He led the way and reached another metal stairway that took them on the upper area dividing between two rooms. Windows cut into the walls illuminated their paths. They entered the second room; it was covered by a large barrel vault supported by two transversal arches in the center. “We need to go through the vault,” he told her opening it.
“This gives an eerie feeling,” she shivered in the cold night. He had taken the stairs first and came out in the open. “Don’t turn around, the dark presence doesn’t like to be disturbed,” he teased her. “Quick, you would love the view up here!”
A majestic view of the Val d’Orcia, the Amiata Mountains, and the Castle of Aldobrandesca few hundred yards away welcomed her. She stared up at the sky; it was as beautiful as the surroundings she had expected. She was lost in the moment. It was twenty minutes to midnight. They had sneaked up the tower.
“I hope we are going to wait until the sunrise, I don’t want to miss out on this!” he declared.
She placed her backpack on the floor and sat down. “You must be tired,” she told him. “Do you want to grab on some sleep? You have a watch tomorrow.” She sounded genuine. Not a bad idea, he thought. He felt his heels ache.
“You have a problem, though,” she said.
“Don’t tell me we have a company up here!” he said with a look of dismay.
“Oh! No. Not that. We just have one sleeping bag,” she said as firm as possible.
“Do I have a choice?” his ears wiggled.
“Yeah, I forgot the tent back in the boot of the car.” She felt apologetic, “If you could walk back to the base?”
She knew he would rather opt for the sleeping bag. He was a lazy bum. And he proved her right.
“You would fit in, it is semi-rectangular XL in size,” she said handing him the bag.
In no time he laid it on the floor and dozed off. She watched him sleep. She hadn’t expected this. Things were materialising at a quick pace. This was supposed to be a solo trip. But she was glad he was with her. She felt safe now.
Turning away, she looked up at the Big Dipper staring down at her. “Perfect” she whispered. Grabbing the moment, she removed her camera, refractor, and the tripod. She fixed the refractor on the tripod and placed them three yards away from the edge. Then she walked behind where he was sound asleep. At a perfect angle, she took a snap of the Ursa major which was high up in the northern sky with the Orcia valley in the back drop. The view was stunning. As she was done clicking pictures, she adjusted her camera and kept it steady for star trail, laid on her back and chased the sky above. She got so absorbed in it that she had forgotten of his presence.
The buzz on his cell phone woke him up. He had been asleep over two hours. Unzipping the sleeping bag, he crawled out and was amused to find her star gazing. There she was busy adjusting her refractor, chasing yet another constellation in the vast universe. He wondered in amazement, how could her small backpack carry so much altogether?
"Oh! You're up so early!" she said facing him over the shoulder for a split second.
"What all does your mighty backpack carry?"
"If hunger pangs have woken you then there are packed sandwiches inside," she pointed his way never leaving her sight from the eye-piece. He hadn’t noticed her buy extras.
Unsure yet he fiddled with her bag for a while and found the cheese grilled sandwiches they had eaten earlier during the day. As he was about to zip the compartment, his eyes fell upon a leather bound log tucked away safely. He had the thread unrolled and turned the cover. ‘My travelogue’ was neatly written in calligraphy.
A ticked off adventurous bucket list ruled the first few pages, and then series of breathtaking photographs followed suit. He couldn’t contain the excitement. He was surprised to see she had crossed oceans and climbed mountains. Northern lights sprang back to life on every second page. Astonishing pictures of The Himalayas, Norway, Sweden, Ireland, Scotland, New Mexico, Tenerife, Utah, Atacama Desert and Costa Rica were pasted by her. He observed how skillfully she photographed the star trail and kept a copy of the big dipper each from various countries with the city or the landscape at the backdrop depicting uniqueness of the entire trip. He turned over to a blank page, with ‘Tuscany, Italy’ as the headline. Over to the next few in line, were Cape Town, New South Wales, Auraki Makenzie and Mauna Kea.
