Jebel Nafusa

I spent most of today up in the Jebel Nafusa or western mountains of Libya, one of the few regions of the country I have never visited before, or at least the eastern part of the region (having camped in Ghadames some years ago). Just an hour or so’s drive west from Tripoli, one enters a totally different land: Berber territory, where Arabic is no longer the default language and olive trees canter over the high plateau, watered by deliveries from tankers that disgorge their load into underground cisterns. The main purpose of my visit was to get to Tarmeisa, a superlative mountain-top settlement whose old town (or village, one should say) has been evacuated so that the inhabitants can now live in more spacious, modern homes right next door (as indeed is the case at Ghadames). Old Tarmeisa is only semi-derelict, however, as there have been attempts to preserve at least some of the houses, a bridal suite and even a tiny little farm, to give visitors an idea of what it was once like. The views from some of the windows and ledges are phenomenal, the vertiginous drops heart-stopping. And although the climate was perfect on this sunny autumn afternoon, one knows how burning hot and freezing cold the place is in the more extreme seasons.