Author: Mr A
Location: Yosemite National Park, California, USA
Wednesday: Yes, Yosemite took our breath away, both literally and figuratively. We had been recommended to drive straight up to a lookout called Glacier Point on entering the park – which we did – and both of us found it hard to comprehend the sheer majesty of this view.
But that’s not the only thing that left us breathless. Plenty of “wow” noises later we took a little walk along the cliff top and immediately noticed the effect of the thinner air – we were at 7,200 feet (3,200 metres). Catherine has enough trouble at sea level with her dinky constricted airway, so at this altitude noticed the difference. My nose started bleeding, something I always seem to experience at higher altitude, and with a nose my size its quite something!
We made our way down to the valley floor, via yet another switchback road, which I am mostly enjoying driving in our little Ford Escape, although when suddenly a car coming the other direction veers into our lane (as has happened several times), it isn’t quite as much fun. I think there are quite a few visitors here who haven’t seen many bends in their driving career, based on how slow some of them are and the number of brake lights slamming on for a gentle corner.
Our hotel turned out to be a concrete monstrosity that put us in a room next to the road. A little negotiation and we ended up moving to a river view room that was magic.
Thursday: A very peaceful sleep later and we were up to meet a local resident, Kim, Catherine knows through her Facebook support group.
She gave us some great tips for how to spend our day, and after a chat with her we sped off up into the high country of the Sierra Nevada. What a drive it was…again. Check out these views along the way.
We managed to puff and wheeze our way on a short 7km (4.5 mile) walk. We are now at over 8,600 feet (2,620 metres) but motivated by these incredible views to keep going – I had little excuse other than my cold and lack of strenuous exercise recently.
Catherine here is sampling some naturally carbonated spring water, fresh out of the mountainside – delicious too…!
We could spend weeks just exploring this one area – months more likely. The walking possibilities seem endless. It’s certainly putting the US on our radar for a longer trip.
So then it was a hairy drive back down to the valley floor, I’ve got a terrible head for heights, so was driving staring fixedly ahead and refusing to look at the sheer drop, all too close to our wheels for my liking.
I breathed a sigh of relief (and I’m sure Catherine did!) when we reached the valley floor without incident, and then she captured these shots as the sun was dipping.
We will leave with these photos to remind us of the beauty of this place – it’s busy, yes (although Kim tells us there are 25% less visitors post the bush fires here last July) – but a short walk from our car and we were pretty much on our own – there’s a lot of space to find some solitude away from the crowds that are hugging the valley floor.
Meanwhile, in Sydney, Australia
Apparently temperatures have PLUMMETED to below 30 degrees centigrade and Princess Tassie is needing reinforced bedding…
Then we walked down into a grove of sequoia trees. I caught myself holding my breath. The aura and precense these giant trees have is palpable. To see them soaring up to 80 metres above our heads, and to think some of them are over 3,000 years old and still growing, I think they are a reminder from Mother Nature of our place in the world.
I drove us on up into the heart of the park, to the area the famous US naturalist John Muir named when he first came across it in 1875 the “Giant Forest”. Not one to joke around, he had it spot on, as this area has the largest collection of the massive trees in the whole park, including the tree that is the single largest living entity on this earth, the General Sherman tree.
We were just mesmerised. Every time I looked down at my feet then looked up again my eyes took a moment to adjust to the perspective, with stands of these incredible trees just dominating everything. Look at this photo for instance – “Honey I shrunk Mr A”!
We then spotted a creature that looked like a rather portly marmot. Much larger than the ones we saw in France. Clearly he had been on the all you can eat High Sierra buffet!
It was all too quickly time to head off to our lodging for the night, the Montecito Sequoia Lodge, high up in the park at 2,286 metres (7,500 feet). It described itself as “rustic” – and it is – delightfully so.
Americans do this type of expereince really, really well. I vote we send a plane load of Aussie outback operators over here for some valuable learnings.
Deborah also took us to the best places to eat, with Japanese dining at lunch, a break for a local brew mid afternoon and American grill in the evening.
All were superb high quality food experiences with great service.
Now, apparently the grey porridge looking substance in the photo is….biscuits in gravy. Not something I’m going to add to my roast beef anytime soon!
When we stopped at a junction just outside Santa Barbara, we spotted this young guy with an interesting proposition.
A stop was called for in Santa Barbara, first job a quick wine stock up (we need to get used to the premium price of Californian wine compared to Australia), and then spotted a sign for “Cat Therapy”. We couldn’t resist of course. It was a business just about to open as a cat café, and the young ladies us allowed us in for a preview.
The idea is they take cats from rescue shelters in LA and use the café to showcase them to patrons as prospective adopters. Brilliant.
Ever the tour guide, we received a message from Deborah recommending we stop for a beer at the Cold Springs Tavern, an old staging post in the hills. We took the short diversion – very nice…loving the locally brewed beers and the very cute blue Californian Steller-Jays. 
The views from the road were superb as we climbed up to our friends’ place in Atascadero where we will spend the weekend.
Dave and SJ moved out of the hustle and bustle of San Francisco a year ago to this incredible spot way up on a ridge with 360 degree views towards either the ocean or the vineyards.
Our friends recently also moved to fur parent status. Check out this poser!
We’ve certainly had a fantastic start to our month in the USA – how can it get better than this?
The sand was just so fine and white, almost felt like flour in your hand. We had a great lunch at a little surf cafe, and then settled in back at the Zone.
We chat about our plan to come and rent here when we have had enough of our full time nomadic phase. It certainly is nice to be in an apartment again with endless water on tap and a toilet I don’t have to empty every morning! Tassie also approves, taking up her position on the day bed watching the non-stop action on the river.
Watching the sunset turn the water to red, we both feel that we want to see this view a LOT more.
All sorts of local folk are selling their wares, or cooking up tasty treats. We could so get used to this life!
Sunday: A little worse for wear this morning, it was market time again – this time at the local Noosa farmers market. It seems the whole town turns out to buy their weekly fruit and veg, so you can see it is a bit of a social catch up as well. The food we buy is all just so yummy. Fresh olives with flavours that just leap out at you. Nitrate free bacon. Oranges and apples that are bursting with juice.
We come back and pile into the fresh produce for lunch.
What a view. Great beer on tap, free live music, good bar service. I could enjoy making this a regular Sunday night catch up spot with friends!
So good to be back by the ocean again, with those lovely smells of the sea air, the calm waters of the Coral Sea exuding a tranquility that we just soaked up, over a cold beer.
I did smile though on seeing this cafe perched in a car park, next to the road, when the other side of the building was…..
…this view! I don’t think 1770 has quite made it into 2018 – and that’s part of its appeal.
This was a little less sleepy, with a few shops and restaurants, one of which we had been told was going to be offering an Indian focused menu tonight. A booking was made – this little business is clearly making an effort to do something a bit different. A range of speciality teas lined the walls that almost rivalled our selection in the Zone!
Then it was back to Cafe Discovery for their take on Indian food. A beef vindaloo and chicken tikka masala went down a treat.
We decided to brave the weather and headed out for a walk, so glad we did. The first short walk we did through a paper bark forest was magical with the sun making the dripping vegetation just sparkle.
Then it was a 6km coastal walk, although the weather then closed in and it really started to throw it down, complete with thunder and lightning.
Back to the park and a quiet Sunday night (when isn’t it nowadays!) and plans made for our departure tomorrow.
But we just couldn’t imagine what you would do for the weeks that some people are clearly spending here! There are four caravan parks in town, and no shops that seem to cater for them. What do all these nomads do here? Some on our camp look very settled in. Each to their own I guess.
Then a very chilled out day, concluding with a Goan fish curry courtesy of Mrs A’s fair hands. Well I have now graduated to kitchen assistant preparing the garlic, turmeric, ginger and blending up with pestle and mortar. Its a start!
The first part of the road was very civilised bitumen. Then the dirt started. The corrugations weren’t too bad though and we made good time, pulling into our camp by mid afternoon at a huge cattle station (it was 2,750 square kilometres – about the same size as Argentina) that offered a patch of dirt and toilets. Jervois Station didn’t exactly seem to be making an effort to earn their camp fees, and we realised a bit too late we could have saved $15 and just pulled off to the side of the road!
(Photo of our local river name for Jenny Charlton née Marshall – mum/mum-in-law)
We travelled through what is called the Mitchell Grass Downs, Australia’s version of the American Prairies. It looks dry and unsupporting of life, but apparently is home to a multitude of birds, reptiles and mammals, uniquely suited to this biosystem.
Tobermory Station was a lot more welcoming, with a young lady from Norfolk checking us in. She and her husband had decided to spend a few months here with their children, helping out on their trip around Australia. Its great to chat to these people, to see so many couples with small children taking the opportunity to do something a bit different.
We spent the afternoon checking over everything on the car and van, and nothing we can see has fallen apart, amazing given the hammering on the road, On the Toyota one of the after market driving lights had come lose and worn a hole in the bull bar…that’s it.
On the Zone nothing we can see is amiss, and it is pretty much dust free inside. A far cry from some of the Plenty Highway travel experiences we have heard about and read!
We were treated to a fabulous viewing of a pair of huge Wedge-Tailed Eagles on our journey through the last piece of the journey, along the Donohue Highway – the Queensland end of the Plenty.
This was our longest dirt road trip, and to get to the other end with no major dramas was a good feeling. For those in the UK, this is the equivalent of driving coast to coast across the widest section of England and Wales on farm tracks!
Now came the clean up! A lot of red dust needed to be disapeared.
Three hours later all was done, the sun was setting and it was time for the pub. Of course it was the usual predictable menu options (steak or chicken “parmy”, and awful wine and beer options). But you expect that in outback Australia where there is a lack of competition and a customer base that doesn’t seem to want anything different.
Frightening…It was cooked well though and we definitely fulfilled our red meat quota for the month!
By mid morning Google was estimating we were still over 2 hrs from our planned lunch stop, and then…a miracle. We come round a bend to see two graders ponderously chugging up the road towards us, leaving in their wake a lovely smooth surface!
You wouldn’t have wanted to be around 400 million years ago when this bad baby hit earth. It was one of those views that we love in outback Australia – no sign of humans on the landscape for 360 degrees.
The Gorge is one of several in the West MacDonnell ranges, which spectacularly rise up out of the desert plain and stretch several hundred kilometres. We rocked up at was to be one of our prettiest campsites on this section of the trip, with views down into the gorge. We quickly unhitched and drove down the steep access road, parked up and hit the short trail into the gorge proper.
After a bit of rock scrambling we arrived at this little oasis, a pool of water in sharp contrast to the surrounding dry arid land. We spent a happy hour there watching the sun set fire to the walls of the gorge, then retraced our steps.
This was a view that demanded a decent glass of red, and we counted our blessings once again to be in the position to watch the sun go down on such a stunning outback vista.
We left for our ride from the Cultural Centre and followed our noses as there were no signs for a cycling path, but there was this rather large rock to head for.
We joined the pain path around the rock and checked the signage, it only showed walkers, but there were bike hire companies around and plenty of tyre marks, so off we went.
Riding a bike always brings a grin to our faces wherever we are, but to be riding along under this brilliant blue sky, dwarfed by this towering red rock…breathtaking. We just couldn’t stop ogling this magnificent scenery. Neither of us are in any way spiritual, but we both felt this to be the closest we could get, just sitting quietly looking up at this massive granite monolith towering over us.
The short walk we did here was one of the most enjoyable we have done from a scenic perspective for ages. It’s called the Valley of the Winds walk, and takes you up through the domes and in a 7km circuit.
(Below, a friendly Grey Shrike-Thrush which accompanied us on our walk)
We could easily have spent a few more days here, but we are now on a bit of deadline, given we have lost a couple of weeks from our itinerary. So soon it was time to pack up and move on.