Ksar Guilane. There we can see other types of birds, soe very difficult to observe further north: a group of 4 “corredores”, black “collalbas”, a common “cogujada” walking and showing its high comb or a saharian “escribano” wlaking around the area where Star Wars was filmed. .

At Djerba sheep are white and from time to time we can find a black one, but they are of the same type; “kif kif”, as people say in Tunisia. I doesn’t seem that we have any black specific types of sheep as the Archduke mentioned. And by the way the milk is recomended for those having liver problems.

In the fields there are scorpions. The black ones are not dangerous, the yellow ones instead, very dangerous. In the prickly pear bushes there are also snakes.

Best regards!

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