The Grand Canyon

Red Lizard, or the travel through the Great Canyon of the Sahara Atlas mountains

The action takes place in the south of the country. A group is to cross the Great Canyon of the Sahara Atlas Mountains. It is a travel second to none and it becomes available thanks to the legendary "Red Lizard" - passenger train of the 19th cent., the interior and atmosphere of which has been preserved up to nowadays.

The train consists of several types of wagons designed for different social layers. In the wagons for engineers there are red plush divans, leather arm-chairs, nice pictures in open-work frames and even French porcelain lavatory pans painted with forget-me-nots. And in the wagons for workers there are rudely built benches only and special hooks for instruments and tools. The train starts from the town of Metlaoui which was founded on the base of the phosphate quarry but nowadays all the resources of this deposit has been exhausted. The train moves to the station of Selja - to the still working quarry. The average time in the way is 1,5 hours, the average speed is 40 km per hour.

The first of the tasks for the teams is to repulse an attack of Bedouins. Bedouins riding on Arabian horses and even on dromedaries (Arabian camels) try to get in the train, to rob it and to captivate its passengers. To repulse the attack each team has a set of pneumatic rifles used in paintball.

Balls for shooting differ in colour - so, summing up the results it would be clear what team includes the most accurate shooters.

During the traffic of the train organizers suggest to make some stops, for instance, to visit a unique viewing platform from which it is easy to observe the mountain river of Selja running from the Algerian Atlas Mountains through gorgeous rocks to salines. It is a really unique place and pictures taken there will be proper decoration of a photo album of a genuine globetrotter.

At one of the next stops teams will be offered to find so called "desert rose" (sand rose) - a unique souvenir indispensable for every tourist visiting Tunisia. The only difference is that tourists buy "desert rose" in shops but participants of this travel will search for it themselves, in its natural surroundings.

At the station of Selja there is the final step of the competition - "extraction" of phosphate where a specific role for each member of every team is provided.

The day is finished with the celebration in the honour of winners and with a picnic at the open air: lambs on spits, fresh vegetables, olives, baked potato and warm home bread. To restore forces there will be dates and to improve moods there will be young Tunisian wine and famous legmi - fresh palm juice.

The historical crossing through the Great Canyon of the Sahara Atlas Mountains may be shot with digital camera. Organizers guarantee professional shooting and montage. Also, it is possible to make copies of DVD-disks in Tunisia according the quantity of participants of the tour.

Minimal quantity of participants is 100 persons; maximal one is not limited. Participants are to be divided into optimal number of teams, not more than 25 persons in a team.

The total price of each tour is calculated depending on the included options and on the quantity of participants.