moonrise. saharan style

This is from the fantastically well-written Extreme Trifle blog. The Extreme Triflers are sleeping out in the Sahara desert. They've admired the millions of stars and have now settled down, but they're having trouble sleeping.

A combination of feeling slightly vulnerable in this place, the sheer weirdness of it all, and Charlie and Oz's farting which was always followed by a bout of schoolboy giggles. But then the mood changed a bit. "Charlie" Oz whispered. "Who the fuck is that?"

Just beyond the horizon was a shimmering light, small at first but getting rapidly larger. Our first thoughts were that it must be the headlights of a convoy of 4x4's. We sat bolt upright and stared in silence as the light source got more intense and then suddenly swept up over the horizon. It took a few seconds to register, but the convoy of 4x4's turned out to be...the moon. It was so weird. The moon is either in the sky or it isn't. We've all seen a sunset and a sunrise, but certainly neither of us had ever seen a "moon rise". Weird.

Eventually I'll bring this together with my other lunar meditiations. Anyway, the point is, that moonrises and moonsets are a lot more noticeable in a place where there's no light pollution.