A Week Of Natural Wonders At Home

"Did you see the Northern Lights last night? They were over Wales." What? Over Wales?! We'd travelled (several times) to the coldest parts of the planet and could have stayed home. Although we hadn't realised there was a chance to see the aurora borealis, apparently hundreds of people in South Wales had witnessed the natural light show normally reserved to the residents of the arctic regions. See the Wales online link. The phenomena rarely reveals itself so far south, so we wondered if it might have something to do with another natural wonder that was occurring the same week, a solar eclipse.

Although we missed the Northern Lights, hazy clear skies on the morning of the eclipse augured well for a decent sighting. The only problem was we didn't have anything to view it with. Keith's idea of using a piece of stained glass was getting the big thumbs down on breakfast TV as being too dangerous. "Try using a pinhole camera or even a kitchen colander" were the alternative suggestions. 

Keith searched the kitchen draws, before pulling out a colander and grabbing a piece of white paper to give it a try. But all he could see were a load of white spots with no visible eclipse, even though, by then, the moon was already a third way across the sun. Better give Plan C a go. 

A quick search online threw up basic instructions for making a pinhole camera. So, with just over half an hour before the peak of the eclipse, Keith rummaged around for the materials to make one. A used cardboard roll, a piece of greaseproof paper and some sticky tape were hurriedly turned into what looked like a scrappy Blue Peter telescope. Pointing it towards the sun, Keith suddenly exclaimed "Wow, it actually works!", as the image of a partially eclipsed sun appeared on the greaseproof screen.

It wasn't clear enough for Jan to take a good photo, so Keith returned to the colander idea, now realising the colander needed to be at least a couple of feet away from the paper. Sure enough that worked and a hundred white smiles magically appeared on the screen. Clear enough for Jan to photo.

We continued to play with our viewing devices while watching the live coverage on the TV by the back door. Those trying to watch in London and Stonehenge were all bemoaning the near 100% cloud cover, so we felt lucky we had such a good view. As the peak arrived, about 85% coverage where we live, it did get darker and distinctly cooler, or that could have been our imagination. In the Faroe Isles, which had 100% coverage, it went totally black. That must have been amazing to experience. May be we'll do that next time, in another 25 years!

Our final natural wonder of the week was a Category 5 Severn Bore. We had seen a Category 4 wave soon after we moved to Chepstow, but the ones at the weekend were forecast to be some of the biggest for a hundred years. So, early on Saturday morning, we dragged ourselves out of bed to drive the 40 minutes up the A48 to Minsterworth and the Severn Bore Inn, where we'd witnessed our first one. When we arrived at the pub, it didn't surprise us to see cars parked on both sides of the road for hundreds of yards. People had travelled from all over the country to see the wave or, for hundreds of daredevils, to ride it on a surfboard or kayak.

We joined the throng on the bank and found a decent viewing position. "Be prepared to run away!" warned the photographer stood by us, making us conscious that most of the other spectators were stood higher up the bank. We had heard talk of the wave being three metres high, so we were potentially in range. 

From our previous experience, at night, we'd remembered a rumbling roar, growing in the distance. But in the daytime, we didn't hear a thing before we saw the bore rounding a bend in the river. A dozen or more surfers rode the wave with many more ahead of it, looking back over their shoulders, hoping to join in. We had mixed feelings when we saw that it wasn't three metres high, maybe half that. Not the spectacle we'd hoped for but at least we didn't have to worry about an emergency escape. With so many people in the water and only a narrow section of decent wave, it wasn't surprising that there were quite a few collisions, with several new recruits wiping out those who had hoped to surf the entire 30 miles that the bore can run upstream.

There was another Category 5 bore the next morning, about an hour later, so we decided to watch that one from another location further downstream. At Newnham On Severn the river is straighter, wider and shallower. This makes for a smaller wave but a more dramatic change as the mud banks suddenly disappear when the wall of water arrives. You can also see a long way downstream and from the moment we first saw the wave appear in the distance, it must have been ten minutes before it passed us. Being slow, wide and straight, the wave is much easier to ride at Newnham and we counted over 50 surfers and kayakers slowly making their way upstream in a straight line, many with surprising nonchalance. One guy looked like he could have fallen asleep, he was putting in so little effort.

So that brought an end to our week of natural wonders. One we had missed (but seen before), one we had seen just in time and one we had watched twice. Sometimes it's not so bad being stuck at home.