One of the Most Beautiful Nights of my Life to Date

Post VII

Today I had one of the most, if not the most, beautiful and amazing experiences of my life. A bit of context: I had just finished my day of teaching, helping a very talented young girl in a speech contest, and doing general preparation work. Once I had finished at about 5, I decided I would grab my book from my apartment and head to the beach. I got there, and found it a bit too sandy to properly settle and read – despite the beautiful scenery. Not wanting to go home, I decided to have a walk instead.

I eventually came to a headland, where I found an absolutely deserted pebble beach, which I wondered along. It was then that I stumbled across this cave:

The cave framed the Great Seto Bridge so beautifully, and the entire beach was simply wonderful, so I decided to hang around to watch the sunset. As I was strolling down the beach, I spotted a marvellous piece of driftwood. This, combined with the lovely natural frame of the cave, inspired me to make a small sculpture on the beach. I searched for some more driftwood, and then built my sculpture – inspired by Shinto gateways. I thought the piece was quite beautiful on its own, but it was the context that made it really special.

I took a whole bunch of photos, and then sat down and simply watched the waves lap against the shore. I admired the sun, and the beautiful bridge beyond. Flicking through some of the photos, it surprised me how much such a temporary structure imposed itself upon the landscape. I then took a series of photos from inside the cave. I really love how they turned out. I am not a photographer, nor am I particularly artistic, but I have god a vivid imagination, and it just felt right to try to create something in the moment. I love that these pictures are dominated by nature, then you have my small and temporary structure, and then the engineering marvel of the Great Seto Bridge beyond. I found it in an odd way metaphorical of mans relation to nature, and I particularly loved that it expresses this in a way that still shows nature to be the most dominant force.

I was really looking forward to getting some pictures of the sun setting inside the archway I had created, but unfortunately a massive cloud came in and blocked my view of it!

However, this is where a little bit of magic started to happen. I was thinking of heading home because I was tired, and thought I had already seen the best of the sunset. However, for some reason I decided to stay a little longer and just lay on the beach looking around. All of a sudden, the cloud that had ruined my view turned in to a violent electrical storm! What I thought had ruined what was otherwise a beautiful experience was now turning in to a once in a lifetime one. I watched the electricity dance across the sky, all through the little window I had created on the beach. It was as if I was looking in to another, simpler, world. After about 10 minutes of watching this is decided I had to try to get a photo of the lightning. I had refrained from doing so before as I was so utterly absorbed in the moment that I thought getting out a phone would spoil the whole thing. As a matter of pure luck, I managed to get just one photo of one of the calmer strikes of lightning. It is probably the best photo I will ever take, and was the perfect end to one of the most magical evenings of my life.