Tozeur - oasis 

 

Right after the stunning jeep ride we went to a private oasis with horse carriage. The trip to the oasis was not particularly long, but it was a pleasant experience through the streets and among several oases. In the middle of the oasis park we arrived at the oasis, we were going to visit. A gentlemen, who owns the land in the oasis, was ready to tell us about this family oasis which had gone through a number of generations in the family. The oasis consisted mainly of date palms, but it also had some banana trees. The tour in the oasis lasted for about half an hour, and the man told how they used the manual planting of palm trees. This means that there are only  four male palms in the oasis and the remaining palms are females. The male palms carry the pollen that the female palms need to pollinate its flowers, so they can later turn into fruits. In addition, he also told about the production of the dates, which they sell in boxes or as a kind of syrup.

 

Before the tour ended, we got to see an older gentlemen climb to the top of one of the palm trees. This is something that the young boys learn from the age of 12 years. It took him about one minute to get to the top of palm tree. It requires a lot of hard skin to climb in the trees, which means that it is extremely painful for the young boys in the beginning. He also told us that there can easily happen fatal accidents when they crawl in the palm trees, as there is not any security other than a lot of plastic, located on the ground.

 

After the tour we headed back to the bus with horse carriage. This time, Katrine was allowed to control our carriage, but the horse really just did what the other horses did. It was a fun and different way to get back and forth as we had spent such a long time in the bus the previous days. The carriages were very colorful and not of the best quality, but they were not any danger. It was mostly the young guys who steered horse carriages - they had their own horse and cart. The horses were well cared for and healthy, and you could see that the boys did anything to make them feel good and so they did not suffer during the trip, even if they were to pull a wagon with four people, while they galloped on the paved roads.