Sunrise and the sunset

Previous evening we trekked a long distance around Bruce peninsula and stayed up till late in the night with campfire on. Before getting into tent we decided to take a walk on the shore of lake Cyprus which was few minutes away from our tent. It was a star lit sky, clear of any small patch of cloud. Moon still had a long time to fill the sky with his reflections. It was an absolute silence, the silence was absorbed into each of us, none spoke, the cool breeze and the beautiful sight was beyond any of our description. We walked on the sand for a while with minimal noise of our foot steps and sat on the shore for an open eyed meditation. In no time I could realize how much I have forgotten the observational astronomy. Beginning from using telescope at Bangalore Planetarium to an outing to outskirts of Bangalore with amateur astronomers, I had learned to guess the magnitude of stars, names of few and identify the constellations. A quick revision was more than sufficient to recall forgotten observational astronomy but beauty in front was such that, the technical details of the sky was a least of importance to me when compared to the experience of being in absolute silence. After some time I thought, I should capture the sight with my camera and realized, I was not carry my tripod nor a shutter release cord and with this restrictions I could not give a shutter release time of more than 30 seconds. Still the shutter release sound was made to disturb the silence and as expected the result was almost blank. I din't regret and was more than happy to bother about it. After spending close to an hour we started walking back to tent in silence. A Kannada word, "smashana mowna", a graveyard silence had stuck us while walking back.

We knew, waking up early in the morning to see the sunrise at the Georgian Bay was not easy. At 4:30am mobile phone started ringing, a wake up call. With a closed eyes I could locate the phone and turn it off. Two rings was too short for my friends in the tent to wake up.




For a moment I thought, "should I really force myself up to see the sunrise? whats so special about seeing sunrise? sunrise can be seen any day and any where". Still warmly inside my sleeping bag, I started recalling the days when I got up early to see sunrise, on top Mulayangiri (western Ghats), sunrise in Dzrongri, Goecha La (Himalaya), Le prion (french alps), on the bank of river Ganga near sangama, on the Besant nagar beach in Chennai and so on..... At times clouds has forced me to try an other day for a clear view of the golden yellow and with repeated attempts I had managed a clear view in the mid of nature, in cities, on water front and so on.
Again the question came back, was there anything special about seeing sunrise on the waterfront in Georgian bay?. In no time I realized, we were on the Peninsular region and the plan was to see the sun rise on the Georgian Bay and sun set on the shore of the great Lake Huron on the same day. I immediately got out of my sleeping bag and started waking four of my friends in one tent and the other two in a smaller tent.





It was only four of us who decided to trek on the trail to Georgian Bay and sleep was the priority for the other three at that moment. With the help of one small torch we managed to reach the Georgian Bay in half an hour time. For our surprise we four were the only human in the far visible region. Climbing up and walking on the Bay for a while we decided on a place to sit at 5:45 am. An elevated position was chosen such that I could get the best shots of the sun rise with my camera. Talking about previous outings and experiences we waited for the sunrise. We were expecting the sunrise at around 6:00 am (had not checked the sunrise time) and it was 6:10am when one of our friend started doubting the position we were expecting to see the sunrise. The golden yellow strip was visible almost in the spectrum of 90 degree in the east cost and at one side the forest had covered the horizon. At close to 6:30am we started thinking that, we might have lost the sunrise behind the forest or the behind the cloud which was clearly visible at some parts of the horizon. We were not completely convinced as the visible golden yellow strip did not have any clearly visible bright region to conform the position of sun above the horizon. We decided to come down from the elevated position and quickly moved towards a more open place in the ground level and still had some hope of seeing sun at lest when it rises above the clouds.



For our surprise at 6:45am we saw the portion of the red hot sun visible at the horizon in front of us, part of the cloud had courteously let way for the sun show its grandeur to the patiently waiting four of us. We were thrilled to see the rise of the red hot balloon. By the time, the sun was completely out of horizon, the clouds decided to play the role of the artist. It covered the sun and let the light to scatter and create amazing light patterns.
Just above the clouds we could also see the air warming up due to heat of the sun rays. It gave me enough time to get into the imaginary world. I could imagine myself being inside an infinitely large art work. The rising up of hot air behind the clouds was like a smoke from the coal train. I could imagine train being his vehicle. I could even imagine a mythological version. A Surya deva initially traveling in his rata (chariot) had to abandon his chariot and change to the coal train due to unavoidable circumstance. The change of his vehicle might have been the reason for the delay.




In few minutes sun was again out of clouds and we watched the raise till he lost the grand golden yellow. My camera's shutter was released at constant interval with different exposure and by the time we were about to leave, it was satisfied with the heavy work it was put to early in the morning.

In the evening we opted to see the sunset again away from the human habitat. From the map we looked for a number of sub peninsular region where we can get the clear view of sun disappearing behind waters. Driving on the shore on many small roads we reached an ideal spot. Georgian Bay had a silent waters compared to the Lake Huron (obvious). The waves was quite strong for a Great lake but the view was again magnificent.

Four of us who managed to see both, the sunrise and the sunset on the water front could expect no greater treat from that peninsular region.