We woke up on day five of our Tunisian adventure after a pretty decent nights sleep in the Sahara desert. Our butts and thighs were so damn sore from the previous days camel ride – safe to say we were taking the car out!
We got an early start because this was an exceptionally big day of sightseeing. Our first stop of the day was Sidi Bouhlel, also commonly referred to as Star Wars Canyon or Maguer Gorge. This canyon was used to film numerous scenes from Episode IV: A New Hope as well as scenes from Episode I and even scenes from Raiders of the Lost Ark!
After traversing some rather slippy rocks with entirely the wrong footwear (a classic ‘Elle’ move if I’ve ever heard of one) we made it into the entrance of the canyon and I could immediately see numerous scenes flashing through my head – I have attached some stills from both Star Wars and Indiana Jones below so you can really see the vision.
It definitely wasn’t hard to see why George Lucas returned to film so many scenes in this location – it was so unbelievably cool to visit!
We then arrived into the city of Tozeur where we would check in to our hotel, change cars and do some mega exploring in the afternoon. We ended up arriving a bit too early for hotel check in and thus went for a wander around the Tozeur medina to kill some time.
The medina ended up being a fascinating place to explore with gorgeous brickwork, architecture and so much history.
In this next shot you can see a kind of pyramid inlay into the wall – if you look closely you will see that there are a bunch of other smaller rocks scattered throughout this pyramid. Jamel informed us that this was a game of sorts. The idea is that you pick up a small stone from the ground, throw it at the pyramid and if it lands and stays – you’ll be granted good luck. Of course we had to all have a go and to literally everybody’s surprise, I was the only one who could land one!
Not a bad effort for a lass with appalling hand-eye coordination.
We then checked into our lovely hotel and headed out for a bite while Jamel put the car into a car park and sourced a 4×4 which would prove 1000% necessary for our afternoon explorations. We had been recommended a couple of restaurants that were a short walk from our hotel and immediately gravitated towards one called Restaurant Dar Deda.
Despite this place only having a 3.7 rating on Google (something that is kinda baffling to me, ngl) we were served some absolutely delicious chicken and couscous meals. We were both exceedingly happy with our lunch and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this spot to others.
After lunch we met Jamel out the front of our hotel and jumped into a 4×4 and off we set to visit a whole bunch of Star Wars spots in the desert.
Our first spot was Ong Jemel (sometimes written as Ong Jmal) which is a rocky outcrop that was used as the backdrop for some of the pod racing scenes in Episode IV.
Next, our amazing driver handled this 4×4 like it was one of those dune bashing buggies you’d go for a thrill ride in in Peru or Dubai – we were up and down these sand dunes like it was a rollercoaster! This was partly for fun and also kinda just necessary to get us to Mos Espa.
Mos Espa was a bustling space port located on the planet of Tatooine. This huge set piece was constructed between two salt lakes amongst the sand dunes near Tozeur and was used to films scenes from both Episodes I and II. It has long since been abandoned by the Lucasfilm team and now is where local vendors have decided to set up shop to spruik their wares.
As much as it would’ve been cool to visit this without anyone else around (ghost village vibes) I ended up kinda liking having all the vendors around, it made it more hustling and bustling which was how the city was portrayed in the films.
Not far from Mos Espa are the Mesquite Flat sand dunes (also known as the Death Valley sand dunes) which is where the scene from A New Hope where R2-D2 and C-3P0 crash land into the planet of Tatooine was filmed.
Our last stop of the day was undoubtedly the spot in Tunisia that I was most excited to visit.
The Lars Homestead.
This spot is where they filmed the exteriors of Luke Skywalker’s home on Tatooine – you can see how it looked in film in these next film stills.
Now, let’s backtrack a little. Earlier in the day when we first jumped into the 4×4 Jamel started listing off the sites we would be heading towards and I noticed that he omitted the Lars Homestead. When I asked him about it, he told us that there had been unprecedented rains in the area recently and that much of this desert landscape had actually flooded, including the Lars Homestead.
As the homestead is located in the middle of a salt flat, if the salt was still super wet it would essentially become like a less dramatic version of quicksand – the car would get stuck and reaching the area would essentially be impossible. The driver of our 4×4 was extremely certain that we wouldn’t be able to reach this spot and maybe it sounds dramatic, but my heart suddenly felt like it was going to fall out of my butt – I was devastated.
After seeing the look of sadness that this information brought out in me Jamel assured me that we would try to reach it and that if it was in any way possible we would get there.
As it turned out, luck was on our side in this instance and after traversing some admittedly damp salt flats we had arrived at the spot I had wanted to visit since I was a little kid watching A New Hope for the first time.
The igloo ended up being completely filled with water which given the recent flooding wasn’t at all surprising. Sure, it would’ve been nice to be able to go inside, but I was just thankful that we were there at all!
Genuinely wished I’d packed a toy lightsaber, would’ve made for a bloody fun picture!
We stayed to watch the sunset and I just felt so unbelievably joyful and profoundly grateful.
If our trip had ended there I would’ve been so satisfied but we still had two more beautiful days ahead of us…
Stay tuned for a hike through a stunning oasis!
Lars Homestead: This spot is simply unmissable for anyone who loves Star Wars. If you don’t have a 4×4 you will need to hike at least 1km into the salt flats and after heavy rainfall this would be rather treacherous
Dar Saida Beya: We stayed at this hotel and it was easily the nicest hotel we stayed in during our week in Tunisia – the perfect spot for a delicious hot shower after a night in the desert! Click here to learn more
Tours by Jamel: We absolutely loved our trip with Jamel and truly couldn’t have asked for a better guide. We booked our trip with Jamel directly via whatsapp messages, you can contact him through whatsapp on +216 98 202 283 or check out his website by clicking here
Remember: When in Tunisia, say yes to the couscous!
