We headed from the heat of Willits back to the coast, where it was a lot cooler. The road was incredibly windy but stunning. We stopped at Fort Bragg and saw the Skunk Train go out (it used to go through to Willits, but now only about 3 miles due to tunnel damage).
Then we travelled on down Highway 1 – wow this stretch of the road is not for the faint hearted, (a couple of times I nearly sat on Andys lap, bloomin high up and close to the edge!). We stopped off to visit Point Cabrillo light station, built in 1909 and now refurbished, along with the lightkeepers (or Wickies as they were known – keeping the wicks alight) houses which can now be rented as holiday cottages.
The next stop was Mendocino – a pretty coastal town, still with the old water towers intact in places and used in several movies and the murder mystery series ‘Murder She Wrote’.
Then, on for a quick stop at the Point Arena Lighthouse (built in 1870 and 113ft high)
and some seal watching
before carrying on this scary road (several places where a lane has disappeared over the edge!!) to Jenner – there we headed inland up the Russian River Gorge, past stunning vineyards up to the lovely town of Windsor. We didn’t get a chance to visit Bodega Bay (bit further down Highway 1 but film buffs will know it for Alfred Hitchcocks’ film “The Birds”