Exmouth Eclipse

[Suzy_A]

Hi all,

a few more Exmouth 'Clips photos. Taken with a Canon 6D and 400 mm f5.6 lens, 2x teleconverter, some with a B+W 1000x ND filter or Baader solar film. Unfortunately my EQ mount developed a problem and so it was back to the wobbly hand-guided camera tripod. I'll put up some more photos when I'm back home and can clean them up a bit.

Photos taken at windy Osprey Bay on the west coast of Cape Range.

A number of serious eclipse chasers chose Charles Knife Canyon, or Thomas Carter Lookout (at Charles Knife) or Shothole Canyon as the best place to see the eclipse, but everyone was turned away by the swarms of park rangers, police, Fire and Emergency Services, and Disaster Preparedness and Management, all who had road-blocks every few km along the highway and every little side road and dirt track. The people of Exmouth were very welcoming, as long as your credit card could cope with the 300 - 400% price increases of just about everything for the few days around the eclipse. Everyone was encouraged to pay $100 - $400 to sit on the rocky beach in a fenced-off area for a chicken BBQ lunch (with free solar glasses). Like my partner said, we could have gone on a 2 week ski holiday at Club Med in the French Alps for a lot less than a few days in Exmouth. Although I must admit that it probably wasn't as bad as what some German guy told me about his eclipse experience in Svalbard a few years ago, when it cost him about $1000 a night in a shared tent in -40 C and they had to take turns on guard-duty with a rifle to protect themselves from marauding polar-bears.

Despite all of that, I can't wait for the 2028 eclipse....

Susan

[PhilTas (Phil)]

These are awesome images Suzie - I bet the experience was well worth the effort to get there.

Do you think they got the expected prediction of 20000-50000 people?

Cheers Phil

[OzEclipse (Joe Cali)]

Originally Posted by PhilTas

These are awesome images Suzie - I bet the experience was well worth the effort to get there.

Do you think they got the expected prediction of 20000-50000 people?

Cheers Phil

Congratulations Suzy A. Nice set of images. Svalbard was an amazing experience. We also paid USD1000 per night but for a bed in a private room in Longyearbyen with meals but with no polar bears. In addition to the eclipse, going ice caving, ski mobile riding made it a magical experience that neither I nor my friend regretted. He died all too young aged 57, just 4 years later and the money spent provided him with nice memories during his final months. I agree that the gouging was an embarrassment to this country but I don’t regret coming here. I’m still here in Exmouth and prices have been dropping by the day. If I stay much longer I reckon they’ll be paying me to stay.

Phill, the last estimate I heard that seems official was 18000 people. To be honest the town never even seemed that crowded to me.

I stayed away from the beach and Kallis on eclipse day. Setup two EQ mounts right on my campsite at the caravan park in the middle of town the night before. Trees for shade, camp furniture to sit, car fridge and other friends gravitated here, and I put on nibbles and a selection of Sol and Corona beer afterwards. A friend from the USA made egg creams at C4. This was in honour of friends missing in action who usually make these drinks, basically a chocolate soda milkshake, post eclipse. For a variety of reasons or illnesses or deaths couldn’t be here. We let the chocolate sodas settle for an hour before the beer.

In Romania in 1999, it was 40C air temp the 50C ground temperature. Water sellers raised their prices for 500ml water bottles from USD 1 to USD 7 just during the eclipse.

Joe

[Dave882 (David)]

Amazing images!! Beautiful!

[Averton (P and C)]

Sensational images Susan, the prom captures are impressive!

[Suzy_A]

Hi all,

I'd agree that maybe 18,000 were there, although I think a fair proportion of those there weren't there for the eclipse and many didn't even know that there was one on. It was school holidays, plus just after Easter and just before ANZAC Day, so I think that there would have been plenty of people of there anyway for the beaches, snorkling and fishing.

But many people were spread out over a fairly wide area. There's about 20 campgrounds in the national park, most within about 100 m of the beach, with between about 10 and 30 campsites at each place, so there would have been a couple of thousand just at the NP campsites. My partner and I stayed in town at a nice resort while the two teenage kids stayed at one of the NP campgrounds and went snorking every day. But I pity the poor folk that were at the town council campsite with a few thousand people crammed into a bare, dry, dust-bowl of a paddock with a few porta-loos on the outskirts of town.

One of the main lessons from this exercise is to book accommodation and flights etc at least 12 months in advance, preferably more.

Another lesson is to do a few dry runs at home with ALL the gear to make sure everything is up and running and automate as much as possible - use a timer etc to take lots of photos, so you can look at the eclipse and what's going on rather than having to fiddle with gear and take photos manually. I took 2 DSLR cameras - next time I'd take 3+.

And have back-up plans for where you want to observe in case the police state in which you live or visit wants to coral you into a fee-paying fenced compound.

[PhilTas (Phil)]

Thank you Suzie and Joe for your descriptions of the event.

As time drew near, I had to make the decision that I could not make it to Exmouth. If I did go, I would have been one of those poor souls in the council dustbowl of a campground.

I also wonder how many people may have been scared away by the WA government and council talk of restrictions, road blocks and checkpoints etc.

Did you experience any of this?

I thoroughly agree with you that the early birds get the best spots.

Am looking forward to 2028 - I'll be observing from Central Australia (just down the track a bit for me). There'll be plenty of space for everyone.

Cheers Phil

[N1 (Mirko)]

These are great Suzy. You've got some nice resolution of the proms there too, really liking those!

A good description of the context as well. I got in a friendly discussion with the road block crew at Charles Knife Rd and we agreed that nowhere did it say that you couldn't walk (or bike) up the road. So everyone was basically free to pick a spot wherever they liked so long as they didn't drive there. Mine was a little hillock a few hundred metres in and up, off the road. Perfect. Dunno about the early birds thing. The best spot, arguably, is where everyone else isn't - all depending on what kind of eclipse experience you're seeking of course. How early you get there I've been finding less crucial. FWIW - I booked my flights to Perth in January and the rental car a week before the eclipse. Zero issues. I had booked a camp site at Carnarvon a year out expecting lots of drama later, didn't happen when I called them in March to make some enquiries. They still had plenty of sites. I didn't even go to Exmouth either though. The servo south of the town was as far north as I got. I had heard it was crowded and expensive there, no thanks.

Designated viewing areas for events like this are frankly ridiculous. I still remember how officials went on about using those back in 2012 for the Cairns eclipse, located along the coast - rather than going where the weather prospects were most promising, which was way inland. Authorities will keep you safe but absolutely cannot be trusted to give you the best eclipse experience.

I'm also looking forward to 2028, and already have a site organised: My own backyard