Cherchell

Cherchell Port

We took a drive along the coast to Cherchell during the week. It was a two and a half hour drive through some beautiful scenery: the Mediterranean sea to the right and fertile, green hills to the left. After Tipaza the road to Cherchell turned inland and the landscape became more lush: fields growing tomatoes, figs, plums and lots more besides. There were children at the sides of the roads selling baskets of freshly picked produce such as prickly pears and tomatoes.

My 4 year old son was delighted every time we drove past donkeys which are used quite a lot for labour in the area.

The actual town of Cherchell is quite old and run down like most towns I have visited in Algeria but it has a long and rich history dating back to 1500BC and the Ancient Egyptians. However it is best known for it's Roman ruins and the modern name Cherchell is the 'Berberisation' of the Roman name for the town, Caesarea.

The Masjid Er-Rahmane is quite a strange building built in the style of the Pantheon complete with Romanesque pillars.

We also drove past a Roman aquaduct coming back out of Cherchell going back to Tipaza but I missed the opportunity to photograph it. See a photograph here. Amazingly intact piece of architecture.

Hijab in Algeria

It's quite a change being in Algeria after Saudi Arabia as regards the hijab and abaya. Wherever you see a lot of women in Saudi, it is a sea of black. The abaya shops are just a variation of black in different designs but I have noticed that black, particularly head to toe black, is really uncommon in Algeria. If a woman wears a black abaya she will usually wear a colourful head scarf. Abayas (long flowing coat-like garment) come in all colours here and are usually completed with a contrasting head scarf.

Whilst it is still not common, I have noticed over the past 7 years that more and more ladies are wearing the Algerian Djelbab which is similar to the Saudi head abaya or Iranian chador. Unlike the Saudi and Iranian counterparts they are generally not black but brown, navy or green and almost always with a white scarf underneath - sometimes with niqab, most often without. The lady on the right of the photograph below is wearing the Algerian Djelbab in sage green with a white scarf underneath.

Eating fruits in season

One of the great things about Algeria is the fruit & veg and the fact that everything is eaten only when in season. There are no big supermarkets bringing in lorryloads of produce imported from faraway countries. No pale, half ripe tomatoes or hard tasteless peaches; everything is eaten in season and bursting with juiciness and flavour.

We went to the market this week and were tempted by so many of the wonderful fruits available at this time of year. There are all varieties of plums including Victoria plums, yellow plums, Greengages; figs, prickly pears, peaches, grapes and pears.

Among the vegetables particularly popular at this time of year are big beefsteak tomatoes, plum tomatoes, green peppers and olives of different varieties. They make simple but delicious salads: Just slice the tomatoes, scatter over a few olives and then a sprinkling of salt. The peppers are chargrilled, peeled and sliced and then eaten simply drizzled with olive oil and scooped up with bread or made into Chakchouka with the addition of chopped grilled tomatoes and crushed garlic.

Mechanics in Algeria

Gotta give it to the car mechanics here in Algeria...they must be good judging by the age of some of the cars you see on the road with the engine actually running and propelling the car forwards!

The Renault 4 in the pic below was a 1967 model (older than me, LOL) and I snapped the pic just before it drove off. It was obviously a very successful model of car as I have seen older on the roads, I also saw an 1959 model I think.

Oh, the beautiful countryside!

So this is the dream: a little country house in the countryside somewhere outside of Algiers or in Carmarthenshire, Wales.

If that little country house happened to be in Algeria then add a couple of sheep, a few chickens, some fruit trees like fig, apricot, lemon etc, maybe some vines and I'd be a very happy bunny; I really am a country gal at heart. :)

We went for a late afternoon drive at the weekend, that beautiful part of the day when the sky is a rich blue and the sunlight falls on the trees and fields in such a way as to intensify the greenness.

We drove past green valleys, apricot groves, fields of grape vines...

Fields of tomatoes:

Beautiful scenery:

Prickly pears that just seem to grow wild at the road side:

They are just coming into season; they need to take on an orangey tinge on their skin before they are ready. The ones in the photo are still too green: