For some utterly mysterious reason, Centauri gets the most spectacular sunsets I have ever seen anywhere, ever. And we get them almost every night. Campers call them ‘Centauri Skies’ and they have been featured in numerous songs, poems and inspirational speeches over the past twenty summers. In fact, at around 9pm every night, everything pauses. All across camp you see campers looking upwards, cameras pointed at the horizon. It’s just one part of the magic that happens here, and unlike most of the magic at Centauri, it happens without the need for any effort at all.
T
onight’s sunset was one of the most spectacular ever. It reached across the entire sky, drawing rainbows across rainclouds and leaving us breathless. Campers were emerging from their pajamaramas at the time. Standing on the far side of camp, I watched groups of friends emerge from buildings… and simply pause. Stand. Look up in total awe.
Occasionally the world offers up a reminder of just how magical life can be. And how fitting that it happened tonight – hours before our fantasy Hobbit festival kicks off. Tomorrow, we’re on a quest to steal back treasure from the lonely mountain, though most of the campers don’t know it yet. Two senior staff members, dressed as wizards, were posting runes around camp as the sunset rolled in. They stood beside 
me and looked up, then one of them whispered, mysteriously, “We have been telling them the fiery clouds are dragon’s breath. Each one of them a breath of Smaug…”
More of the festival soon!