When the alarm went off this morning I could scarcely hear its persistent beeping over the noise outside. A train screamed by, shaking the ground beneath us, and the natural world seemed to be engaged in an epic battle between sea and sky.

Peeking our heads out of the tent, we sat and stared in awe at the storm raging just feet away, feeling like we were on the prow of a ship on doomsday at the edge of the known world. The water boiled violently below us, lightning pierced the sea in fiery illuminations, and the inky blue sky was alive with churning clouds.

We tried to take some pictures during a brief lull but quickly had to close up our tent when sheets of water began hurling down from the sky. Before we could even zip shut our little rain fly doors, our tent was soaked. Again!

Doing our best to ignore the feeling of wet nylon against bare skin and the sight of our damp tent littered with dirt, sand, and wet cracker crumbs, we pulled the sleeping bag over our heads and tried to go back to sleep. A few hours later when we peeked our heads out, we could see dark sheets of clouds blowing over and patches of blue sky beginning to appear. Time to pack up camp!

Everything dried out quickly but we decided that nearly a week of free-camping and several days of rain had earned us a night or two in a hotel.

Less than a kilometer down the road was the Park Hotel. Upon inspecting the room (which consisted of us running around like kids, admiring the shower and the fridge, and then flopping face-first onto the GIANT BED) we decided to go for it and take a couple of days off. As the rain started again, we simply smiled and closed the shutters, leaving nature firmly outside.