After the clouds arrived and my star trails got mucked up I sat in the hireclunker out of the wind for an hour and lay in wait for dawn. I’m not a morning person so while I’ve seen hundreds of sunsets I’ve seen relatively few sunrises. Usually when I’m travelling, working early shifts, or feeding very young boys determined to be awake at some ungodly hour.

Whenever I see one I always tell myself I need to see more. I like seeing the start of a new day rather than coming in a bit late (because when it came down to it I just wanted more snooze). I mean I know that every sunrise is a new day with new chances and possibilities, but I don’t feel it as much if I’m not there to see it. Fresh beginnings, all that shit. I know it’s cliche, but… you know. Still true.

It was quite busy last night for the sunset session, but for dawn it was just me, a jogger and her dog. And soon it was just me.

… Can’t have an inspirational sunrise without inspirational sunrise quotations.

I sat down and watched the sun gradually clear the horizon, thinking I was alone up there. The peace and solitude was nice but I was missing the boys a bit; usually by this time they’re up, have had their morning coffee warm milk with honey and we’re all cuddling together on the couch.

When my arse cheeks started to go numb I got up, in the process spotting something over my shoulder. Hovering in place not twenty metres away were two wedge-tailed eagles. They rode the updraft blasting up the hill and just hung there, almost motionless, like kites. Like two-and-a-half-metres-wide, living, feathery kites… kites as in the flying toy, not… the bird… you know what I mean!

By the time I adjusted my camera settings and got some shots the Eddies were still hovering but were 20 metres further away. Inconsiderate bloody wildlife!!

They didn’t come any closer so I went back to the lighthouse.

The lighthouse is the oldest manmade structure around here – it’s seen both the last light of dusk and the first light of dawn every day for over a hundred years. But how many sunrises has the land seen? The red limestone gorges of the Cape Range are older by millions of years. And the sun will be rising and setting out here for millions of years yet.

… Which I enjoyed at Jurabi Bay just down the road. Next post: absent turtles, skeletons and other flotsam and jetsam.

– Michelle