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The night’s darkest before the dawn.
My friends and I had planned an overnight
trip up the Blue Mountains to photograph the
sunrise at a place called Perry’s Lookdown.
We had planned this trip a couple of weeks
beforehand, and at that point, we hadn’t
considered what the weather would be like.
For the entire week leading up to our camping
trip it was overcast and constantly raining.
On the day we planned to drive up we checked
the weather forecast and it was meant to be
raining the entire time we’d be there and
through to the following day with a high
prediction of heavy rain. At this point we were
all feeling pretty grim about our chances of
a good sunrise, and knowing I had to go to
work the following day, we were very close to
canceling the trip.
We remained committed to our plans and
headed up the mountains to find a good
campsite. I arrived late in the afternoon,
and by the time everyone else had arrived
and we got all our gear out to setup, we were
in complete darkness - a pretty standard
procedure for us.
To complete our usual traditions, dinner was
mi-goreng noodles with some sliced chorizo,
shallots, and chilli flakes to mix things up.
I’d highly recommend it, it’s very quick and
easy to cook, doesn’t require many cooking
utensils, and it can easily feed a big group of
people. It also tastes amazing.
Alarms blaring at 5.30am, we woke up to the
sound of rain pouring on our tents which
made waking up even more difficult than
usual. Nevertheless, we got up and bundled
our gear together, cracked open some energy
drinks, and dragged ourselves down to the
view of the valley. As the sun came up, the
cloud parted, and we witnessed one of the
best sunrises we’ve ever seen.
The sunrise we experienced and the photos
we took, are the reason you should never give
up on a banger sunrise.
immerse / feature article