Our next stop was Douz. In about 2002, they build a new road directly between Douz and Matmata. Until then, it had been necessary to loop back up to Gabes, and go through Kebili. What used to be a 3 hour journey – more depending on the louage connections- now takes about one hour. The only catch is that there are no public buses or regular louages running between the two cities. The only way is to organize a private taxi, which costs about $60. We found a few people to split it with (this probably won’t be a problem, as the backpacker route frequently heads from Matmata to Douz).