With the sun departed we sat on the beach, staring out to sea. Tom wanted to photograph the stars, so we waited forty-five minutes for the very last light to fade, and watched the stars come out. Paul and I played around with headlamps and photographed light paintings, Tom set his lens toward the sky. As the night set in, we just stared up.

Tom got to experiment with a few longer exposures before we were disturbed by the park rangers, working their way along the beach on quad bikes. Apparently you're not allowed to camp on the beach, so they moved the Jeeps along first. When they go to us, they surveyed our lack of belongings and looked perplexed. “What the hell are you doing?” was the enquiry. “You're not planning to stay the night are you? You wouldn't be the first to do it without any bags.” Satisfied that we would pack up and move on, the headlamps of the bikes continued along the beach, and we hiked back over the dune to the car.

Negotiating the dirt road back to civilisation was all the slower at night, although at least by headlight the rocky outcrops were perhaps all the more visible. Paul and I sat in the back, leaning back to stare straight up at the sky. So, so many stars, and not a light from a house or street or other vehicle to be seen anywhere around us. We reached the end of the dirt track, back to the safety tarmac, and with the ordeal of driving concluded, we pulled over. Peter turned off the car, and we just looked up. I'd never seen the Milky Way before, and sitting there in the dark, in a car with some of my very best friends, not a light in sight, nor a sound for miles, you couldn't help but feel pretty content with our little moment in space.

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When we drove home it must've been gone 10pm. We'd been out for four or five hours, and hadn't had any dinner. We got back to the house, met up with the others (those who'd turned back had still managed to find a decent view of the sunset further along the coast.) Too late for eating a full meal, I made avocado on toast. I'd once had it at a café in Brooklyn. Mix it with lime juice and a generous grind of pepper; I recommend it as a truly excellent snack.

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