Tea in the Middle of Nowhere

In the Spring of 2005, when Mara and I explored southern Tunisia, we drove from Tataouine to the berber village of Chenini. To get from there to our next destination, the oasis of Ksar Ghilane, we had to enter the desert and leave paved roads behind us. Mara had misgivings about this. I wasn't worried as we had a compass along, and tracks were visible in the sand. The only problem was there were many of them. We drove several hours without seeing civilization, though we had come across one or two cars going the other way. Suddenly in the ocean of sand there was a shack with a man selling tea. We could not possibly drive past him.