Taking an interest in eclipes was meant to be a niche interest – yet I was unaware that the event had gone mainstream. This was compounded by the prevailing advice to watch the event from a high vantage point.
Consequently, the road to Uffington Castle was heaving with traffic, so with quick thinking I went up the next lane which runs parallel to Wayland’s Smithy. I parked up and joined fifty others who had invaded the farmers field. In the distance, I enviously watched what seemed to be a festival in full swing on the crest of Uffington Castle.
I didn’t have the right equipment, so apart from experiencing an eerie dusk, there was nothing extraordinary to report about the eclipse.
The farm-hand came by in his small zippy four-by-four; he wanted into his field! Outnumbered, he had to cheerfully negotiate with us ‘field-invaders’ whose cars had blocked the gate. A car was moved and farm business recommenced.
Afterwards, I took a walk over to Uffington castle. When I got there it was still busy, although the tide had turned and people were slowly making their exit. It didn’t have the same vibe as say a summer solstice sunrise – maybe I missed it – or maybe because the crowd mostly consisted of ‘normies’. ‘Normies’ don’t create vibes.
With hindsight, a better experience could have been had sitting in my back garden than squatting in middle of a dusty field on the side of a hill. Thankfully, another eclipse isn’t due til the end of this century.