Eclipse August 1999 Cornwall Newquay UK (RATED PG LANGUAGE)
My first eclipse expedition! Pardon the use of the "F" word, but I was very excited and had no idea what to expect. Had slept in the car with my two mates the previous night and was feeling pretty rough. The event took us all by complete surprise and I was overwhelmed, thus my fruity use of expletives. Filmed with a domestic handheld camcorder which I borrowed from my cameraman pal Ben Grieve. I was not even going to film this event as I just wanted to go and see it but Ben asked me to take his camera so that he could see it also. As you can see by the footage, I was blown away by the moment and have been an eclipse chaser ever since. It was a very overcast day and we had driven all over looking for a break in the clouds. You could not even see where the sun was and five minutes before the eclipse we decided to head back to Newquay where we had been several times before as there was a large group gathered on the beach and that was better then standing alone in the rain in the middle of a field. As we pulled into a parking lot behind a pub on a cliff above the beach in West Pentire (part of Newquay), my pal Dave shouted that he could see a sliver of sunshine cutting through the clouds and as we got out of the car and the eclipse was only moment s way, the clouds parted as if by an act of God. It was a magical moment and really exciting. One minutes after the eclipse ended the clouds came back over head and it began to rain again heavily. We went to the pub and drank a bottle of Champagne to celebrate. Outside the Red Arrows flew a cool aerial display over the beach and we sat and laughed and cried and had a great time! The event totally changed my life! What a fantastic first eclipse! Nothing will ever compare to the first time!
