Sunsets – do you have romance in your soul?
Posted on 19. Nov, 2009 by Andrea in Travel
There’s something about a beautiful sunset that seems to touch the soul.
Whether it’s the drama of crimson on a canvas that normally fills our vision with tones of blue and grey; or the realisation of how spectacularly beautiful the universe really is, I have never met anyone who isn’t at least a teeny bit emotionally stirred by a stunning sunset.
Photographing and filming the sun going down has long been a feature of our travels and we inevitably return home armed to the teeth with endless footage that would have even Dan Corbett snoring.
Negril in Jamaica is famous for its sunsets and everyone goes to a place called Rick’s Cafe to watch them. We spent a couple of hours up there one evening videoing a sky that became more beautiful with every can of Red Stripe and the passive fumes of Jamaica’s trademark plant being smoked all around us.
When we got home we found we’d inadvertently filmed over Jack’s paragliding trip earlier in the day which had ended with him hitting the floating landing stage at some speed, bouncing back up into his chute and wrapping himself up like a giant silk worm as he rolled headlong towards the sea. Some of the funniest footage we’d ever captured in fact; £200 from ‘You’ve Been Framed’ and a classic comedy moment lost forever to a forty minute shot of the sky – damn that Tree of Moses.
When I think of some of the prettiest sunsets I’ve ever seen, my mind automatically turns to Sri Lanka where palm trees are silhouetted in black against burnished orange and the surface of the Indian Ocean reflects the colour until it looks like the whole globe is on fire.
But if I was to choose the place where I had seen the best sunset ever, it would be Oban.
We were touring the west coast of Scotland and had booked into a bed and breakfast on Oban promenade. It was July and the weather was warm and sunny so, dressed in just T shirts and shorts we climbed aboard a boat trip to Mull to visit Torosay Castle and its Italian gardens.
On the return sail to Oban the season changed and a storm raged. All around us the German, Scandinavian and Dutch tourists pulled sweaters, rain-macs and sou’westers from their bags and proceeded to layer themselves against the elements. Jack and I huddled together on a bench, lashed by freezing waves, losing the feeling in our feet and hands and wondering where in the small print everyone else had read that we’d leave in summer and return in winter.
That night the sky became a kaleidoscope of purple, pink, orange and crimson intensifying to shades that I never knew were possible. Whether it was down to the storm or just a common or garden sunset in Oban, I don’t know but it remains the most beautiful I have ever seen…so far.
Andrea Montgomery
Freelance feature/travel writer and author of 2 travel guides, Andrea is a compulsive blogger and Tweeter with an annoying tendancy to behave like Head Girl (presumably because she never got to be one).
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