Red Lizard Train

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No visit to Central Tunisia is complete without a visit to and ride on the famous Red Lizard Train. Make your way 42 km (26 miles) south-west of Gafsa, to the foot of the Tell Atlas to Metaloui, the centre of the country’s phosphate mining industry, buy your tickets from the town’s main train station and at 11am every day but Saturday, you can climb aboard and take your seat beside the widows of the quaint red carriages and set off on a exhilarating journey along the Seldja Gorge.

Built by the French at the end of the 19th century, the original purpose of the narrow gauge line was to transport the rich phosphate deposits, discovered in 1896 by amateur palaeontologist and French army veterinary surgeon, Philippe Thomas, from Metaloui westwards to Redeyef. The Red Lizard itself was for many years used by the Bey of Tunis, to travel between Tunis and his summer palace at Hammam Lif, but in 1995 was refitted by the national railway company and set to work, which it still does today, transporting tourists in style.

Taking an enjoyable hour and a half, the return journey along the gorge takes you through some of Tunisia’s weirdest and most wonderful rock formations.  As the track follows the path carved out by the Oued Seldja, the riverbed which is dry for most of the time, still has enough moisture to allow small pockets of lush greenery which serve to heighten the drama of the rocky landscape and make your adventure all the more remarkable.