A Vacation to Eclipse All Others - Cornwall's Solar Eclipse 1999
The solar eclipse is a one-and-a half hour drama, an awe-inspiring phenomenon that most of us will never see in our lifetime, and a unique experience for those lucky enough to live in its path. Britain last experienced a total solar eclipse in 1927. There will not be another in Britain in our lifetime.
The 100 km wide path of eclipse totality makes its European landfall on the atlantic Scilly Isles, described by me in a previous article. It cuts its dark swathe across Cornwall, the south western tip of Devon, and Alderney in the Channel Islands, off the coast of Brittany in northern France. From there it passes over the Champagne growing area of France, Bavarian Germany, Salzburg, City of Mozart in Austria, Lake Balaton in Hungary, Rumania, Bulgaria, the Black Sea, before crossing over central Turkey on its way to the Bay of Bengal where it ends at sunset.
Most of the northern hemisphere will will see a partial solar eclipse. But it is the awsome mystery of eclipse totality, when the moon blots out the sun and the earth goes silent, that will draw visitors to Britain's West Country to witness and marvel at a spectacle so eery that the Ancients thought it to presage apocalyptic calamity.
The Scilly Isles, Cornwall, Devon, and Aldernay in the Channel Isles, are enjoying the height of their tourist season in August at the time of the eclipse. Casual visitors who arrive without making prior accommodation arrangements are likely to have problems at the best of times during August, and with this year's additional influx of eclipse-chasing tourists it is essential to book ahead for self-catering properties, hotels and guest houses, or caravan and camping sites.
For my money high summer in Cornwall and Devon is best enjoyed inland away from the coast. August is the peak tourist month of the year in Britain , and coastal resorts are packed to bursting with family holidaymakers.
Inland, you the discerning visitor can seek out and enjoy the tranquility and peace of the empty moors, narrow winding roads leading to small hamlets of Delabole slate-roofed stone built cottages, and to ancient towns dominated by granite grey medieval churches with their square-towered belfries.
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