Lighthouses

Kali posted a verse and photos of the lighthouse she can see from her home. It made me think of the importance of these structures. Several years ago we drove down to Lizard, the southernmost point of England, intending to have a tour through the enormous lighthouse complex there. However, when only a few metres from the lighthouse it had to be closed to visitors as thick fog had suddenly descended and there were several ships passing quite close to the coast. The fog horns were switched on to warn the ships. What an eerie sound they made. Every 20 seconds the deep, throbbing siren sent it's warning message out through the thick black fog. We could just barely make out the dim shapes of four ships passing only a few hundreds yards offshore.

Last year we climbed up the lighthouse at Cape Otway on the coast of Victoria on a very windy day. It must have been quite frightening for the operators of manned lighthouses on very stormy nights years ago.