On the road again

Your humble correspondent will be off for the next eight days, travelling around Tunisia - souks, medinas, Roman ruins, Carthage, the Atlas - and, of course, dunes. There may be some things to write about on my return (and a few additions to my sand collection).

[Images thanks to Cimoi at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Amphi_d%27El_Jem_Tunisie.jpg under a creative commons license and http://www.internationaleducationmedia.com/tunisia/gallery.htm ]

Comments

[Callan Bentley]

Bon voyage: may the weather be fine and the sand be gritty!

[Jules]

Hi Michael,

Your travel destination brought back memories of an "old movie". You probably will not be intentionally looking for Luke Skywalkers old haunts, but here is a guide to where those famous movie sets and scenes were made in Tunisia. Best of travels and adventures!

http://www.tunisia.com/tunisia/travel/star-wars-tunisia

[Jules]

Michael,

I thought you and readers would like to see the remarkable home, a sand grain case, constructed by a worm called Pectinaria koreni posted on this blog: Beyond The Human Eye

http://beyondthehumaneye.blogspot.com/

[Sandglass]

Many thanks for the comments, Jules. I just returned from Tunisia and yes, we visited a couple of Star Wars locations - Luke and Anakin Skywalker's home on Tatooine and the troglodyte dwellings that appeared in the movie. Very strange sensation! More on my travels soon.

And those images of the worm sand grain case are wonderful - it's also known as the trumpet worm (I included an example from Norway in the book, but these images are superbly detailed). You can't help but wonder what kind of glue it uses and whether it's similar to that of the sandcastle worm (http://throughthesandglass.typepad.com/through_the_sandglass/2009/01/grainbygrain-1-worm-superglue.html)that has such amazing potential medical applications.

Thanks again for the link!