La Guerre des étoiles en Tunisie

Legend has it that on driving through the salt desert of Matmata in Central Tunisia, on a tourist trip to visit the Berbers, George Lucas felt so inspired by the landscape that he decided to use it as the backdrop for his glorious Star Wars series.

Here's a little sidenote: the French title for the saga is: La Guerre des étoiles, the war of the stars... one war, many stars. Whereas in English: one star, many wars. Read into that what you will...

So there are several sites you can visit, but we went to two, Lar's Homestead in Matmata and Ong Jemel in the desert, close to Tozeur.

Lar's Homestead

Lar's Homestead is in Matmata which is prime Berber country. The Berbers are a semi-nomadic ethnic group indigenous to Tunisia and Algeria. Their rich culture has grown and developed with the spread of Islam and with the global technological developments, for example, although many chose to live in cave dwellings, they commonly have a plumbed toilet, electricity and television satellite.

Lar's Homestead was filmed in one of these such structures, and although much of the set remains, it is in an 'interesting' state of repair, many of the parts having been repainted (in different colours?) since my visit last year. Still, it's pretty exciting and fun, and most tours that are passing through here stop at the set (which has now been made into a hotel) for a traditional Tunisian lunch (which my fussy-eater Dad did manage to eat, after confirming that nothing on his plate had figs in it).

Ong Jemel

Ong Jemel literally means 'Camel Neck' (or 'dromedary neck'?) and refers to a large sandy camel-necked shaped hill nearby. It's accessed via a 4x4 joy-ride over the desert from Tozeur and is literally in the middle of a sand filled abyss. I had done the 4x4 joy-ride thing before, so if you are organising this, you need to make sure that your tour goes through Ong Jemel as some cover other parts of the desert.

The Tunisian tourist board has wildly underestimated how exciting this location is. You will be surprised not to find a gift shop, tour guides, or even a person dressed up as Chewbacca for the photo ops. But then, there is no French word for entrepreneur...

 

You should also note that I rocked an incredible headstyle for this touristic exercise - facilitated by Easter gifts from my sister, Kat. When you also understand that we had to be on the tour bus at 5am that morning (oh yes, "5 o'clock in the morning... conversation got boring", when Lily Allen is just creeping up to your bedroom, I was climbing those coach steps) and we got our wake up call at 3:40am in order to have breakfast first. Who wants to have breakfast at that time? (who am I kidding? I ate two doughnuts!). Anyway, when you consider that, then my hairstyle is nothing short of spectacular.

... And she knows it...