The day of the Eclipse was finally upon us and after an early breakfast at 4:00 AM, my driver, guide, and I headed to Kota Palu, a small village south of Palu, to attend an eclipse watching party sponsored by the local government.
We were warned by numerous tour groups to head out early, as the bare bones infrastructure would be stretched to the limit. Eventually after a few hiccups we arrived at a rather crowded local soccer field.
The vice president of Indonesia was scheduled to watch the eclipse at this particular soccer field, making the security extremely situation very tight. In fact there was even an escape helicopter ferried in, just in case something happened at the event.
We initially set up camp in front of the vice presidential helicopter and I grabbed footage of the sun rising from the mountains. It was a perfect day, with almost nary a cloud in sight!
However, our plans to shoot footage from this particular spot were soon dashed after the head of security came over and told us we were in his security perimeter and we had to move back to a special “tourist viewing” area.
Unfortunately the viewing area didn’t look nearly as nice and was crowded with other fellow tourists. We decided instead to look for another area to film in, away from the crowds.
Fortunately, we didn’t have to walk very far as we spotted a nearby rice field, which provided the perfect viewing spot for the eclipse with the reflection of the sun bouncing off the pool of water below.
A local crowd had gathered to watch the eclipse and we set up our cameras as the eclipse was almost set to start.
In this part of the world solar eclipse glasses were selling for around $6, which is quite the fortune for the local villagers; some clever locals created their own, albeit not so safe, bootleg version of eclipse glasses.
At around 7:20 AM the solar eclipse began and through my eclipse glasses I was able to see the edge of the moon slowly start blotting off the sun.
The sun was still blazing hot and without eclipse glasses you wouldn’t be able to notice the eclipse was starting.
I shared my eclipse glasses with my a few of the locals and the reactions of them seeing the eclipse for the first time was priceless.
At around 8:30 AM the sky started becoming noticeably darker and the mood shifted. I could hear a few birds getting restless and it felt like time itself had slowed down.
At 8:35 AM, the sky started rapidly getting darker and the crowd began cheering and waiting for the moment of totality. At this point, I would say the sky was at least 25% darker than usual, and even those without a pair of glasses could see something was going on.
Suddenly the valley turned from day into night, with a wave of darkness washing over the sky like a painter stroking a dark brush. If you looked closely, you could see the western part of the valley getting dark a split second before hitting us.
Experiencing totality was just incredible, with a dusk like sky covering the horizon, it really did feel like the end of the earth was near.
Being swept by Totality. All you will want to do is shout and jump in the air.
Before I knew it, the sun started appeared out of the shadows, shining brightly like a diamond ring.
Afterwards all the locals wanted to grab pictures and it turns out Indonesians are big fans of the selfie stick.
Was it really worth it to travel to this remote town in central Indonesia for a few minutes of daytime darkness? The verdict is 100% Yes, in fact I’m already starting to make my travel plans for 2017. Get ready America for your turn to experience eclipse fever!
