Peripatetic Sands

We had a beautiful day. We went to Dougga, one of the oldest and largest abandoned Roman cities in Tunisia. We had lunch on stones that looked like they had been flattened by giants feet and then made our way to explore the city - it was completely empty. It was a year after the revolution in Tunisia so tourists were still afraid to come to the country and we had free run of the place. We found secret tunnels and climbed into an abandoned tower filled with bats. It was perfect day so we decided that we would stay the night. The city was empty and we had begun to feel that Dougga was ours that day. As if it were a time capsule and the rest of the world hadn't found it yet.

As we were eating a man walked passed us, but we paid him no mind. There were many farms nearby and we assumed he had come from one of them. Then just as the sun went down, the guards found us. They told us it was illegal to be there and they told us they were calling the police. We panicked, we were working in Tunisia and if they called the police they would revoke our visas. We were taken up to the guard house on the top of the hill leading down into valleys of olive orchards. We looked at the hills, then at each other. Then on the count of three we ran!

Down the hills while the guards were shouting after us. We were laughing and hushing each other feeling a mix of elation, adrenaline and fear and we rushed through heavy thickets and thorns. We made into a pasture but we were still afraid, we could see cars on the hill above us and we were convinced they were the police so we kept running. Running and running until we couldn't see Dougga anymore, couldn't see anything except for fields. And that's when we realized we were lost.

We had eaten all our food and only had a little water. We were in the middle of Tunisia, neither of us spoke Tunsi. That's when we heard the dogs start to bark.

On instinct we began to run again. Running from dogs is terrifying - it reduces you to prey. I could almost feel the dogs teeth. We ran until the barks faded, fear pulsing through us.

We finally found a road and hitchhiked a ride. The man who picked us up was ironically an off duty police officer out for a midnight ride with his girlfriend. However, we weren't the famed fugitives we'd imagined and the sight of three foreigners in the middle of the road only bemused him rather than causing righteous anger at our escape from Dougga. He took us a hostel, while laughing at the stupid ijnabyn.