*Alright, so it was a really big candle.
~Sacrilege! It was way more than "a really big candle." It was a beacon in the darkness, an earthly manifestation of starlight, a night guardian keeping a constant vigil over...
*Ooh, ooh, let me try! A paragon of illumination, an earth-tethered sun, a magnificence of radiance...
~It was very cool.
~We hiked up to the lighthouse to watch the stars. We actually did this entirely accidentally, having eaten dinner later than we'd planned and set off after for a bit of a walk. (Read: three hour hike over beach and the Ever Ascending Stair and winding path through the rainforest.) It was getting on in the hour, and a ways down the beach, I realized it was going to get dark while we were up there. "Drat," I said, "shoulda brought the flashlights." Upon which, Ben produced two.
~And so we climbed through the waning day, and ascended the Ever Ascending Stair (with slightly less panting than the first time we'd done the climb), and crossed the second beach and onward and upward to the lighthouse. As we walked, night fell over the rainforest.
*A rainforest at night is a majestic thing. Misty coolness drifts through the trees, faint sounds of wildlife are heard all around, and a look into the trees grants one a view of darkness...
~and lots of rustling sounds that might or might not be swamp wallabies!
*...AHEM, darkness swirling about trunks and underbrush. It was all quite serene apart from one slightly startling moment in which we were beset upon by a water dragon.
~A flipping huge water dragon, but they're harmless so that's not the point. The point is, we were walking along the cliff-y bit of the rainforest path which affords amazing views over the sea, and being in love with the sea and it being sunset and all, Ben was walking ahead with the flashlight in the failing light and I wasn't exactly looking where I was going. All of a sudden out of my peripheral vision I see Ben jump back a step (on top of my foot, no less!)...
*Dreadfully sorry old bean.
~... no worries. And swing his flashlight up like a lightsaber or something, while making an exclamation of lizardy displeasure. Which started my heart thundering like a jackhammer, knowing as we do that practically everything in this country is toothy, venomous, or poisonous, and the worst part is Ben was standing on my foot right in front of me, and he being less than opaque I STILL couldn't see what it was! And so there we were, standing on top of each other on a path in a beautiful rainforest, Ben startled and me shouting "What is it?! What is it!?!"
The eastern water dragon didn't seem to particularly mind.
*Point is, having a foot and half lizard jump out at you adds a bit of excitement to the evening.
~Meantime, the stars had started to come out, and there was the slightest sliver of a moon rising above the trees. The path went on up to the lighthouse. As we cleared the trees, the stars gleamed overhead in dazzling array. A ring of low clouds hovered around the sea and bay, but overhead was clear, and the skies so bright we seemed to be looking more at the bright spaces between the stars than the celestial bodies themselves. The lighthouse it self stood white and towering, majestic in the darkness. By day, the external architecture resembles a very small white castle, like a picture of a fairy tale book, pretty and a little bit whimsical. By night, it becomes a white stone sentry, the giant lens turning in the tower casts a brilliant white flood of light out in opposing beams of light that sweep over the sea and bay, rhythmically turning.
* The beam is incredible. Even standing on the beach more than a mile away, it is dazzling. Also, speaking of excellent lighting effects, when you stand at the base of lighthouse and look over the carpet of trees, the over-spill from the lens creates a watered pattern on huge swath of the foliage. It's just a cool experience being next a lighthouse at night. All the world is darkness with pockets of life being denoted by their own individual lights. Out a sea there are a few boats close to shore and a couple points of light far out on the horizon that mark the presence of huge ocean going vessels. Of Byron and its two nearby towns, all that can be seen are clusters of house lights and street lamps. And over it all the stars shine above and the lighthouse casts its endlessly revolving beam.
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