Also this year I volunteered to act as a tourguide for the Tunisian ride of the Swiss KTM Adventure Club. As Werni arrived in front of my garage on this Good Friday morning, I couldn't trust my eyes: The trailer was covered with ice! When we arrived at Fabi's in Rotkreuz to pick up the others, dense fog completed this unreal winter picture: No one was sad, that we made the trip to the port of Genoa with cars and trailers.

The day after we embarked on the Carthage, the ferry which should bring us ashore in Tunis within 24 hours. On the parking deck we were introduced by the Tunisian crew to a new technique of fastening bikes in a ferry: Hang em up under the roof!

The first riding day we are seduced by a dashed line on the Michelin map and decide to take this little detour over a plateau. The track proofes to be rather tough and soon after me and my group find ourselves in a dry creek. Four bikers find four different ways to get back onto the track.

Onto of the plateau the track becomes easy again, so get along quite fast. When we reach the Col de Haddège it's time to set up the camp for the night.

Today we plan to ride 140km led by a self-made roadbook. The route first leads through a broad valley, follows a power line cross country, traverses a salt lake and finally leads through the dunes to the set of the old Star Wars movies.

The last few hundred meters along the power lines cross a side-arm of a salt lake and we are unsure if this leg is ridable. On the spot our doubts come true: Obviously there was some rain falling lately- although we clearly see some tracks we have no chance. After all KTMs reach higher grounds the bikes are covered with salty mud and we have gained another experience.

Thinking of the coming leg through the salt lake itself, I start on a recce mission together with Werni and Fabi, while the others set up camp in Tozeur. We find the track through the salt lake dry as a bone and the hard ground tempts us to higher speeds - no wonder speed records are set on salt lakes! Nevertheless we manage to find a wet spot on the last kilometers. We push each-other out of the mire and try to find a ridable alternative. We find a kind of dam and include it in the roadbook.

Obviously our roadbook-making skills have some room for improvement: Marcel and Steffen pass the dam in short distance, but thanks to their patented "bouncing technique" they don't get bogged. Now the roadbook leads through a changing landscape, the navigation is rather difficult due to countless tracks and the difficult ground asks for full concentration. At the end we navigate through the dunes by nothing more than the compass. Well, to be honest: We try! As we find out, the dunes don't usually give you the opportunity to cross them where the compass tells you to do so - especially if you attack them on the steep side. We cheat a little with our GPS and soon find the old star wars set.

We take a few pictures and then head for Douz. As always we ride in two groups and the navigators have to task to find themselves a way - more or less in the direction to Tozeur. Both groups find some kind of tracks - at least there are enough stories for the camp fire today.

Somehow there is always market day in Douz - and somehow I always manage to ride in the middle of it on my way to the campground! In the middle of greengrocers, camel slaughters, donkey carts and mopeds we try to find a way though the crowd.

We drop our stuff at Ibrahim's campground Desert Club and set off for the market by foot to refill our supplies.

Our next target is Timbain, a table mountain at the northern edge of the Grand Erg Oriental. Ibrahim warns us about the exceptional soft sand, which was dropped by the sand storms a few days ago and which did not have time to settle yet. On the first kilometers to the Jebel National Park we don't find much soft sand, but we will find out soon, how right Ibrahim was.

Behind the national park we turn south onto a barely visible set of tracks, which should lead us to Timbain. We get along quite well, the first small dunes pose no real problem for us and the spirit start to get a bit too high: Why follow the tracks, when the next GPS-point can be reached on a direct line? Soon after we find ourselves in front of a high dune belt, the sand is like powder as Ibrahim has told us and we decide to turn around. Now it's time for mother nature to repeat a well-known lesson: If you can easily cross a dune in one direction, this does not mean, that you can cross it in the other direction at all! To get all eight KTMs back onto the track means a hard piece of work and we are ready for lunch!

Back onto the tracks the rest of the ride is much easier and two hours later we reach Timbain.

Well-rested we head off for the way back. This time we act wiser, deny ourselves any unnecessary experiments and stay on the tracks.

Today we want to reach the oasis Ksar Ghilane, where we will rest a day to clean our air filters and bodies.

The Dahar doesn't earn the name "mountains", but it's still worth to ride the small tracks of the range: Winding gravel roads, adventurous road constructions, deep canyons and picturesque mountain oasis' are a special pleasure for the eye.

On the way back to Tunis we pass the Roman ruins of Dougga. Of course we don't want to miss that and soon find ourselves in the middle of temples, thermaes and an impressive amphitheater.

After this historic excursion the last kilometers to Tunis are awaiting us. We take a small rural road, which leads us to the coast with barely no traffic and through a very nice country side. A last sheep from the barbeque and it's time to say goodbye to Tunisia.