Visiting a site like Ichkeul National Park, where it's not clear what if anything you can visit, is a lot harder to plan by public transport than by car. Especially when you've just arrived in the country, aren't yet confident with louages and can't speak French. A staff member at our Tunis hostel recommended we request a permit at the Ministry of Tourism (he had unsuccessfully tried to visit within the last year or two), but other sources said a different department was required.

We decided to go ahead without getting a permit, as we weren't too keen on wasting time in government offices. At the last minute, we changed plans from taking a bus or louage to Mateur to taking a louage to Menzel Bourguiba. After all, the latter city was almost on the edge of the lake - our back-up option to tick off a visit.

After getting a louage from Tunis that left almost immediately, we arrived in Menzel Bourguiba before 10am. The first taxi driver said that he couldn't take us there, we had to get a taxi from Mateur, but the second taxi driver had no issues. We headed off with him, although thanks to our poor French (and he didn't speak any English) weren't quite sure of the price or if he would return for us.

The entrance pin next to P11 is not the real entry gate (although this gateway has a UNESCO sign), the real one is a few kilometres west. There we were denied entry. One of the park guards spoke English, but we still didn't fully understand what was said. Our taxi driver then drove along the edge of the massif towards Mateur - we weren't sure what was happening. The section of the road to the old mine is actually within the core zone and we soon realised he was taking us to see some water buffalo and water birds along the road - probably what the guards recommend for visitors without a permit.  

We then asked our driver if he could take us back to the real entry gate so we could take some photos with the signs. We pulled up behind a bus of school students, and this time the guards let us inside - with the promise we just have a quick visit! Our taxi driver did the talking. We then drove along the unsealed road to the its end. Our taxi driver (who had obviously visited before) guided us up to the panoramic viewpoint and through the museum. As expected from recent reports of the lack of birds and visiting after the end of winter, we didn't spot any birds. Note that the hamman is no longer in operation.

Our taxi driver then took us back to the louage station in Menzel Bourguiba. Our biggest surprise was he looked at his meter and then said the price was only 30 dinar (about 9 euros) - for a 2 hour tour including a 35km drive! Less than the overpriced taxis from Tunis Airport to the city centre! We happily handed over 40 dinars, which we had planned to offer as a starting amount. We arrived back in Tunis about 1:30pm, having had a better than expected visit.