Solar Eclipse August 1999

Although a worldwide event, we watched from the crest of Whinney Hill, which gave us a great view. Two bats flew overhead, which I thought were swallows as they were circling our heads.

Four or five horses ran off but one fell asleep on the spot with its hind leg in the air. It was evidently fast asleep as it didn't even wake up when the other horses ran back into view at the "dawn" and skimmed past it.

The zoo animals got fractious just before the event then fell silent until afterwards. A friend working there told us later that the zoo birds roosted.

We recorded a temperature drop of 13 degrees centigrade. The light changed strangly - we could see way in to the distance and it was as if a purple haze descended on everything. It was not the effect of cloud, as we could see great clouds above Croydon, this was more like a bloom

It was definitely like a dawn when the sun came out again. The overall impression was that this event would happen silently above us whether we watched or not - and I was very glad to have watched from Whinney Hill.

We had taken containers with us which we filled with blackberries on the walk home and we had blackberry crumble for lunch

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