Jugurtha’s Table For Two (Ain Senan, Tunisia)

[Author's Note: I arrived in Tunis on September 10^th, 2010 and left two months later. The Arab Spring began in Tunisia on December 18^th, 2010, a day after the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi. I missed the festivities by about a month or so. Some would say I dodged a bullet but I cannot help feeling like I missed the boat. How often do you have the chance to watch history unfold from the front row? It is interesting for me to go back and read about my experiences at the time. Yes, I could almost taste repression in the air but if you told me the powder keg was about to ignite I would have been incredulous in the extreme. Yet, there it was boiling just beneath the surface. Keep this in mind when reading my Tunisia posts. It makes for a fascinating subtext.]

Nov 2^nd, 2010 - We left El Kef and made our way in the direction of Jugurtha's Table, a plateau mountain in the central west of Tunisia. If the day had a theme it would have been: Richie and Leslie talk to the nice policemen. We were stopped no less than seven times (traffic roundabouts are a favorite hangout) in a single day and were even followed at one stage. Some folks wanted to check our passport and registration. Some just wanted to say, 'Howdy'.  

One police dude executed a pointless check of our trunk. Another asked me about soccer. Close to the Table we had to stop and register in the town of Kaalat es-Senan. On the way out the town right below the Table we were tailed to the edge of town and then stopped about 15 minutes later at a checkpoint.