In need of a Star Wars fix, I headed for a galaxy far, far away.

Well, the desert in Tunisia to be exact. The vast Sahara occupies a big chunk of the far south of the country and it was the perfect spot for recreating Tatooine, Luke Skywalker's home in the very first episode way back in 1976. George Lucas took inspiration for the planet's name from the real town of Tatouine a day's drive south from Tunisia's capital, Tunis. When we rolled into town, dusty and tired after the drive I didn't feel much excitement. There were no droids to greet us, no stormtroopers on the street corners. The town itself wasn't used for filming and it was a pretty run-of-the-mill place.

But a short drive northwest along a dirt track brought me to straight to my first experience of a real Star Wars location. Ksars or fortified granaries can be found all over the place in this part of the country, but Ksar Hadada is particularly unique. It was the location for the slave quarters in Episode One (the Phantom Menace). A bunch of simple mud-hut-like cells are bundled one on top of the other.

Somewhat ironically they aren't used for keeping people prisoner. Instead they are hotel rooms - though pretty basic ones at that. I clambered around the site imagining Luke Skywalker around every corner. It's now a popular tourist destination and I had to fight my way around with a busload of French tourists. But that didn't detract completely from the atmosphere. The fact that it's a building still very much in use somehow made the experience feel all the more real.

Next morning we fired up the trusty Landcruiser and drove another day's drive out into the desert arriving eventually at Matmata. (If only we could make the jump to hyperspace - it would make the long journeys between places a bit less tedious.) It was seriously hot out here and I wasn't surprised to find that people in this part of the world choose quite voluntarily to spend much of the day underground. Dotted around this little desert town are huge circular pits which have been dug deep into the crumbly ochre sandstone. Smaller caves have been cut back into the walls.

Many of these structures are still in use even though some are over 400 years old. The main central courtyard pits sometimes have small wells and flower gardens at their centres and some of the bigger cave dwellings have connecting corridors to more courtyards and more rooms. The temperature in these troglodyte dwellings remains pretty constant all year round, perfect for escaping the baking days and the cool nights. Several of them are now hotels, so I spent a night in one. I slept in my sleeping bag, deep in the bowels of the earth as unexpected rain pattered down onto the ground far above, unaware that stormtroopers were wreaking havoc close by.

Well, they did 30 years or so ago. One of the other underground hotels here was used for shooting several scenes from the very first Star Wars movie. Next day I took a look around Hotel Sidi Driss which was utterly fascinating. It was the home of Luke Skywalker's uncle and aunt who were murdered by imperial forces early in the film. It all looked surprisingly realistic, given that it was now several decades old.

Read more > A camel safari in the Tunisia

I wandered around the courtyard carved deep into the ground and stuck my head inside the caves that led off it - some were still adorned with random bits of space dwelling stuck on there to shoot the film. Up close they looked surprisingly crude - but then again, they’d been there for decades. Coolest thing of all? You can have a beer in the Skywalker bar here - complete with air-lock doors and strange silver consoles on the walls.

But there were even better Star Wars sights yet further into the desert. And some of them much more recent. My final experience of The Force happened later that week. I careered out into the dunes towards the Algerian border in a 4-wheel-drive from the oasis town of Tozeur further inland from Matmata on the hunt for more space-age scenes.

We bucked and bounced along sandy tracks, Arabic music jangling from the stereo at top volume until we reached a vast dried up river valley. This place formed the backdrop for the pod race in Episode One (the fourth film) and the sense of huge space here made me feel positively tiny. Vast sheer rock faces soared above, the heat and the light were bewilderingly intense. From here we drove on, cannoning down the valley and up and over several more vast sand dunes, grinding and bucking in low gear.

As the afternoon sun was beginning to lose some of its heat we finally reached the lonely deserted film set near the salt flat Chott el Gharsa - without doubt the highlight of the trip. This was Mos Espa in the more recent Star Wars movies. The sets are just sat there for anyone who journeys this far out into the desert to see them. It's like, well, wandering onto the set of a film! I strolled around these oddly surreal streets of dusty arches and small domed houses with no backs.

This kind of scenery could almost look normal for the desert if it wasn't for the angular space-aged, statue-like structures built alongside. With few other people around, it was easy to imagine a Jedi Knight hiding out in one of the shady ruins or R2-D2 and C3PO trundling round the market place.

The future for this amazing piece of film history doesn't look completely bright. Sand dunes are beginning to encroach. Without action the sand will probably reclaim Mos Espa for good within the next decade or so. As I clambered over the rough fibreglass walls and peaked into the strange pod-shaped houses the sun began to set. I was indeed in another galaxy far far away - with nothing on the horizon but endless dunes. I just needed a lightsabre and the day would have been complete.