When I woke up I wasn’t feeling very well, so I decided to hang out at the camp site and take it easy for rest of the day.

There were strange noises outside – the 太极拳 (Taijiquan) folks were in the middle of their exercise:

Anyways, I got some food, a book and a folding chair. Then I sat down and let the bugs attack me, jealous of everyone who was at the beach enjoying the fine weather.

Here’s a clip of one of the grasshoppers that swan dived on my lap while I was peacefully reading Goethe’s Italian Journey:

Ugh.

Later that day, someone picked up a snake and showed it around:

I couldn’t make out much of what they were talking about – but check out the girl in the back who is trying to tie a knot into the thing! The poor serpent is like: “WTF??”

…

I left my book and my chaise longue when the sun was already on its way down, during the golden hour.

The beach was nice and peaceful:

I ran into Zaki there, an Algerian who is living in the area:

He told me he had seen a tiger once or twice while he was on a deer hunt… awesome.

I took some pictures against the sunlight:

This technique is called “contre-jour” and offers a nice dramatic effect:

There was a sign that said “bathing forbidden in this area”:

But obviously, people didn’t care much.

I followed a couple along the beach…

…looked at the waves for a while…

…and decided that it really sucked to be ill today:

I wanted to jump into the water so badly, but instead I resorted to taking pictures of other people having fun in the surf:

I took a video as well:

Later that night, the stars came out. It was just breathtaking, and my mind was immediately taken back to those quiet places in the Gobi desert. I could see the reflection of Venus dancing on the tide:

When I pointed the camera at the sky above the little island and set the shutter speed to one minute, something very strange appeared on the screen:

Allow me to introduce:

The Milky Way.

Soundtrack: Air – “Kelly Watch The Stars”