Wednesday 14th November - Eclipse day!

It was an early night to bed last night as we had to be up at 0415 this morning for the walk to the lighthouse on Fitzroy Island.  We went to bed still quite pessimistic about what we might see of the eclipse due to lots of cloud cover - we needn't have been so worried! We climbed the island path to the lighthouse (very steep!) and arrived at the top just as dawn for breaking.  Lots of people already there, but we managed to find an excellent spot to view the eclipse from.  Clouds were soon blown away by the fresh tropical wind and so we waited with great anticipation.

At 0545, the moon began its encroachment on the face of the sun and through our special glasses we watched for the next 53 minutes as the moon slowly but surely covered the entire face of the sun.  Totality started at 0638 and lasted for 2 minutes - and what a sight.  It is not something that can easily be described in words, but suffice to say it was like nothing we've ever seen before.  The last ray of sunlight disappears and all that is visible in the sky are bright stars and the fantastic view of the suns atmosphere.  It simply is breathtaking!  

Photos to follow later hopefully!

Tuesday 13th November

Spent the day on a pontoon at the Great Barrier Reef, but not before a roller coaster ride to it across the Coral Sea on a catamaran.  Unlike those around us, we discovered we both have very able sea legs!  No sick bags required.  Quick snorkel and then a return to our eclipse base, Fitzoy Island, which is a beautiful tropical island located 20 miles of the Cairns coastline.

After dinner the sky looks to be clearing so fingers crossed for tomorrow's big event.  The total eclipse will peak at 0638 (2038 Tues in UK) so we'll hopefully have some stunning photos to post here tomorrow - watch this space, we'll let you know how things go later on!