It’s time for us to leave northern Tunisia and make our way 600km south, to the desert town of Tataouine. The main roads were smooth and fast, which meant the journey took just six and a half hours.

The guesthouse we checked into was run by a lovely chap who left bread and water outside for anyone in need. His rooms however were lacking any love with dusty rubble on the floor and shelves. The toilets didn’t have seats so you either had to hover or sit on someone else’s pee-dribble.

Also, the pillows, if you can even call them that, were almost unusable. One felt like a bag of concrete and the other like a sack of rocks.

We arrived at about 3pm and our jolly host suggested we visit Ksar Ouled Soltan straight away. It’s one of the main attractions in this area; a fortified granary spread out over two courtyards and built by Berbers. It’s also famous for featuring in the Star War movies as the slave quarters where Anika Skywalker lived in his youth – although I had to google that as the only thing I know about Star Wars is men fighting with light sabres.

We were surprised to find the sight was free to visit and there were only two other tourists strolling around which was lovely. Sadly no one seemed to be maintaining the historic building and every cave-style room was filled with rubbish. The courtyard floor was made up of thousands of cigarette butts, I imagine many from the shop sellers who have stalls set up there. It was frustrating seeing the sellers standing around, smoking and looking bored when they could be clearing up the mess and preserving the unique sight.

The low afternoon sun was kissing the building, creating a beautiful burnt orange colour. We attempted to walk up some of the narrow stairs but they made me a bit giddy so I quickly retreated. To get back to town we needed to hop in a shared louage, but we weren’t sure where they picked up from. The village was pretty desolate but we saw a kid and asked for the louage, he directed us back to where we’d come from and a few seconds later one rumbled our way.

The following day we hired a taxi to take us to Douiret, a ruined Berber village set atop a hill. Our plan was to hike 8km from Douiret to Chenini, a similar ruined village, but a much more popular one. We opted to do the trip this way around, as we knew it would be hard to find a taxi in Douiret and we were right, as we didn’t see any other vehicles on the road there.

We spent an hour wandering around the stone alleys, investigating the abandoned homes and grain storage rooms. Due to the lack of popularity and no souvenir shops, this place felt special, like a hidden gem. There was no rubbish in the rooms, in fact some of them had huge vases inside, the sort you’d expect to find behind a glass cabinet in a history museum. We discovered what we think was an old mosque, with a foot washing area outside, and a well.

Once we finished exploring the buildings, we began our hike through the arid desert. It was a gloomy, grey day so the earthy colours of the land and gorges weren’t popping but it was nice to be totally alone out there.

Before we arrived in Chenini we stopped at the fabulous 7 Dormants Mosque. It was such a striking mosque with its white domes and a leaning tower. A few drops of rain began falling out the sky but at the same time the sun briefly popped out which made for a beautiful sight. The white facade of the mosque popped out against both the black storm clouds and the brown, desert hills.

Chenini itself was a little anticlimactic. Some modern buildings had nestled their way between the crumbling old ones. There were a few more tourists around and souviner shops so it lost the authentic charm that Douiret had and we ended up leaving soon after arriving to hop in a louage back to town.

We finished our time in Tatouine with a stroll up a nearby hill to an old ksar. From there we got a great vantage point of the sunset.

The following day we travelled north to the village of Matmata where we wanted to see the traditional Berber homes built underground. These homes were created by digging a circular pit into the sandstone and then creating underground rooms and tunnels in the earth. It protects the people from the hot summer sun, but also from the harsh wind in winter.

We actually booked to stay in one of these underground homes that had been converted into a modern hotel. The entrance was a doorway near a quiet country road and it led us through a tunnel that took us deeper underground. It was lit with lanterns and towards the end we turned left and exited the tunnel. Suddenly we were in a circular courtyard with two-story high walls encircling us.

This is where our room was and it was much better than we’d expected. The walls were all painted white, there were rugs on the floor and lamps and spotlights gave the room a lovely cozy feeling. During January when it was between 5-10° outside, the room remained a warm temperature. In summer it works the opposite way, feeling cool compared to the outside.

We set our bags down and took a stroll through the village to find as many underground homes as possible. It was pretty neat how we’d just be walking through the village and across arid ground, when suddenly we’d spot what looked like a sinkhole. As we approached the edge we’d look down at the courtyard of a home.

Matmata is another filming location for Star Wars, apparently it’s the childhood home of Luke Skywalker and the exact building they filmed in has been converted into a hotel. It’s a popular place for tour buses to stop, so fans can have a stroll around the courtyards and rooms. The top of these ones had barbed wire around them so we couldn’t get a very good look down.

Most of the underground homes appeared to be abandoned, although some seemed to be used to store livestock. One had pigeons nesting in on all the ledges and archways, and while we saw some eggs in a nest we also spotted half a dozen dead pigeons scattered around.

It was quite a fun area to stroll around, not knowing where the next dwelling would be, and what condition it would be in. There were a lot of abandoned vintage cars and it almost felt like the village had either been set up with props for a new movie or suffered from an apocalypse and everyone had left town.

Matmata wasn’t really known about until the 60s when floods devastated the homes of the locals. The president also made a push to modernise the country which led to many families leaving the area and now only a handful of Berbers know how to carve these dwellings.

While we were peering down into one of the home a local lady who didn’t speak English seemed to be trying to lead us somewhere or beg for money. We’re not too sure, but she was very persistent and began pointing to my jewellery. She then spotted my toe rings and crouched down, trying to yank my ring off. I had to grip my toes down into my sandals to prevent her from taking it off. It’s not valuable at all as it was made from stainless steel and bought for 75p from a market in Bangkok, but it’s sentimental as it was my 10 year anniversary gift. I don’t know if she was just curious, or wanted me to gift her my jewellery but she was wearing lots of gold bling that was probably much better quality than my market finds.

We finished our day by grabbing a wrap in town. I ordered a vegetarian one while Craig asked for chicken. The lady spoke French and Arabic so she brought out a tub of raw chicken pieces to show Craig. Then she proceeded to pick the chicken up with her hands and without washing the raw chicken juice off, she began picking up all the freshly made wraps and wiping her hands over them. I was so grossed out and didn’t know what to do. As far as I was concerned I was going to pay for the wraps and then I’d have no choice but to throw them away to avoid food poisoning. I was just watching in horror as my eyes tuned into their UV vision mode – illuminating every surface she touched with her chicken fingers.

Once she’d filled the wraps and rolled them up like a burrito she placed them back on the hot plate to seal them. I figured that might just be enough to kill any germs, even if the inside of the wrap wasn’t heated. So I risked it and ate the damn thing. I guess things like this happen all the time behind the scenes, I just happened to witness it and decided to play a game of salmonella roulette.

We woke early the next morning to try and catch the sunrise as we finally had some blue skies. It was nice strolling around before the village woke up and the tour buses arrived, and a perfect end to our time in southern Tunisia.