A year ago The Idiot observed and celebrated the vernal equinox, aka the first day of spring, in Egypt’s Siwa Oasis where he consulted The Oracle of Ammon on the penultimate outing of his twenty-year walk around the Mediterranean Sea.
This year he’s completing the third book in his The Idiot and the Odyssey trilogy and enjoying the transition from winter to spring in Redding, California.
About the only similarity between the two locations is that clouds obscured the March equinox sunrise in both places on the first day of spring.
The Idiot witnessed a glorious sunrise on the last day of winter before his 138th vernal equinox in Egypt’s Siwa Oasis near the Libya border.
It was cloudy and the sunrise was not visible on March 21, the first day of spring in 2017.
The Idiot witnessed a glorious sunrise on the last day of winter before his 140th vernal equinox in Redding, California, about two hundred miles north of San Francisco.
It was cloudy, rainy and the sunrise was not visible on March 20, the first day of spring in 2018.
To illustrate that the sun actually rose on the first day of spring in 2018, here’s a shot from early this morning in Antibes, France.
The Idiot’s daughter witnessed a sunrise this morning on the first day of spring during her 72nd vernal equinox in Antibes on the Mediterranean Sea in the south of France.
(Photo: Sonia Stratte-McClure)
Here’s what’s different between things in Siwa, Egypt, and Redding, California, on the last day of winter or the first day of spring.
Breakfast in Siwa, Egypt, on the last day of winter in 2017.
Breakfast in Redding, California, on the last day of winter in 2018.
A bakery in Siwa, Egypt, on the first day of spring in 2017.
A bakery in Redding, California, on the first day of spring in 2018.
This is where The Idiot was hiking in Siwa, Egypt, on the last day of winter in 2017.
This is where The Idiot was hiking in Redding, California, on the last day of winter in 2018.
This is where The Idiot had coffee in Siwa, Egypt, on the first day of spring in 2017.
This is where The Idiot had coffee in Redding, California, on the first day of spring in 2018.
This is the body of water, actually a salt sea, where The Idiot swam in Siwa, Egypt, on the first day of spring in 2017.
This is the body of water (actually the Sacramento River) that The Idiot walked across on on the last day of winter in 2018.
This is a rock formation The Idiot saw in Siwa, Egypt, on the first day of spring in 2017.
This is a rock formation The Idiot saw in Redding, California, on the first day of spring in 2018.
This is the spring growth that The Idiot saw on a fig tree in Siwa, Egypt, on the first day of spring in 2017.
This is the spring growth that The Idiot saw in Redding, California, on the last day of winter in 2018.
This is the camel that The Idiot encountered in Siwa, Egypt, on the first day of spring in 2017.
These are the geese that The Idiot encountered in Redding, California, on the last day of winter in 2018.
And where will The Idiot try to see his first equinox sunrise next year?
The Idiot plans to watch a sunset (he’s given up on equinox sunrises in the Northern Hemisphere) during the next equinox.
He’s thinking a game park in Kenya on the equator.
(Photo: Luke Stratte-McClure)
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