Travel by night The allure of noctourism

From starry skies and urban sights to mysterious wilderness, noctourism is about discovering the magic of exploration by night and is set to become the overarching travel trend for 2025

- Anita Rao Kashi

For a fleeting moment, the sky turns deep grey. The last wisps of peachy twilight disappear. Anticipation hangs in the air, a bit like when the curtain is about to rise before a show. Tentatively at first, and then as if yanked by an unseen string, a pearly moon rises from beyond the horizon. As it ascends, higher and higher, it drenches the flat unending landscape in a ghostly glow. Moonrise on a full moon night at the salt flats of the Greater Rann of Kutch near Bhuj in Gujarat is a breathtakingly surreal sight.

It's also a bit scary. At over 7,500 sq. km, the salt flats are among the biggest in the world, and walking on the crusted salt layer takes a bit of getting used to. Where the salt isn't thick, the feet sink as on soft sand; where it is thick, the ground shatters, a bit like stepping on a sheet of glass or thin ice. More unsettling, however, is the vast emptiness blanketed in darkness that stretches to eternity ahead. There are no markers and it feels like the end of the world. And yet, the beauty and serenity of the place overrides spookiness.

During the day, the immense whiteness is overwhelming in itself but the same sight at night, in comparison, feels layered, where everything is heightened, especially its allure. Against the inky blackness of the sky, the moon hangs suspended like a glowing silver disc, ethereal and magical. The air is cold and dense with a mild saltiness to it. It is also very quiet; the only sounds come from the occasional cold gusts that slap the ends of my stole and move around loose chunks of salt on the ground. In the dark stillness, there is a strange musical quality to the scene that is riveting, which is one of the many reasons that make moonlight journeys not just fascinating but immensely satisfying.

MIDNIGHT MAGIC