A couple of years ago, I had a chance encounter with what would end up being retained in mind as one of my favourite ever sunsets, and it reminded me why I needed to try and take the time to see them more often – dazzling light shows on our doorsteps that don’t require a hefty entrance fee or overpriced snacks and ad-filled programmes – what’s not to love?

The amazing sunset at Conyer Creek

Here in Swale (Kent, UK), I’m convinced that there’s something particularly special about our sunsets (the one featured above took place only 5 minutes up the road). This is said without bias – I’m not originally from here and haven’t felt the same about the sunsets in other places lived – but I’ve been visiting Swale all throughout my life, and a great many memories of the place seem to be set against the backdrop of that blushy pink, tangerine and lilac sky that led to me falling in love with the area. I remember first marveling at it as I fed the ducks at Faversham pond with my Grandad in around 1990; I remember seeing it forming silhouettes out of the Victorian streetlamps on West Street one Summer evening round a similar time, and I remember it tenderly contrasting against the sludgy surface of the creek during another brilliant performance a few days after I moved here six years ago.

And countless times in between.

These days, I mostly see it as it crowns the rooftops of neighbours’ homes whilst I wash up at the kitchen window, and it prompts an internal smile each and every time.

There’s probably some geographical explanation about why it looks the way it does here, something to do with the proximities to marshland and the Swale Estuary perhaps, but I’m not sure I necessarily want to understand all that detail. I’m happy for it stay in my head as a piece of magic – nothing more, nothing less – because as with all good magic, when you understand too much about the ‘how’, it stops being as enjoyable.

A friend who feels similarly about Swale sunsets (see, it is a thing) and I were really keen to catch a good one from a particular part of the creek this Summer but at one point it felt like that it was never going to happen. The plan was postponed multiple times due to gloomy weather forecasts, but when the opportunity finally arose earlier this month we hoped it would be worth the wait, and it was. Proof below. Among the multitude of reasons why I love sunsets is that they can bring out a beauty in whatever they illuminate within their path, even something as austere and oppressive-looking as the National Grid:

In remembering why I’d like to make an effort to see more sunsets I thought about how the average lifespan of an individual living in the UK is around 80 years – 29,200 days – or rather, 29,200 sunsets.

I’m not entirely sure that’s enough of them…