As I wrote in my previous posts, I wasn't feeling so well in the last days of 2021. I even stayed at home on new year's eve. I had nightmares about pipes and pumps and valves and products getting wasted or rejected by the quality control team. That's in the few minutes I get to sleep before waking up again because of the fever. But somehow, the year that started like that, ended up looking like this on day two!
When I woke up the next morning, when sleeping it off didn't seem to work, and after taking two different medicines, I decided I should try sweating the sickness out. I took my bike for a short trip.
I don't know if the fresh air or the physical activity, or one of the medicaments that made the difference, but by the time I went home, I was feeling much better. I even contacted some friends to see what plans they have for the weekend.
Some of them invited me to camp in a fascinating forest near the sea in the Norwest of Tunisia. Honestly, that's a plan I wouldn't miss for anything. I often use these adventures to convince myself that I'm truly living, not just surviving. That's how I win my arguments against depression when it starts showing up.
I left in the afternoon to meet them in Tunis and head to Bizerte from there. Bizerte is a beautiful city known for its panoramic sites and a specific kind of sandwich you'd only find in that city. (Many attempts were done to duplicate them in other places but with little to no success.)
So I wanted a photo eating that famous sandwich, But then I got caught off-guarded.
we bought some meat and fish and stuff to make a BBQ for dinner and went to our chosen forest.
We had so much fun, as expected. Chatting and eating and listening to music around the campfire. Then I went to sleep and left them sitting there because my lack of sleep caught up with me.
That night, I slept very well, surprisingly. What with the cold weather and the wind and all. I woke up at 7 am feeling so much better. But I didn't get the courage to leave my tent until 9 am.
Because I know how much they hate it when I wake them up, and because they all went to that forest before, except for me, I didn't bother them that soon. So I went for a solo hike, to explore the place.
As soon as I left the camp and started walking, I saw two gentlemen biking on that same road. I wished I brought my bike too so I would join them.
At first, I was like "Some roads are worth taking, not for where they lead, but for how they look". So I kept walking, not caring where I'm going or what I might find along the way.
Ten minutes later (or so it felt like), I found the two gentlemen on the side of the road taking photos. I volunteered to photograph them and asked for their permission to take a selfie with them before they resume their trip.
A few kilometers ahead, I saw a glimpse of the sea through a burned portion of the forest (many theories are out there about who might have started the fire last summer and why, but the real story was never found out). The sight of the sea was a nice surprise because I had no expectations when I started my morning hike. I know that the place was called "Aïn Damous" (Aïn means water source and Damous means cave) So there should be a water source somewhere or a small river that comes from a cave but I wasn't expecting to find it or to find the spot where the river meets the sea.
The road I was taking started changing direction to go side by side with the beach. I decided to stay on the road and not take a shortcut to the beach. That's when I met my two friends again, taking photos again. I asked them for directions and they led me to the water source. I followed the river to reach the sea then I went back to the camp.
The whole trip took two hours. My whole body was feeling much better after that physical activity so I spent the rest of the day with no worries about my health.
We had a nice breakfast and kept the fire going for the whole day, always cooking something, eating it, laying on the hammock, then cooking something else until it started getting dark. And because I was the only one with a driving license and who didn't drink alcohol that day, I got to drive an automatic car for the first time in my life LOL.
When we reached Tunis, the girls insisted we go somewhere else first, instead of taking them home so we had another small trip to the shores of the lake of Tunis, a good place to be by night, if you don't mind spending some money lol.
