A guest post by F. John Alcock - My Dad
As you
might imagine almost everyone was thrilled with the anticipation of an
eclipse, although one young lad was quoted in the local paper as
saying that he wouldn’t be getting out of bed for it.
Oh well, the last one here was in 710 AD, and there’s another in 2237 so, you know, they happen a lot in North Queensland, don’t they.
There was a sense of calm excitement along our beach, a friendly crowd of a few thousand waiting at dawn for something good to happen, and not a prince in sight. It was a slow start, cloudy on the horizon. Nothing to see. An old bloke wandered by with a black cockatoo on his shoulder, a huge bird as long as a man’s arm and able to crack macadamias with its prodigious beak. They were as much photographed as was a very ordinary looking dog with an air of importance about him wearing sun glasses several sizes too big, out with his humans.
And then the sun broke through the clouds.
Oh well, the last one here was in 710 AD, and there’s another in 2237 so, you know, they happen a lot in North Queensland, don’t they.
There was a sense of calm excitement along our beach, a friendly crowd of a few thousand waiting at dawn for something good to happen, and not a prince in sight. It was a slow start, cloudy on the horizon. Nothing to see. An old bloke wandered by with a black cockatoo on his shoulder, a huge bird as long as a man’s arm and able to crack macadamias with its prodigious beak. They were as much photographed as was a very ordinary looking dog with an air of importance about him wearing sun glasses several sizes too big, out with his humans.
And then the sun broke through the clouds.
