Andante Travels

If you are a Bare Bones traveller, we wondered if you would you like a free Bare Bones tee-shirt for yourself or someone you know?

These are simple, round-necked, short sleeved, 100% cotton tee's with a discreet logo on the chest with a whimsical gallery of skeletons in ancient attire on the back.

We are giving away 53 of them as listed below.

Hurry, once they've gone, that's it!

Cornflower Blue

Women's
Size 8 = 2

Men's
Small = 2

Mid-earth Brown

Women's
Small = 5
Medium = 0
Large = 0

Men's
Small = 3
Medium = 1
Large = 0

Country Green

Women's
Size 8 = 5
Size 10 = 2
Size 12 = 0
Size 14 = 0

Men's
Small = 2
Medium = 0
Large = 0
X-Large = 0

If you would like a t-shirt please ring us on 01722 713800 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

The exact line of the Frontier in Tunisia has been researched only sporadically, and little has been published. Few people are clear about the border where the Empire and the nomadic tribes of the inhospitable Sahara met, and it is very hard to find the evidence on the ground.

So Dr Denise Allen , deputy director of Andante Travels, decided to undertake some practical research herself. She and a colleague from the company, Mary Reynolds , set out on an exciting quest to find and identify the ruins of the clausurae, the stretches of wall and fortifications which marked this frontier.

To the best of our knowledge, this is a first in the travel industry – where the travel company makes the identifications, and possibly even some discoveries along the way. On her return, Dr Allen shared what she had seen with colleagues in the world of archaeology – many of the discoveries made with the help of local people keen to tell of ancient walls they had seen in the sands....

In search of the southern frontier of Roman Africa.

We have been taking people to see the best of the ruinous Roman towns in northern Tunisia for many years – in fact this was the first Andante tour to be set up outside Europe nearly 20 years ago. We have also, over many years, taken our guests to the south, to see the extraordinary landscapes and ancient and historic architecture around the edges of the desert.

The missing element has always been the frontier itself, marking the limit of the Empire to the south, beyond which lies the huge and inhospitable Sahara. This natural buffer meant that a continuous frontier wall was unnecessary; the limes therefore comprises clausurae – stretches of wall which crossed routes between the north and south, controlling the movement of people in and out of the Province, and protecting the cultivated fields of the most fertile regions. Many lie in what are now remote and inaccessible spots, but roads in the south have been much improved in recent years, and after some research we determined to discover and include some of these sites.

Research is all very well, but someone needed to check the accessibility of these sites first-hand. Together with Mary Reynolds I set off in July on the quest for the wall.

We had found short written references to surviving wall and fort remnants along the frontier, and then looked up the directions on Google Earth, also tapping into the expertise of our Guide Lecturers with knowledge of Roman frontiers in the Sahara zone. Our armoury was therefore a sheaf of printed matter and maps with markers on them.

Our Local Guide in Tunisia, Mehdi Mansour, had been briefed to be our guide for the quest, and he had given up on scant written references, heading instead to the area through which we would be travelling to ask the local nomads if they had noticed any unusual stones and structures in the empty semi-desert zone around the chotts, or salt lakes, which divide Tunisia in two. We met up in Djerba and compared notes and maps before heading further south.

What followed was a wonderful journey, much of it off-road over uneven and solitary tracks, stopping at an extraordinary series of features which were potential candidates for the frontier. I had a field (archaeologist's) day trying to identify them all ... some were red herrings, though fascinating nonetheless: a possible Numidian tomb with circular stone kerb and flint scatter round about (fig 1), an abandoned troglodyte house (fig 2), stretches of tabular natural rock which make a very good attempt to pass themselves off as built walls (fig 3).

Some, though, had the large rectangular masonry blocks characteristic of Roman construction, and had clearly once been small forts, with surface scatters of Roman pottery, one small bronze coin and even some possible oyster shells contributing to the body of evidence. One long stretch of ‘wall shadow’ could be discerned at one such site, with a bank and ditch and linear scatter of facing stones. Other remnants lie within existing oasis settlements – in the foundations of a minaret tower, and amongst the irrigation channels of a palmery. We (re)discovered enough sites for a whole off-road and very adventurous Roman frontier tour.

The best, most spectacular and most accessible stretches we have, however, included in our tour this November - a well-surfaced road south-east of Gafsa passes through an extraordinary stretch of wall, clinging precipitously to the ridged rocky ranges north of the chott. It is a puzzle, as although it is documented as a stretch of clausura, it appears to have an aqueduct channel, lined with plaster, running along the top of some of it. If this is so, where on earth was the water coming from? Guests on our tour will have the chance to see it and consider for themselves, but whatever it has been used for, it is a mighty length of masonry.

We will be travelling further south into the desert this year than we have been before, where our accommodation will give us a real taste of oasis life at Ksar Ghilane. White canvas star-shaped tents are spread through the oasis, but the authentic camping experience is tempered by the fact that the tents have solid floors, a solid-walled en-suite bathroom (including a shower), electric lights and air-conditioning (vital in early July, perhaps less necessary in November when our tour will take place). With a proper bed, room to stand up and move around and small table and chair, this is a very good compromise between camping and comfort. It is pleasingly low-key; the word ‘luxurious’ is only really applicable in the context of camping, but there is a lovely swimming pool, which provides a focus for al fresco evening dining, and a look-out tower in the centre of the camp which affords wonderful views over the oasis, especially at sunrise and sunset.

Best of all, there is a well-preserved Roman fort in the real sand-sea desert less than an hour’s camel ride away! Just visible on the skyline as you start your journey, this was one of the remotest outposts of the Empire. The ride takes 50 minutes each way, up and down dunes, and we were the only four humans visible in the landscape (three riding and one leading us). The small fort is well-preserved with some recent consolidation work apparent, and an inscription to Jupiter, Greatest, Best and Victorious still visible on a lintel.

From here we will travel north again along the only good access road to the oasis, passing through ksour country – these are the fortified granaries constructed by the berbers, especially in the 17^th to 19^th centuries, to Medenine, and the rest of our programme. The road east from the oasis is still barely passable by 4x4 let alone coach, and we will therefore not be able to take the short route to Ksour Ouled Soltane, one of the most famous (and most visited) of the granary sites, as we had hoped. This visit will therefore be replaced by the lesser-known, but also well-preserved, ksour further north.

We feel we now have an excellent southern leg to our tour through Tunisia, with a real taste of the desert and lots of unusual archaeology – it was another wonderful adventure which we will be sharing with our guests.