The night sky in Africa was different than back home. I had never travelled below the equator before and had never seen the crescent moon turned with its horns pointing up, as I've seen it depicted on some magical amulets. Once I saw the planet Venus through a telescope when it was in phase and that's what the moon looked like here.
The constellations were different too. There were many I had never seen before, but Orion the Hunter, a familiar sight in Canadian winter skies, was here too, but languidly lying on his side instead.
Dawn and dusk are more elusive in africa, although in many ways more spectacular than I've seen before. In the moment before dawn it is completely dark and then the sun rises like a great orange ball and seems to move as you look at it. It is over so quickly. Sunsets too are amazing but fleeting. There doesn't seem to be the lingering dusks of summer evenings at home.
Oh, but the colours are wonderful. One night the sun itself looked bright pink and heavy over the horizon as it sank toward the ocean. I've NEVER seen it before like that.
2 comments:
I take it the lion from the previous post and the sunsets here are your (yours and Jeff's) own pics. You two are becoming quite the photographers. I also take it that the Venus-like figure by the sea in the sunset is you, Spider-girl. I don’t know where I am taking these things. I am just picking them up and walking away with them. Bad habit that, I should stop. Nice picture of the lion, btw. How close were you really when you took it?
The Serengeti Loo Song is quite catchy. I picked up a little of the tune just from reading it. (See, there I am picking things up again, and I don’t know where they’ve been! Hopefully, the tune wasn’t in the loo with the bat.) Maybe I’ll start singing the Loo song as I go past my co-workers on a bathroom break. That'll brighten their day!
Yep, Venus is me. :)
And thank-you, we are actually quite happy with our photos (all one zillion of 'em) but I must confess the lion one was taken by a nice chap named Graham who was with us.
I like our lion photos just fine, but I liked that one in particular.
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