Enchanting Night in Donsol

Nights in Donsol River are enchanting, magical nights. Transport yourself vicariously this way: 8:00 p.m., no moon, you’re with a friend in a paddle boat which the boatman has steered northwards, away from the reach of electric lights in the houses by the banks near the town center. It’s now dark except for very slight reflections of the sky light on the water.

The silence is broken only by the swish of the paddle. Suddenly the boat goes faster. Ah! Here’s what you’re looking for: a tree full of fireflies! You all decide to stop by the bank to bask in the beauty of these magnificent creatures. You can’t imagine where in the world they all come from in order to converge here.

Then another tree full of fireflies comes into view, and another and another. You keep on going northwards to see more and more trees full of fireflies. The darkness is illumined very gently – you imagine tiny pin lights. (Some cell phones give out more illumination). Yet the outlines of the treetops are visible against the sky.

You take out your flashlight and point it to the fireflies – you don’t see any within the orb of the flashlight. But of course! At a distance of a few feet, you don’t see the bodies of the insects. Turn off your flashlight and what you see in the dark are the lights that they emit.

You recline on the boat – wow! Millions of stars! Pin lights above you; pin lights in front of you; darkness all around. Can you be in a more magical place than this?

I was in this most magical place on January 16, 2008.

The following day, early morning, we went boating in Donsol Bay to see the whale sharks. I stayed in the boat but my friend Linda went down the water. A fellow snorkeler was able to take an underwater picture of the whale shark with Linda in the foreground. She was smaller that the mammoth’s fin!

There are more whale sharks now than previously because the waters in Donsol Bay were cleaned up as a result of typhoon Reming in 2006.

Interact with fireflies and whale sharks! Email sarabatan@yahoo.com  or call +39277512768. Edith Batalla