Staircase to the Moon

At certain times of the year, the moon rises over a low tide in Roebuck Bay. The difference between high and low tide here is 7-8 meters in depth and creates long stretches of exposed mud. 

The mud is still firm enough to walk on. Or drive on. But you can’t leave your car unattended because the tide returns rapidly and cars and even entire buses have been lost the tide frequently. 

The reflection of the moon casts light on the wet mud that looks like a staircase leading to the moon. I had been asking around for things to see and do and a friend told me about the Staircase. That helped narrow down the dates I chose.

We could see it happen right from our hotel lawn. The moon came up red orange, creating the perfect backdrop for the continuous mob of bats that started flying in front of it. Our pictures didn’t do it justice, but I had already purchased a professional photo at the market earlier in the day so I could just relax and take it all in. (see below for the most stunning photo!)

The next night we got to do it again, but we saw it from Town Beach instead. There were no mangroves in front blocking the reflection from coming farther toward us, and there were a lot of vendors at a market there. 

We were sitting on large rocks out on the jetty trying to find the darkest place to watch. Henry was tired, thirsty, and feeling mosquitoes all over him. We just kept asking him to wait a little longer. We felt no mozzies.

Then he calmly said, “oh and there’s a big cockroach right here.” We didn’t really believe him as he tends to catastrophize when he’s tired and it was really too dark to see anything. He stayed in place but I invited him to come sit by me. Then Allen shined a light and there was indeed a huge traditional style roach right under where his legs had been. Wow! He wasn’t worked up about it at all. But he still wanted to leave.

We saw the group of people out there on the mud taking this photo, only we didn’t know what they were doing until we saw it featured on an instagram site later. 

The Staircase didn't disappoint! 

See Day 3 here.