Vintage Hills - Dougga, Tunisia.

4th April, 2007.

The weather is wet, windy and cold and not particularly conducive to heading up Munros, so our thoughts turned to hill walks past and we thought we would document a few particularly memorable walks from our big trip in 2007.

First up is Dougga in Tunisia. Having started our trip in Morocco we then headed east stopping next at Tunisia. We spent some time in Tunis visiting Carthage and spending hours and hours in the Bardo Museum admiring the amazing mosaics, before taking a day trip out of town, travelling about 80km to Dougga.

The archaeological site of Dougga is located in the North-west region of Tunisia, perched on the summit of a hill at an altitude of 571 m, dominating the valley of Oued Khalled. The site covers an area of approximately 75 ha and is an astonishingly intact Roman city, complete with 21 temples. It is considered the best-preserved Roman town in North Africa. The ruins of a complete city with all its components form a testimony to more than 17 centuries of history. They are an outstanding example illustrating the synthesis between different cultures: Numidian, Punic, Hellenistic, and Roman. Early authors such as Diodorus Siculus, writing at the end of the 4th century BC note that Dougga was a city of 'fine size'.

We had a fabulous day when we visited, sunny and the views were just stunning. We also befriended a number of donkeys which always makes for a good day!

Remains of a ruined theatre at Dougga. The theatre was built in 168 AD and is one of the best preseved examples in North Africa. It could seat 3500 spectators, even though Dougga only had 5000 inhabitants, which was pretty ambitious by anyone's standards!

A dedication engraved into the pediment of the stage of the theatre and on the portico that dominates the city, recalls the building’s commissioner, P. Marcius Quadratus, who 'built [it] for his homeland with his own denarii', (Roman currency), the dedication was celebrated with 'scenic representations, distributions of life, a festival and athletic games'.

The theatre is still used for performances of classic theatre, particularly during the festival of Dougga.... however when we visited there was hardly another soul to be seen.

The city as it exists today consists essentially of remains from the Roman era dating for the most part to the 2nd and 3rd century AD. The Roman builders had to take account both of the site’s particularly craggy terrain and of earlier constructions, which led them to abandon the normal layout of Roman settlements and use their imaginations. The site really has everything even some dolmens but we didn't seem to manage to photograph them.

A local and his donkey!

More donkey stalking....

Finally caught up with a small one. Some friends in Morocco had taught us the words for various animals in arabic. We drew pictures and they wrote the arabic and laughed at us trying to pronounce them correctly! Here's Donkey - حمار (Hmar).

An overgrown courtyard with a beautiful array of wild flowers.

The capitol is a Roman temple principally dedicated to Rome’s protective triad: Jupiter, Juno & Minerva. It has a secondary dedication to the wellbeing of the emperors Lucius Verus and Marcus Aurelius; therefore the capitol must have been completed in 166-167. Although it is pretty weathered, the pediment bears a depiction of emperor Antoninus Pius’s elevation to godhood. The emperor is being carried by an eagle.

The building in which we were standing to take this pic is called the Dar Lacheb. Through the doorway you can see the capitol. The purpose of the edifice known as Dar Lacheb (the house of Lacheb) has not been clearly identified, although it was probably a temple.

The winding paved streets.

One of the most significant monuments in Dougga is the Lybico-Punic mausoleum in the southern part of the town. This is the only major monument of Punic architecture still surviving in Tunisia. This tomb is 21 metres tall and was built in the 2nd century BC. It was reconstructed in 1908-10.

Ruins amongst Dougga’s olive trees.

One of the inscriptions at Dougga. I haven't yet been able to find out why it has been left as a circle -but it's pretty cool. So if you're in Tunisia visit Dougga it's amazing....

....The notebook.....bear in mind this was done in the back of a car..... it seems like deer might have stumped our hosts!

Arròs negre or paella negra

We have been dreaming of smoky black paella since Barcelona in 2007. The squid ink has been in the cupboard for about a year but we hadn't quite plucked up the courage to try and replicate it.... we eventually gave it a go and it was pretty close....

Ingredients: Bomba paelle rice, chorizo, bacon, chicken prawns, smoked salmon, onion, garlic, peas, peppers, chillie flakes, lemon, parsley, saffron, pimento picante & pimento dulce, white wine, chicken stock. tinta de calamar.

Bake sliced red peppers in a little olive oil and sea salt

Fry chorizo and bacon in a hot pan until they start to get crisp.

Lupe Pinto's is the source for all our chorizo etc. its marvellous!

Add finely chopped onion

Stir frequently until onion starts to brown

Add garlic

Lovely inky squid ink

Keep the dish pretty hot, constantly stirring.

Add the rice

Stir, until it is coated with the chorizo juice

Keep cooking the rice until it is a little translucent.

Add a good splash of fairly sweet white wine

Keep stirring add the dried chili flakes and the pimento

Add a couple of large teaspoons of the ink and mix until the rice is coated

Add the chicken stock and bring to a vigorous simmer - I know it looks like a primeval swamp.....

Leave simmering, stirring occasionally for about 10 minutes

Add some tomato puree

By this point the rice should be plumper but still pretty al dente

Add the smoked slamon, the more smoky flavours the better

Add peas and roasted peppers. let the rice sit on the heat and develope a crust or socarrat. This is apparently the most prized part of the paella. It can be tricky whist you are cooking to differentiate between a good crust and a paella thoroughly welded to the bottom of your pan!

In a separate pan cook the chicken, which should be cut in strips and rolled in a touch of flour.

Cook the chicken until it is brown and crispy on the outside

Very quickly cook the prawns in the same pan

Add to the rice

Sprinkle with saffron

Finally add wedges of lemon, flat leaf parsley and decorate with some nasturtium flowers,

eat - its yummy honestly!

Glas Tulaichean & Carn an Righ, Spittal of Glenshee

Friday, 22nd July.

Glas Tulaichean - Green-grey hillocks - 1051m, (Munro) & Carn an Righ- Hill of the King - 1029m, (Munro)

The Spittal of Glenshee lies at the head of Glenshee in the highlands of eastern Perth and Kinross, where the confluence of many small streams flowing south out of the Grampians form the Shee Water. The name 'Spittal' originated from the Latin word 'hospitium' meaning 'Apartment for Strangers', or from the Gaelic 'spiddeal' which means 'where the glens meet'. Four glens meet at the 'Spittal'; Glenshee, Glenbeag, Glen Lochsie, Glen Taitneach.

We were in the area for a wedding and decided to head up a little early so that we had time to climb a few hills. We were staying in the wonderful Carriages cottage, (more mansion than cottage really), behind Dalmunzie Castle, which was the perfect starting point for these two Munro's. We were joined by the lovely Zoe and Steve and had the most amazing walk - lovely weather, lovely scenery and plenty of curious sightings.........



So we started the walk from the cottage and headed out following a path northwest by the river. This roughly follows the line of an old railway which was built to bring down stone for extensions to Dalmunzie Castle in 1921. Information and photos can be found in the castle itself. The line remained in use for sporting guests up until the 1970s and there are still some old concrete sleepers along the way as well as bridges over two substantial streams coming down the hillside

After an old railway bridge we then headed straight up the ascend NNW to the summit of Creag Bhreac. This was a fair old slog and a tough start to the walk as it was straight up through knee deep heather - a good old scramble required. At the summit we then continued on ridge NW to the summit of Glas Tuliachan.

J at the summit of Glas Tuliachan. Really amazing views. On the east and south side a series of ridges radiate out from the summit, whilst the north western side drops steeply down into Gleann Mòr. On the east side three pronounced ridges enclose two corries, Glas Choire Bheag and Glas Choire Mhor, which drop into Gleann Taitneach. The southern slopes are less steep with grassy ridges descending into Glen Lochsie

B. at summit No 1. We had our sandwiches at the top but even on such a stunning day it started to get pretty chilly sitting still so we then started our descent NW.

We could see no real path down - so just picked a line for the path at the bottom and headed for it. Lots of peat bogs to be negotiated. On meeting the path we headed west, before leaving the path and ascending up to summit of Carn an Righ.


Summit No.2! Really wonderful views and someone had left their binoculars at the top of this one so we used them to spot deer on the way down, (If anyone would like to claim the binoculars please do so!).


J. at summit No.2.


We retraced our steps to the bealach and along the stalkers path below Mam nan Carn. This gradually petered out so we then headed to the right of Loch nan Eun. From here there is a good view down the length of Gleann Taitneach, the route of descent.


We got a little confused at this point and headed up another hill just for the hell of it when we really should have stuck to the left of the stream and followed it down the valley.


Heading down the valley by the stream we passed some spectacular little waterfalls.

We were then buzzed by a Hercules (well maybe not quite buzzed, but it flew so low over us I expected them to land). Eventually the path gave way to a bulldozed track, this fords the Allt Elrig stream to continue down the glen leading back towards Dalmunzie castle. We made it back to the cottage after getting ever-so-slightly lost, crossing a river in three places and passing through a field of bemused cows.....

Home to put our feet up and drink copious amounts of gin and borage - a truly restorative tonic.... all good preparation for the wedding later that weekend!


Curious sightings:

a million deer (several herds)
half a million frogs, (various sizes)
2 grouse
a kite (hovering and diving)
a caterpillar, (hairy, black with green spots)
a Hercules, (transport plane - very low, very slow, enormous!)

Finds:

One pair of purple gloves
A pair of Panavision sporty zoom binoculars