A Turtle Eclipse of the Sun....

Exmouth at last....After a lot of planning and exploring we finally settled on where we would watch the eclipse from... and it turned out to be a winner!

We got up even before the crack of sparrows loaded everything we thought we might need into the cruise mobile and headed around the very tip of the peninsula to Yardie Creek. This was right in the centre of totality giving us the full 62 secs this amazing phenomena was going to last. There was alot of traffic heading the same way and we were concerned because the park officials were restricting access to all the parks to crowd manage and protect wildlife... hence the early start... It paid off by the time we got to the park we were waved through and when we got to Yardie Creek it was already pretty busy. Its a big area so plenty of room for all takers and most people were heading either for the shaded picnic area or walking up the gorge but we headed for the dunes.

Its really useful having a Dr Fred who knows what might happen and why having a slightly elevated spot with expanse of sand and sea around might help to see the shadows and a flat horizon will show up the sky changing. We sat down and waited .....

As the moon moved over the sun we got quite silly taking pictures of our shadows making pinhole images. It was a brilliant spot - beautiful sands and the sea crashing below the dune and a huge turtle swimming around the reef... bobbing up and down while he fished for his lunch.

The whole experience was quite amazing. The Eclipse itself was incredible.... Obviously we all wished it could lasted longer but the sky went quite dark and being next to the sea this was more pronounced... the shadows rippled across the dunes... the wind dropped... the temperature changed quite dramatically and slowly the moon covered the sun. And then Totality! Pictures never work welĺ and the time was so limited so this just gives a flavour

Stunning!! A most beautiful corona... like a halo but with a clear line of red prominences all down the west side. It was fabulous a fitting finale to our amazing trip... because thats how it feels now we are back at camp... we are heading home to the Uk now.

I have loads more to post about this week but we may not have internet access for a few days and I wanted to post Eclipse...

More will follow because we are having a fantastic time here in Exmouth.. al sorts of shenangians.. I've got more pics of eclipse antics and we've done some really interesting stuff..(to us anyway🤣) I'll post as soon as I'm back on line...

Alesund

Our final destination stop was Alesund. This is a very pretty town in southern Norway built on a peninsula. All the houses are painted pretty colours and a lot of the architecture is all very Art Nouveau based. This is because the town itself was completely burnt to the ground In 1904 by a fire for which they never found the original cause. The whole town had to be rebuilt and this became a huge National Effort and a lot of prominent and up and coming architects flocked to the town to stick there 20 pence in. Consequently the town is very heavily Art Nouveau which was very fashionable at the time. There is this wonderful Museum just off the harbour which is a very beautiful Art Nouveau house. It has amazing panelling, doors, wallpaper, and it's all furnished with beautiful art Nouveau Furniture. It also house a collection of of enameled Art Nouveau Trinkets,boxes, spoons, jewellery, very very beautiful. There is an interesting collection of old books and paintings a...

Isle of Bute

Another Landmark Trust tick - this time Ascog House on the Isle of Bute - stunning as always... a very comfortable warm accommodation for the usual 8 suspects. This time we had a wee tower house for Dr Fred and myself - a lovely bedroom up the stairs with a big window and a bathroom al to ourselves - having said that all the other bedrooms in the big house were large and serviced by two bathrooms so there was no hardship for any visitors! The grounds of the house were very extensive with ponds and secret passages - hidden paths and we even spotted a deer late afternoon - there were lots of old features - ornate staircases and a lovely hidden door which I did a quick sketch of. Bute provided quite a lot of entertainment as well - the weather was kind and we did a a muddy wander down the south of the Island taking in St Blanes Monastery and Kilcannon Bay. The views were spectacular and it was fabulous to be out in the fresh (and it was fresh on the tops) air and we...

The Blue Dot

Excellent evening spent at the first Blue Dot festival held at Jodrell Bank. Clever use of the radio telescope as back drop for the main stage... there were some major teething issues which hopefully will addressed if this event happens again - mainly access and parking.. it was a nightmare approach to the festival and fortunately as we were only doing one night we decided to ditch the car and chose to walk the last mile and half into the site... what a relief as if we had queued we would most certainly missed Public Service Broadcasting which was one of the reasons we were going.. anyway we caught them and then enjoyed fantastic set by Underworld - danced much of the night away in the rain - my trusty solfest poncho almost kept me dry.. it was a splendid evening and the telescope looked brilliant when lit up when it got dark. There was a rather fab "installation" called a luminarium, lack of site information - another hiccup meant we were really lucky to catch it just ...

Planet Ruby Starrs

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