Pirate-ship crossing
About 90 minutes from Houmt Souk.
Sibirmann — CC BY 3.0 · Bahbouhe — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Rawen Ab — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Misa.stefanovic.07 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Pa681998 — CC BY-SA 4.0
Ras R'mal, meaning cape of sand, is a long spit of dunes on Djerba's north coast, north-east of Houmt Souk, and its tip is what boat trips sell as Flamingo Island. It is really a peninsula, joined to Djerba near Mezraya by a narrow sandy neck. Since 7 November 2007 the spit and its lagoon have been a Ramsar wetland of about 1,856 hectares. Young and still growing north-westwards on drifting sand, it is one of the few natural stretches of Djerba's coast. Its listing rests mainly on birds: about 1,500 wintering flamingos and a winter night roost of at least 500 spoonbills. Little terns and Kentish plovers nest on the sand in summer, and loggerhead turtles have nested on the beach. Local histories recall Sidi Hachani, a sixteenth-century coastal mosque on this shore, since lost to the sea. Most visitors come by pirate-style boat from Houmt Souk harbour, about 90 minutes away, with music and a fishing demonstration on board. Boats anchor off the tip for some two hours of swimming, and lunch is salads, couscous and grilled fish. Flamingos feed on the shallows at low tide, but sightings are never guaranteed, least of all in high summer. The tip lies about 5 km north-east of central Houmt Souk as the crow flies, and Borj Ghazi Mustapha is under 5 km to the south-west. Trips leave the harbour around 9:00 and are back around 15:00, so allow most of a day. Fences protect the dunes and, in summer, nesting birds: keep outside them and take your rubbish home.
About 90 minutes from Houmt Souk.
Feeding on the shallows at low tide.
A swim, then a grilled-fish lunch.
Tip of the Ras R'mal sand spit, north-east of Houmt Souk, Djerba
In winter: most flamingos here are winter visitors from colonies north of the Mediterranean, feeding on the shallows at low tide and gathering in the marshes behind the dunes at high tide. Boat trips are busiest in summer, when there are far fewer, and operators do not promise any.
Yes, on foot from the beach at the base of the spit near Mezraya, but the tip is some 6 to 7 km away over open sand with little shade, and the sandy neck joining it to Djerba floods at high tide, so check the tide times and carry plenty of water. Vehicles and quads damage the dunes and disturb nesting birds, so the boat remains the usual way to the tip.