"IT was like Christmas and New Year all rolled into one. It may have been cloudy but I felt as if the world was standing still."
One of the million visitors who came to Cornwall to witness the last eclipse of the millennium yesterday had this reaction, after the hours of waiting and fears that the phenomenon would not be visible due to bad weather.
The skies above Cornwall might have been covered in cloud but on the ground, old and young, tourist and local, witnessed an event none will ever forget. About half an hour before the total eclipse began at 11.11 a.m. yesterday, many people believed they would experience a magical, unforgettable event, despite the thick clouds and rain that came down over Cornwall threatening to spoil the occasion. Would the rain hold off during totality, or would we be disappointed by an eclipse we couldn't see?
Ms Clare Bailey, from Torquay in Cornwall, travelled to Falmouth, near the line of totality, to watch the eclipse against the backdrop of Pendennis Castle: "The cloudy weather is just typical of Cornwall in the morning during the summer, but the skies are beginning to get much darker now and there is a real sense of something dramatic about to happen here."
It was clear from early morning that as the dark clouds rushed in over Cornwall people would not be able to witness the eclipse in its totality. An orange and red sunrise was quickly obscured by cloud but people kept their fingers crossed that the blue skies from earlier this week might reappear.
Their pleas and the efforts of Cornish druids, who performed pagan dances to chase the clouds away, failed to stop the clouds covering the sun, but, as the five-minute countdown to totality approached, this magnificent natural phenomenon began with a dramatic darkening of the skies.
Some people weren't sure whether the dark clouds were rain clouds or whether the total eclipse was really on its way.
Then, as suddenly as turning off a light, the moon's shadow raced across the sky as it grew darker and darker.
The wind dropped and there was an eerie stillness. There wasn't the big drop in temperature that some had expected but there was definitely a chill in the air. Swallows swooped to the ground, confused by the darkness in the middle of the day, while other birds flew out to sea. Then, at exactly 11.11 a.m., the moon moved fully across the face of the sun and near total darkness fell over Cornwall.
Street lights came on in villages and towns across the county, as if it was the middle of the night. Boats out at sea turned on their lights as the moon's shadow raced across the sea, and the crowds of tourists and locals cheered and clapped as if to call the sun back from its hiding place.
Thousands of flashbulbs went off across the south Cornish peninsula in Falmouth as people tried to capture the event on camera. Flowers partly closed their petals in response to the enveloping darkness and on the beaches and cliff-tops around southern Cornwall all eyes were turned skywards.
No one who witnessed the eclipse is ever likely to forget it. "I shall remember Cornwall for the rest of my life," said David, who watched the eclipse near Penzance.
Just over two minutes of darkness during the eclipse had most people wanting more. "If only we could do it all again," said Mr Anthony Morgan, from London, after he watched the eclipse on Porthallow beach. Drinking champagne during the village beach party, half an hour after the eclipse, he still seemed a little fazed by the whole experience.
"It was breathtaking, a really wondrous moment and one I don't think I'll ever forget.