It dried out, and the mud retreated back into the ground, actually making for a nice soft squishy and absorbent dance floor. The festival turned out not to be overrun by screaming germans. In fact, it worked out just fine. We were all very satisfied with it.

Lots of Australians, possibly related to the last big eclipse festival being in South Australia. Lots of Japanese. It seems they just like outdoor dance parties. They're also hosting the next eclipse party, in 2009.

Our days were spent dancing, swimming in the river, chatting, drinking tea, eating, smoking nagile, and our nights spent doing much the same, only with less swimming.

There's really no words that can describe the magic of a total solar eclipse. You really just have to go and see one. I don't really even feel like trying to describe it. Suffice to say, your body and brain aren't used to it happening, and everything goes all weird and funny for a few minutes.

Venus came out in the darkness, we could see sunset colours on the mountains in the distance, there was a great big black hole in the sky where the sun used to be, and the streaming corona waving out around it. Before and after totality I had a lot of fun with pinholes, making pinholes out of my crossed fingers even.

It was a very very special experience, and something I'll remember always.

Just after third contact, the end of totality, the music started again, and nearly the whole festival started dancing again, all together. Very cool. A very friendly group of people.

After 5 days though, we decided it was time to move on and see a bit more of turkey. Having our tents set up 250m from the main stage probably wasn't encouraging us to stay the remaining two days :)