A total eclipse of the sun...

Hours spent in a wonderful little café and the local bookshop had me in raptures and I had mentally moved to Yungaburra before lunchtime. It was a bit drizzly and cool which was a relief to our sun-beaten bodies but did not bode well for the next morning’s solar eclipse. Our mission for the afternoon was to find somewhere to camp from which we could view the eclipse. Word on the street was that although thousands of people had flocked to Cairns from around Australia and the world, the forecast was that the best viewing would be from inland. How nice for us. So we set up in a caravan park in Mareeba and made plans to drive up a nearby hill in the hope of a clear view. It was 5pm before we remembered that we needed special solar eclipse viewing glasses and although Bill and the kids made a mad dash into town while I set up the tent, everywhere was sold out. The organised people had bought up all the eclipse glasses! Happily Bill was able to locate a friendly eclipse fanatic biker dude in the caravan park who very kindly gave us his spare pair of glasses. So we we were set and getting excited about the next morning.

At 5am we dragged ourselves out of bed and popped the kids into the car in their PJs. We drove up to our designated hill but discovered it was surrounded by trees too tall for good viewing. So we quickly drove back down the hill and found a spot where quite a few people were waiting by the side of the road. We knew we had found a good location because we spotted the biker dude as well as a gang of Japanese men with incredibly fancy equipment – telescopes and special cameras and the like - pointing at the rising sun. So we settled ourselves on the bonnet of the car and wished for some coffee. At 5.45am it all began. Taking in turns to watch through the glasses we saw the moon gradually eating away at the sun until, sometime after 6pm it started getting darker and colder and then the sun was hidden completely. It was an awesome, beautiful and inspiring sight. The small crowd cheered and clapped in excitement - and around town that day everyone smiled at each other and compared eclipse viewing stories and generally revelled in total eclipse camaraderie... We were all thrilled and felt so grateful for the brilliant view, for the borrowed glasses and for the opportunity to wake up at the crack of dawn in lovely Mareeba for the total eclipse of the sun. 

Photos here