ON THE ROAD

We’re in the Hunter Valley, one of Australia’s wine producing regions. I am not used to the sound of parrots in wine country!

Now we have to figure out how to get the wine we’ve purchased home. Wish we had one of these: http://www.thewinecheck.com/

Today we leave Palm Cove and our view of the ocean and the sound of lapping waves and the sparkling, staccato sight of sunlight hitting moving water.

As I sit here eating a breakfast of tropical fruit, I fall into a state of reminiscence (as happens when things come to a conclusion). I’m thinking about time spent on Gili Air (Indonesia) and in Thailand – long, languorous beach stays during our year-long Asia trip, where nothing waited for us; there was no reason or plan to come back to anything. We were totally free, with an unwritten and open-ended future.

It’s a rare thing to be so truly living in the moment. I think maybe that feeling is one people try to reach through mediation. At various points in recent years I’ve tried to remember that feeling I obtained during that trip, but it’s a hard one to catch.

Now I know the sight and sound of the ocean, combined with a contemplative mood, will get me there.

AMAZING! The eclipse was beautiful. I had a tear in my eye when it was all over: the result of a primal emotional spot deep within that the sight of a blacked out sun is able to reach. It’s hypnotic and when the eclipse is all over, it’s hard to grasp a clear memory. Standing in the shadow, it’s as if time stops and all awareness around you melts away.

This eclipse was suspenseful all the way to totality. Massive clouds filled the sky all throughout first contact, but a clearing arrived just in time. While some whispy clouds did travel in front of the eclipse during totality, it wasn’t enough to obstruct the view.

I have chosen to not worry too much about photography during the event, since it’s only a few minutes long (this one was 2 minutes and 3 seconds). So, my snapshot doesn’t do the eclipse justice – there are amazing images of eclipses out there. Google one!

Mossman Gorge and rainforest

Great Barrier Reef

Making Friends with Kangaroos and Wallabies

So far, only 1 of the 4 mornings we’ve been here would have been good TSE conditions. Today the sky is again clouded over, gray, and impenetrable.

All we need us 2 minutes of clear skies tomorrow!

Met up with some people last night who have been on 8 eclipse trips, and have been successful each time. Hopefully they are good luck.

They’re predicting 60,000 visitors to the area (that’s right: sixty thousand) to witness the event.

Today would have been a great day for the eclipse, weather-wise. It’s our Morning #2, but given all the travel time to get here, it feels like we’ve been away from home much longer.

Morning #1 brought us gray, rain-bloated clouds and opaque sky — bad conditions for the TSE… but not quite the worst (that would be a full-fledged violent storm, which we experienced at sea during the “eclipse of the century” in 2009).

It’s Sunday now, and the eclipse is on Wednesday morning just after sunrise. The picture attached to this post was taken during the relative time period of totality.