Wellll… It’s the tail end of June and I’m in the Sahara. It’s a pretty amazing place. There are, for sure, some negatives, namely the fact that Ben Ali’s tourism management scheme revolved around sex tourism and high end package tourists from France, which has poisoned a lot of the experience of trying to meet locals in the towns to the south. But I finally got into the Sahara today, and it’s amazing. It’s 47 degrees Celcius. I have no idea what that is in farenheight, but 40 is 100.4, so 47 is up there.

Anywho. The cooling fan on my netbook is broken, so we can safely assume that it will incinerate itself at any moment, but I figured I would talk up the Sahara for a moment. It is fucking amazing. Sand dunes as far as the eye can see, flat, literally, the fact that they call it “the great sand sea” in Tunis makes perfect sense, that’s what it is. And the sand is ridiculous. Don’t ask my why I know this, but the Sahara is the best sand-boarding in the world because it is the oldest sand around. One famous sandboarder said it was like “floating on ball bearings.”

And I would say that’s pretty much the experience. Dust made of little ball bearings. The sand just blows away in the slightest breeze. It’s like those scenes from the mummy. You can toss a fistful into the air when there is the slightest bit of wind and it just vanishes. It looks like a red smoke. You can pour it onto your leg and it is so light it’ll find ways around your leghair and look like a red waterfall coming off. It’s just. Absolutely. Beautiful. It was a pain in the ass to get here and cost a pretty penny, but it’s quite worth it.

I’ll post pictures when I can, but that’ll probably be when I’m stateside in 3 weeks.

Anyhow, tomorrow I start to head north again, should be to the southernmost beach island, Jerba, setting of Homer’s lair of the Lotus Eaters and supposedly equally amazing, within a couple of days, possibly to spend my birthday there. Then again, this’ll probably make it online after the fact.

Much love to everyone and hope summer is treating everyone well, especially those who are spending it on the road.

Andrew