Beyond Totality — The Other Half of the Story

Twenty years · fourteen eclipses · a fifteenth ahead

Where the Moon’s shadow took us

Total eclipses and rings of fire, the triumphs and the ones that got away — every chase since 2008. Tap any to read it.

Total
2008
Gobi Desert, China
Our very first — a “perfect” totality on our very first attempt, three hours by bus into the middle of nowhere.
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clouded out
2009
Shanghai, China total · missed
Three clear mornings in a row. On eclipse day, cotton clouds as far as the eye could see. Horrors!
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Total
2010
Easter Island, Chile
We had DIY’d Shanghai and failed — so we tried again, this time at the very edge of the world.
Annular
2010
Laikipia Plateau, Kenya ring of fire
Our first ring of fire — vertigo on a patio above the endless plains, elephants below, a leopard in the bush.
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Annular
2012
Pyramid Lake, Nevada, USA ring of fire
A ring of fire at the Symbiosis festival — fire-twirlers, crystals, and the two of us in our safari pants.
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Total
2012
South Pacific total · at sea
A repositioning cruise across the eclipse path between Tahiti and Australia — and our son Jared’s very first totality.
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sandstorm, then rain
2013
Lake Turkana, Kenya hybrid · missed
A cracked rib, a non-pressurised plane, crocodiles below — then a sandstorm took the tents and the first rain in five years took the eclipse.
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docked & fogged in
2015
Faroe Islands total · missed
A ship billed as a “floating hotel” — that stayed exactly that. Docked under cloud, while the sun beamed on the sea 500m offshore.
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Total
2016
Tidore, Indonesia
The Sultan opened his palace grounds to chasers; the whole island beat drums and pots to chase away the dragon swallowing the sun.
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Total
2017
Menan Buttes, Idaho, USA
All our sons along this time. We drove up a butte in the cold and the dark and found the top of a flat, flat world.
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Total
2019
Coquimbo Valley, Chile
A whole pig on a turning spit, a farm full of chickens and dogs, and a selfie with the Milky Way from a geodesic dome.
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at home · Singapore
2019
Singapore annular · at home
The one we didn’t have to chase. For once, the shadow came to us — a ring of fire over home, no flights, no scouting, no two-week journey at all.
Hybrid
2023
Exmouth, Australia hybrid · at sea
The sky made two diamond rings that day. Justin had the third one in his back pocket — and asked Faith to marry him with the eclipse still technically going.
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Total
2024
Kerrville, Texas, USA peek-a-boo
The whole country to choose from — and Mother Nature handed us a peek-a-boo totality through big billowing cloud.
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August 2026
2026
Northern Spain, by sea total · upcoming
The next shadow — the reason for the book, and the chapter of this half still waiting to be written.

Exmouth, Australia · 2023

Justin & Faith

Off the coast of Western Australia, the family gathered at sea for a hybrid eclipse. The sky produced two diamond rings that afternoon — and about five minutes after the second one, with the eclipse still technically ongoing, Justin knelt down and asked Faith to marry him.

This one was never ours to tell. It’s theirs — and they’ve now told it, both of them, in their own words.

Read their story →

The chase goes on

Fourteen eclipses behind us. The shadow keeps moving.

And it keeps moving: northern Spain in 2026, perhaps the Luxor Valley in Egypt in 2027, and the far north-west of Australia near Kimberley in 2028. So many more shadows to stand in.