Sabratha and Leptis Magna

Tuesday 22nd November. We had an early start of the roman ruins of Sabratha. We were the first people there wandering around. The theatre was very impressive with 3 tiers of columns as a back drop. John was pleased with his paparazzi photo of a Libyan woman and her daughter. The daughter was looking captivated across at Dillon the bloodhound, not the theatre. We tried to find the amphitheatre and failed, but found an underground entrance to some caves which had graves carved out into the sides. The gated entrance had been left open and with a torch you could see skeletons, mostly broken within the stone graves on the floor and sides which had been prised open. I quickly went back out not really liking skeletons, dark and was worried that someone may come along and lock the gate. Meanwhile Barbara admitted she’d always wanted to be an archaeologist, John was in his element in a network of tunnels and caves and Lucas is just a constant explorer.
The Sabratha museum contains some great mosaics. The large floor mosaic contains a whole range of different birds and Barbara was pleased that both her surnames, le coq and lily leaf were represented. John said it would be much more important to have a Brewer – we already spent two dry nights in a country where alcohol is illegal.
We braved another journey across Tripoli to Leptis Magna. We found a hotel which was a bit more officious; they wouldn’t give our passport back until the morning. The evening meal was the best we’ve had so far. This side of Tripoli is an agricultural area. It has been a struggle both in Tunisia and Libya to get meals like the locals. Once they see you’re a tourist you are asked meat or fish (a struggle for the vegetarian Kathy and Steve) which they fry with chips. But here we got Ramadan to negotiate with the waiter to get us the local stuff. The first time we managed this since a local restaurant in El Kef, Tunisia where John managed to order 3 meals.
Across the restaurant was the ‘Bar’ (no alcohol, just non-alcoholic Becks) were a lot of young locals in big 70’s patterned brown armchairs crowded around the TV for Champions league football. Ronaldinio’s goal for Barcelona against Bremen was the most popular. John was just a bit worried that meanwhile Man U could be falling out of the competition.
Wednesday 23rd November. We arrived at Leptis Magna just before the first tour bus. We headed straight to Septimus Severus arch (pictured with our guide Ramadan) and onto the Hadrianic baths (hot, cold and tepid), nymphaeum and onto the Imperial Forum where there are the much photographed medusa heads. At the basilica, two Germans pointed out a stone engraved with MaxBrittanicas and some steps in the roman structure led up to the dizzy heights over the Basilica and view over the Mediterranean. We soon lost Barbara and not long after John, but explored the Old Forum, Market and theatre. From the theatre roof (Lucas and always be found high up on a monument) he managed to spot Barbara. We then went across the beach (nicely silted up Severian port), just avoided the temptation for a swim and our last look at the sea for some time for a pretty exhausting walk to the amphitheatre. Still no sign of John – wondered whether he would crawl out of one of the amphitheatre tunnels. Only Lucas and Steve had energy left to explore. Fortunately it was carved out of the hillside so we arrived at a great view from the top. We managed to find John back at the entrance café and had just settled down to typing the waypoints into the laptop for the route south from Ghadames, Libya. It was quite amazing that we were struggling to find everyone within Leptis Magna and we’re moving on to the Sahara. The good thing about this site is it is also very easy to lose the few coach loads of tourists that there are. We then headed in land towards the Jebel Nafusa plateau after a spot of fruit and veg shopping at one of the roadside stalls. We rough camped an hour or two down the road.
Lucas lit our first campfire from the dead wood around, before we retired for an early night. Thursday 24th November.