The August Total Solar Eclipse: Why I Decided to Spend 10 Nights by an Inland Lake in Valencia

Good morning, everyone. It is Tuesday, June 23rd. The sky over Valencia this morning is, as always, wrapped in an impeccable, stunning blue.

A problem that had been occupying a percentage of my brain and troubling me for the past few days was finally resolved last night.

I have finally finalized the location for the 'sunset total solar eclipse' occurring in the Spanish sky on August 12th of this year, along with the travel plans for the second half of my trip, including my flight to Turkey.

Regarding the eclipse, to put it simply, I decided to choose a quiet location.

Initially, I considered chartering a boat in the Balearic Islands, such as Ibiza or Mallorca, which were considered to have the best conditions, but as expected, with astronomy fans and photographers from all over the world flocking there, boat availability was already hopeless.

On the other hand, if I were to retreat inland toward Zaragoza, the latitude and positioning would mean that the conditions for the 'moment when the sunset and the eclipse perfectly overlap' would inevitably be less than ideal.

The total solar eclipse will reach its maximum (greatest eclipse) on the Spanish mainland in the extremely low sky just before sunset.

What I needed to target was a place where the view to the west is completely open and which would also dramatically amplify the low-altitude light. I arrived at a small lake in the interior of Valencia. It is a quiet, beautiful body of water that can hardly be called a popular tourist destination.

At the moment of totality, the sun's altitude angle will likely be a mere 3 to 5 degrees, just skimming the horizon. If I can capture the black sun occurring at such a low position across a vast expanse of water with no obstacles to the west, the corona, dramatically reddened by the atmosphere, will mirror perfectly on the lake surface at the ideal angle of incidence.

And so, we took the plunge and secured accommodation by the lake for a duration of '13 nights.' It was the very last room available, and we were lucky enough to secure it just in time.

I plan to settle into that place before the big day, and every day, when the magic hour arrives just after 8:00 PM, I will head to the lakeside with my tripod. I plan to repeat this somewhat obsessive, luxurious 'location scouting.' The confusion regarding the arrangements of the past few days has vanished, and my vision has never been clearer.

Most worries dissolve into the temperature of a shower and a quiet sleep.

With this, I can finally move on to the next step with peace of mind. I have work waiting for me today, so I am heading to my desk without time to linger on the afterglow, but through the scramble of choosing this location, I feel as though I have rediscovered a very simple and important truth about life.

That is, 'most of the worries humans carry are mostly resolved by the next morning if you eat something good, take a warm shower, get plenty of sleep, and get some moderate exercise.'

When things don't go well or when our heads feel like they might explode from the sheer number of choices, we tend to stay up late staring at our computer screens, wandering through a labyrinth of thought. However, the answers that an exhausted brain comes up with are, in most cases, not very refined.

At such times, it is best to just give up, enjoy a delicious dinner, take a long shower with my home's water heater that was finally fixed after a week, and sleep as deeply as the dead. The next morning, if you wake up a little early and move your body, the solid wall of problems that seemed to be holding us back so much yesterday will crumble away quite naturally, as if it were a lie, along with a very simple alternative.

In the end, I am starting to think that the true nature of worry is not the difficulty of the problem itself, but the fatigue of our own bodies.

Keep your body healthy and sleep well. That alone should make the world a little more generous and airy than it was yesterday.

Now, the Tuesday timeline is beginning to move. With the noise in my head cleared away, I have a feeling that I will be able to approach my work today with a very good beat.

When a small worry crosses your mind, please try surrendering yourself to the delicious meal in front of you and the temperature of a warm shower first. The you of tomorrow morning will surely have a smart answer ready for you.

Well then, I will see you again tomorrow. Thank you very much.
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