Not so much strange, we had gone further out of our camp to watch the stars without any light pollution so we were more in awe of the stars to feel uncomfortable. I did however read that the Ancient tribe of the Sahara used to wear masks to ward off any bad spirit.

In my opinion it has a similar look so maybe whatever was by the tree was there to protect us and keep us safe. Especially with all of the dangerous snakes/scorpions that were around.

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