Sun, sand and gloriously hot weather... bliss!
Day 1 involved a very early start... picked up in a cab around 3.30am to go to the airport. So once again I saw the sun rise over london via a cab on the way to the airport. But it was well worth it as I was off for my first beach holiday whilst in the UK with the girls - Suzie, Nic, Sonia, Olga and Anita. We arrived into Sousse and caught the bus straight to our hotel. Huge hotel with several restaurants and 2 huge pools. It was straight off to lunch at the little restaurant right on the beach - wow it was hot! The rest of the day was spent lounging by the pool and I headed off for a walk to explore the beach.
Day 2 ...after spending the morning lazing by the pool Nic and I ventured off into Sousse to explore the local Souks (markets) and we also found a very cool old building to explore.
Day 3 ... nice and relaxing sailing trip for 2hrs with Suzie and Olga... followed by lunch at the marina with all the girls and back to lazing by the pool... heaven!
Day 4 & 5 were jam packed with an overnight trip to the Sahara desert... WOW! What an experience. We were collected bright and early (6am) to hop on the bus... first stop El Jam. El Jam is a Roman colesium which rivals the main colesium in Rome. It was El Jam that was used during the filming of Gladiators (as it is better preserved). We were able to explore the whole colesium including the dungeons (unlike the limitations of entry in the colesium in Rome).
Next stop...the desert.. where we visited a local's house (which is built underground to keep cooler), we had lunch in the hotel where star wars was filmed, went on camel rides and hopped on the sahara train (actually a tractor which looked like a camel with trailers behind) for our trip into the middle of the desert where camp was for the evening (whilst watching the amazing sunset over the sahara desert).
Second day of the Sahara trip we were up at 4am to hop on the sahara train and head back to the bus for a long day ahead... whilst watching the sunrise - spectacular! The day was a very long (but worthwhile bus trip) where we saw salt pans which spanned for miles, we went to the Atlas mountains where I saw 2 oasis' in the middle of the desert - they really do exist, I saw a mirage (which appeared like a huge lake but was just the sun reflecting against the sand) and then it was back to the hotel for the evening absolutely exhausted! It was a good feeling to get back to airconditioning... it hit about 50 degrees whilst we were in the desert - unbelievably hot!
And the last day before heading home was a day of R&R - massages, pampering and lying by the pool :) And of course we ate loads of food and had some great dinners during the course of our trip... our fav place was right on the beach where we could sit on beds under a tent and be served mojitos and great food (the best gelato ever!)
