Another day, another dune - but this one had eyes

After I took this video, I settled down to watch the stars come out. The skies are massive out here, there's no light pollution becasue the nearest towns are so far away. About the only familiar constellation I could identify was the big dipper/plough, but the sheer volume of stars is pretty mind blowing. Usually there's too much crap in the atmosphere to pick out much, but when there's so little cloud, it's pretty much a straight line for those ancient photons to hit the back of your eyeballs. The Milky Way is clearly visible as well. As we're edge on to the galaxy, looking through it from the rim of the spiral arm we're in means the sheer density of stars gives a cloudy effect. My poor old Panasonic Lumix FT2 wasn't quite up to the job but plenty of others with better gear can show you what I mean.

Up on the crest of the dune it's very peaceful. It takes about 2 hours for the last of the sun's light to completely vanish from the sky so it's an unhurried process. I was lying flat on my back looking directly up into the stars and enjoying the gradual change in the velvety black night and deepening violet of sundown. So relaxing in fact that I dropped off and fell asleep, waking suddenly at about 2 in the morning.

Something must have woken me. It's pitch black (the moon was too low and thin to make a difference) so I get my torch out and pan around to get my bearings. There's a reflected flash from two forward facing eyes, predator eyes, on the crest of another dune nearby. Calm down, are you sure you saw it? Could it have been just stars? Try the torch again. Sh!t, there's four eyes now and they're definitely moving toward me. Probably just desert foxes. Just curious. Probably. My considered retreat, founded in logic, pretty soon evaporated into an adrenaline-fuelled careering run down the dunes. Bet the foxes laughed themselves silly.

Heart pounding adrenaline flooded system out in the wild, loping down 400 foot high sand dunes in the pitch black - now that was a night when I knew I was alive!

More pictures from Sand Mountain here (but no foxes)