Visited December 2023

O! I see I was lucky enough to see some birds. And lucky enough to get inside the park when it was officially closed because of the reason that I was not able to understand although the man at the gate did his best to explain it to me in French when I was leaving the park… yes, when I was leaving the park after spending inside of the park many hours…

How to get to the park from Tunis? It seems to be a bit complicated, but it is not. From the northern bus station in Tunis (close to Bab Saadoun) take a louage (minibus share taxi) to Mateur (12 km from the entrance to the park) or to Manzel Bourguiba (14 km from the entrance to the park); from each of the cities you can take a taxi to the park (around 15 TD; the road from Mateur is in a very bad condition) or catch another louage that goes between these two cities and ask the driver to stop in Zarour; from Zarour you can walk to the gate of the park (6 km) but don’t forget that from the entrance to the lake and the ‘ecological museum’ (permanently closed) it is still more than 4 km. It is much better to take a taxi, it is faster, it is more comfortable, and you can benefit from the fact that the driver is a local guy and can convince the man at the gate that ‘we are going to hammam only’. (BTW, there are still some families living in the park with their animals, and they cultivate vegetables.) Yes, there is a hot spring in the park and many local people are going there to spend some time in the pretty warm water. So I am in… We drove to the end of the road inside the park – there are some buildings and huts, but all closed, and a parking lot. The driver left me there and – he went to the hot spring ///

From here you can follow two natural trails: 1. Around the peninsula to the closed museum, watch tower and some info boards about the park, but you can hardly read what’s on them, its content faded away because of the sun; this trail is ok, but nothing special or breath-taking; some birds can be seen from afar; silent and still surface of the lake looked nice, and when you reach the most northern tip of the peninsula, you can follow the unmarked path down to the lake where the ruins of the Roman outpost are lost among bushes; from here the view is nicer and you note that most trees bend from the lakeside due to strong winds. 2. The second trail starts at the so-called museum and the picnics place that you can reach straight from the parking using stairways; from here there are some signs showing the direction of the view point, hot spring Hammam El Atrous and the grotte; this trail is more challenging but wearing good shoes and allowing more time for ascents would make you do it in three/four hours there and back; the views on the lake and on the mountains (you see the highest summit, Mount Ichkeul) are more rewarding, you see more birds, some beach, and finally you can descent to the hammam, stone structure looking like a tent – my taxi driver was about to leave when I got there; indeed, many local people inside; this is the place where I got as close as possible to the birds – while walking by the shore of the lake (I am not a bird-watcher, and that means I am not able to name these birds); the I fallowed the way to the grotte/cave which is not marked anymore, and what was my surprise when I finally found, instead of a nice cave or rock shelter, a vertical hole in the ground.

I came back to the museum the same way and then started walking towards the park gate. A man I’ve met in the hammam gave me a ride to the gate where I learned the park is officially closed…

On the southern slopes of the mountain there are some remains of the stone quarries. These are part of the core zone, but officially it is not possible to visit them. To get to the nearest bus/louage stop, just wave when you see a car going in either direction.

I really enjoyed this day out of town – I started from my hotel in Tunis at 6 am and came back to it around 5 pm. I love walking and both trails satisfied my need of walking. I read that end of December is good for seeing different birds, I have not seen a lot, but it was ok.