The weather here in northern Scotland has been beastly, with a strong westerly chasing sharp rain showers under a lead-grey sky so, as the hours draw on, what better to cheer one up than memories of the end of a day in warmer places where the sun has shone all day out of a pure blue sky and the sand has become so hot one has to run across it to take a cooling swim in the waves of low tide.
By this time in the afternoon the temperatures have begun to fall and the sun is commencing its plunge behind the coconut trees, stretching their shadows across the sand as the....
....schoolchildren make their way home along the beach. After the bleaching heat of the day the colours are running back into the scene, after its oppression the place begins to breathe again, a great sigh of relief.
The end of the day is sudden, as if a curtain has been pulled across; within minutes the first stars will be out over the sea and the bats will be hunting insects amongst the palm trunks. This is Africa: there is no prolonged farewell to the day.
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