My eclipse day 9 mach 1997
The land of the blue sky. That’s the name of Mongolia. So what could go wrong? Yes, we have seen lots of blue sky. The day before and the day after. But we got clouded out.
We came to see and yet we didn’t see. The eclipse was eclipsed by the clouds and wiped out due to the extremities of earth.
After changing my plans for viewing this eclipse several times I found myself being in Mongolia, Ulan Bator, with Explorers Travel on the march 9, 1997. An expensive adventure, but the holiday was worth while afterwards.
And what about the expression: "Nothing is for free except the sun". This is not true anymore. The Mongolian government had invented an eclipse tax. For $10 we’ve got a nice badge. Nobody took any notice of this during the eclipse although we were surrounded by policemen.
A full report of my day.
It started at about 01.00 hour when we had to get ready.
After just an hour or so dozing we made our way to the busses. Already wearing 4 top layers and 3 bottom layers, I planned to add an extra bottom layer and yet another 3 top layers before observation. I also wanted to try to stay outdoors during the whole eclipse, for over 2 hours. At that moment I was still filled with expectations. It always turns out the way you least expect.
There was a severe delay, of almost an hour, in the departure due to the police. They kept running around re-arranging the busses. It was for sure that they wanted to keep track of the convoy and our whereabouts. Then we finally start driving. I was in bus number 4 which drove second in line. So much for re-arranging. After nearly 500 meter our driver pulled over and stopped. I was in front of the bus and had noticed that the gear wasn’t working as the driver was expecting and I sort of got ready to transfer over to another bus. But all the busses passed us, even the special break-down truck. All out of sight. Dammed, now we’re stuck in Ulan Bator.
The driver took his tools and went outside. I don’t remember how long it took but he was able to repair it and we were back on route. Driving like mad he managed to get back into the convoy. Later it turned out that nobody had even noticed that we had a break-down.
Just dozing off and then the “comet stop”. At the moment when I got out of the bus I knew we were going to miss the eclipse. It wasn’t cold enough. The comet looked bright but the day before it was much brighter and far more beautiful. I didn’t even bother to take a photograph. It wasn’t cold enough, that was what worried me. A slight breeze and cloud smears high up in the sky revealed snow was coming. At that moment we only could hope. It wasn’t cold enough...
Later the sky got covered with clouds and it started snowing. Our driver was singing all the time. Songs to scare the clouds away. Unfortunately they didn’t help.
Since the clouds originated from the north the best thing to do was continuing to drive to the north. But, as later was confirmed, the whole of Mongolia was “clouded out”. So we missed it. A very few of our party have witnessed the corona barely visible behind the clouds. Off course we have experienced the eclipse. It went dark and the Mongolian guide was standing next to me and she was very impressed by the fact that it got dark. For only one second I could make out the corona peering through the clouds. The third contact was visible through the clouds and the partial phases after wards. I sure hoped at that moment that our friends in northern china were more lucky. It turned out they were.
After been interviewed by the Mongolian Newspaper (It will be send to me afterwards) we went back in the bus. We all knew this could happen, but still we all felt very disappointed. After the breakfast stop, and a chance to fulfill our sanitary needs, we drove back to Ulan Bator. Again we had several breakdown stops but the driver was able to fix it each time. It wasn’t a problem anymore and we were no longer in convoy. The driver kept on singing and most of us tried to get some sleep.
Back in the hotel we had diner and afterwards I went to the bar with the others. Got picked up by three Mongolian’s. Drove around in Ulan Bator with them and saw the “other” side of the city. Then we went to the home of one of them and drank lots of Vodka and other Mongolian drinks. Now, afterwards, this sounds very irresponsible to do but it didn’t at the moment. It turned out they only wanted a chance to talk with foreigners. Before leaving the hotel bar I had the sense to convince Guido to join in. (The both off us were offered a drink first by the Mongolian’s.) All on my own with 3 unknown Mongolians was a bit of a risk I thought, no matter how nice they seemed to be. Nevertheless going along gave me the mark “dangerous girl”.
I far more enjoyed this contact with the locals than the touristic events. We were offered several drinks and special Mongolian soup, and learned more about Mongolia than we had so far. So the day ended positive anyway. At around 02.00 hours I was back in the hotel. Exhausted, but you can sleep at home, was my motto for this holiday.
The next total solar eclips will be in february 1998. I’ve already started to make plans for Venezuela or Colombia.
LN, 1997 march 19th