At the towing hook we reached Douz – the next workshop, where it became clear we had to be placed on a truck to be brought to Gabes. The group could not wait and continued without us hoping that we would catch up soon. After a nighttime accident of our towing vehicle, we arrived at dawn in Gabes and spent the night in the parking lot of the Peugeot garage.
At dawn, our vehicle was the first to be checked. We put great hope in the diagnostic device, which discovered an error in the injection pump. This part, however, must be ordered from Europe, which cost us 1000 Euros and transportation will last for four days. We can not remain in the parking lot and so the tow truck gets our moving home to the campsite in Gabes.
Meanwhile, our companion travellers returned and have made themselves comfortable on the very nice campground. For four days they can wait for us, the loss of time is thus limited, and can again be caught up.
Nevertheless, our journey with the group is uncertain because some of our friends must be in Cape Town at a certain time in order to get the flight back to Europe. Also, we do not have unlimited time, as my wife Alexandra must begin her work again in Austria after six months.
We spend the waiting time for the spare part with a visit to the oasis town of Gabes. The town’s symbol is the strange minaret of the Great Mosque. The city of about 110,000 inhabitants is a nice place and we enjoy a stroll around the streets in spite of our significant problems.
The souk is not very big, but still very interesting. Behind a huge pile of baskets, we discover bowls heaped with peculiar powder. We learn that it is henna, which the Arab women use for painting the hands and feet and also used it for dyeing the hair.
The font is exotic, we can not read of course, but at least the numbers are readable for us, but anyway it makes no sense, as we do not want to buy henna.
Henna comes in various colors, wherein the color of the powder does not show the end result. There is red, neutral and black henna at this stall.