Between the Sports Congress in Hamburg and Tourism Day Schaffhausensports observations and tourism experiences in Tunisia.
For a period of just over a week I may accompany two extreme athletes - as a driver, photographer and participant observer. I am delighted about the trust Horst and Mareike have placed in me. And I am excited about the many different insights, both into the project and into Tunisian culture. I am immensely excited about the encounters and a region in which I have not yet been.
When Horst and Mareike first told me about their project, I was thrilled. The idea of using sports to enable cultural exchange is wonderful. Because there needs to be more togetherness and understanding for each other.
Europe still so often looks at Africa as if it were a huge country rather than such a differentiated and inherently complex continent. The narratives of European narratives reflect the reality on the ground, if at all, then only in crumb sizes. The Internet and social media also help only to a limited extent, sometimes creating further alienation and prejudice.
However, both sports and - caution overused phrase - authentic tourism can be excellent ambassadors here to create new connections.
I have been on site since Saturday evening. My first 40 hours are over.
At the promenade on the beach in Sousse I met Sunday morning quite a lot of sportsmen. In the water one stood more, instead of swimming, but some runners were on the way and also a neatly large cycling group gathered and drove off. School children from a private school were training in the sand. A sports event in Sousse for breast cancer prevention also took place.
With the bus we went a bit north yesterday early afternoon. Horst and Mareike started exactly at the point where they had stopped the night before. We agreed after how many kilometers they would like to take a break. It was their ninth day in a row.
The sun was burning, in the background the foothills of the Atlas Mountains rose hazily. The landscape dry, now and then interspersed with an olive grove. Much plastic waste from man and wind distributed over the area.
The two run asphalt for safety reasons. The shoulder is uneven, but suitable for short parking and photography. Traffic is manageable, yet there is a lot of honking to make oneself heard, to complain, to greet. The bus wobbles due to its height, the faster another vehicle passes it.
I still don't have my composure, my body is tense from the many new impressions. The rather intense days before in Germany are still hanging in my limbs. I feel my muscles without any sport at all. Next to two such focused and self-disciplined runners, I am left with nothing but self-irony.
It is completely irrelevant to me how many months or years the two of them need for their tour. I am already impressed by the preliminary work of the two. What counts from my perspective is to try it out, and then always reconsider whether it fits.
It is an enormous physical challenge to run so many kilometers almost every day. I stand by a bit in amazement, curious. Do you supplement? And if so, enough? How do they know that a pain in the knee, foot, groin (and where it can hurt anywhere) will subside and not get worse?
Shortly before Hergla, I buy fresh flatbread directly from the wood-burning oven. My French is limited, but the man in the Buvette and I still understand each other. I almost overlook Mareike and Horst as they walk past me in the setting evening sun.
The people in Tunisia are astonished to enthusiastic. They are asking questions and following the activities on social media. I experienced everyone we met so far as very open, friendly and grounded. On the way back to Sousse, we strike up a conversation with a cyclist who has discovered his employer as a sponsor on the bus. He works for Decathlon, there is a selfie, contacts are exchanged. The multipliers of the adventure grow.
Photos: Anja Kirig //More about the author: www.anjakirig.de
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