More than any other city in Tunisia, Douz will be your gateway to the Sahara. The city is easily accessible by good roads, and here, a few kilometers from the city, you can take your first steps in a real sand desert. This is magic without illusion, the first dunes, palm trees, camels sitting waiting for the signal to leave and the call of this infinite expanse, strangely attractive. With 30,000 inhabitants today, Douz is a very old market place where sedentary and nomads of the region used to gather. At the beginning of the last century, the village was only composed of a few buildings surrounded by tents. The Mrazig nomads used to stay there during the hot months and they used to go back on the road at the end of the hot season. It became one of the major tourist poles of the Tunisian South. We are here at the gateway to the desert, symbolically represented by a life-size bab, the Sahara is just behind, which points its yellow ochre dunes and a powdery sand that we can't help but grab to see it spin into golden dust. Douz also offers the pleasant shelter of its palm grove for some walks, to be avoided however around 5 or 6 pm, some learn it at their expense: it is the hour when the ground breathes and lets escape a thick vapor of water attracting many mosquitoes... You will find in the city several agencies proposing desert tours in 4x4 or with dromedary. We have chosen one, but all of them offer more or less similar services. They generally organize day trips, as well as tours lasting several days or even several weeks; do not hesitate to ask for information and a quote. For overnight excursions, you will generally leave in the middle or end of the afternoon for the dunes where it is good to sleep after a good night's sleep by the fire. The next day, after having admired the sunrise while tasting bread baked in the sand and a short walk, return to Douz. Equip yourself well to leave: covering clothes, sun cream, chèche, sunglasses, small sweater for the night... Try to discover Douz on a Thursday, to walk around its incredible market. The city is also famous for the International Sahara Festival which takes place every year during four days at the end of December.

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Chameaux dans le désert de Douz. Lukasz Janyst - Shutterstock.com
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