Here are my first few photos from an amazing time at AfrikaBurn 2016. More to follow. So check back for more or follow me on instagram @lara.jess.

"One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs, or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls." Khalid Hosseini. #southafricaza #afrikaburn2016 #tankwatown #afrikaburn #southafrica #meetsouthafrica

A photo posted by Lara Thomas (@lara.jess) on May 3, 2016 at 5:23am PDT

"I've come to believe that there exists in the universe something I call "The Physics of The Quest" — a force of nature governed by laws as real as the laws of gravity or momentum. And the rule of Quest Physics maybe goes like this: "If you are brave enough to leave behind everything familiar and comforting (which can be anything from your house to your bitter old resentments) and set out on a truth-seeking journey (either externally or internally), and if you are truly willing to regard everything that happens to you on that journey as a clue, and if you accept everyone you meet along the way as a teacher, and if you are prepared – most of all – to face (and forgive) some very difficult realities about yourself… then truth will not be withheld from you." Elizabeth Gilbert.

A photo posted by Lara Thomas (@lara.jess) on May 3, 2016 at 3:40am PDT

"I am an excitable person who only understands life lyrically, musically, in whom feelings are much stronger as reason. I am so thirsty for the marvelous that only the marvelous has power over me. Anything I can not transform into something marvelous, I let go. Reality doesn't impress me. I only believe in intoxication, in ecstasy, and when ordinary life shackles me, I escape, one way or another. No more walls." Anais Nin.

A photo posted by Lara Thomas (@lara.jess) on May 3, 2016 at 3:15am PDT

"Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray." Rumi.

A photo posted by Lara Thomas (@lara.jess) on May 3, 2016 at 4:03am PDT

"Opportunity dances with those already on the dance floor." H. Jackson Brown Jr. justgoshoot #meetsouthafrica #southafrica #afrikaburn #tankwatown #afrikaburn2016

A photo posted by Lara Thomas (@lara.jess) on May 3, 2016 at 4:54am PDT

#afrikaburn2016 #tankwatown #afrikaburn #meetsouthafrica #southafrica #nothingisordinary #justgoshoot

A photo posted by Lara Thomas (@lara.jess) on May 3, 2016 at 4:57am PDT

#justgoshoot #nothingisordinary #southafrica #meetsouthafrica #afrikaburn #afrikaburn2016

A photo posted by Lara Thomas (@lara.jess) on May 3, 2016 at 5:00am PDT

Two girls discover the secret of life in a sudden line of poetry. I who don’t know the secret wrote the line. They told me (through a third person) they had found it but not what it was not even what line it was. No doubt by now, more than a week later, they have forgotten the secret, the line, the name of the poem. I love them for finding what I can’t find, and for loving me for the line I wrote, and for forgetting it so that a thousand times, till death finds them, they may discover it again, in other lines in other happenings. And for wanting to know it, for assuming there is such a secret, yes, for that most of all. Denise Levertov afrikaburn2016 #afrikaburn #meetsouthafrica #southafrica #nothingisordinary #tankwatown

A photo posted by Lara Thomas (@lara.jess) on May 3, 2016 at 5:05am PDT

#tankwatown #afrikaburn #meetsouthafrica #afrikaburn2016 #southafrica #nothingisordinary

A photo posted by Lara Thomas (@lara.jess) on May 3, 2016 at 5:09am PDT

#nothingisordinary #southafrica #afrikaburn2016 #meetsouthafrica #afrikaburn #photooftheday

A photo posted by Lara Thomas (@lara.jess) on May 3, 2016 at 5:18am PDT

"Nothing is too good to be true. Nothing is too wonderful to happen. Nothing is too good to last." Florence Scovill Shinn. #afrikaburn #meetsouthafrica #tankwatown #afrikaburn2016 #southafrica #southafricaza

A photo posted by Lara Thomas (@lara.jess) on May 3, 2016 at 5:21am PDT

"I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time." Jack London #meetsouthafrica #southafrica #afrikaburn #tankwatown #afrikaburn2016 #meetsouthafrica

A photo posted by Lara Thomas (@lara.jess) on May 3, 2016 at 5:25am PDT

"I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself. A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself." D.H. Lawrence.

A photo posted by Lara Thomas (@lara.jess) on May 4, 2016 at 1:44am PDT

"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king." J.R.R. Tolkien.

A photo posted by Lara Thomas (@lara.jess) on May 4, 2016 at 2:27am PDT

'Hope' is the thing with feathers— That perches in the soul— And sings the tune without the words— And never stops—at all— And sweetest—in the Gale—is heard— And sore must be the storm— That could abash the little Bird That kept so many warm— I've heard it in the chillest land— And on the strangest Sea— Yet, never, in Extremity, It asked a crumb—of Me. Emily Dickinson.

A photo posted by Lara Thomas (@lara.jess) on May 4, 2016 at 2:40am PDT

"The truth is that there are no good men, or bad men,' he said. 'It is the deeds that have goodness or badness in them. There are good deeds, and bad deeds. Men are just men – it is what they do, or refuse to do, that links them to good and evil. The truth is that an instant of real love, in the heart of anyone – the noblest man alive or the most wicked – has the whole purpose and process and meaning of life within the lotus-folds of its passion. The truth is that we are all, every one of us, every atom, every galaxy, and every particle of matter in the universe, moving toward God." Gregory David Roberts.

A photo posted by Lara Thomas (@lara.jess) on May 4, 2016 at 3:39am PDT

"And let your best be for your friend. If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also. For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill? Seek him always with hours to live. For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness. And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed." Khalil Gibran.

A photo posted by Lara Thomas (@lara.jess) on May 4, 2016 at 4:24am PDT

"The mind I love must have wild places, a tangled orchard where dark damsons drop in the heavy grass, an overgrown little wood, the chance of a snake or two, a pool that nobody's fathomed the depth of, and paths threaded with flowers planted by the mind." Katherine Mansfield.

A photo posted by Lara Thomas (@lara.jess) on May 4, 2016 at 4:37am PDT

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."Theodore Roosevelt.

A photo posted by Lara Thomas (@lara.jess) on May 4, 2016 at 4:43am PDT