A Surprise Visit to Tunisia

Captain’s Log, June 3rd: Well, a little bit of a surprise for our passengers this morning, when they realized we had docked in Tunis. Our plans were to visit Cagliari on the beautiful island of Sardinia, but the best laid plans sometimes come to nothing. We were en route, when we were informed by radio that there would be no berth available. Apparently two German cruise ships were already taking up the available port berths. We contacted Mrs Negibi, the ship owner, and she confirmed that she was fairly sure that advance details had been passed to the port authorities. Anyway, there was nothing to do but choose another destination, and hence our visit to Tunis.

At very short notice we managed to arrange two shore visits. One to the bazaar in Tunis, and one to the ancient city ruins of Carthage. I hesitate to say that the passengers were ungrateful, but it was  disappointing that only about a hundred of them were willing to leave the ship, citing security concerns. This is in spite of there being an armed guard, with an assault rifle, on each of the tour buses.