Originally Posted by Machka

No, lightening.

I had been violently ill all evening with food poisoning ... lots of dashing out to the outhouse. But things had finally settled down, and Rowan and I were sleeping peacefully in our tent. I woke up and was debating about making another dash to the outhouse. I could hear the thunderstorm rumbling in the distance, and was wondering whether it was coming or going.

Words are not adequate to describe what happened next. This is something you'd have to experience.

Suddenly, out of the darkness and relative quiet, a huge brilliantly red ball of fire seared down through the sky, landing alarmingly close to the tent.

Almost before our brains could register the ball of fire, the thunderclap deafened us and we were clinging together as everything shook around us.

My main thought was ... "what's next?" I wondered if the forest would go up in flame, or a tree would crash onto the tent, or something. It felt like something should happen next.

But the only thing that happened next was a silence ... and then a pouring rain.



This was mid-August this year in the Canadian Rockies.