Grey Gap Year Travel Archives - Page 3 of 6

September 22, 2023October 17, 2023

Fiji – oh Fiji Time!

Well, our original aim had been to stop in Fiji for about 4 weeks to chill out, recharge our batteries and save some money. However, 2023 has seen a huge boost in tourism again and accommodation prices have shot through the roof, even hostels are expensive, and as we’d only pre booked the first week we got caught out. Even that week had changed as our first hotel cancelled on us (turns out they are gutting the place) so we ended up a bit further out than we’d originally anticipated, which also meant we needed a car too (which was expensive and a bit of a wreck) so not the best of starts eh?

However our flight from Honolulu to Fiji was quite special – we crossed the International Dateline and so lost a day, but then got to stop for 45-minutes at Kiritimati, a Pacific Ocean atoll in the Line Islands, sometimes known as Christmas Island. Wow, I’ve never seen such colours in an ocean before – they are simply stunning.
It is the greatest land area in the world of any atoll – about 150 square miles with a lagoon of about the same size. Due to its location being in the farthest forward time zone, it is one of the first inhabited places to see the New Year in.
The atoll was used for nuclear testing in the 50’s and 60s, but no-one was evacuated at the time, therefore exposing many to the effects of radiation.
Nowadays, there is a population of about 2000 and the area has become popular with fishermen, especially for BoneFish. We couldn’t get over how many boarded the plane at this stop!!

Our first week was spent near Nadi (pronounced Nandi). Then we moved on to the Coral Coast for 10 days before going to the tiny Serenity Island (one of the Mamanuca islands) for 4 days.

The island (Viti Levu, the main Fiji island) is so reminiscent of rural Malaysia and Brunei, even down to how the schools are built. It’s more mountainous than we expected too. Lots of sugar cane growing and is the main export here. You have to watch out for the little sugar trains crossing roads with their small carts full of cane!

We’ve visited the Gardens of the Sleeping Giant in the foothills of the Nausori Mountains – they were designed to hold the orchid collection of Raymond Burr (Ironside and Perry Mason). It’s a nice walk through tropical forest full of flowering African Tulip trees (stunning orange flowers but a bit of a thug!) and there’s a hike to the top of the hill for good views out across the coast to the islands.

We took a day trip to the capital, Suva. It was a nice drive going through tiny villages with stalls full of vegetables and fruit by the roadside and lots of lovely handmade brooms and whilst it is a tropical island we noticed some of the trees were turning colour like in a UK autumn which was not expected.

There also seems to be a rugby pitch (of some type or another, whether professional looking posts or just bamboo struts strung together) in every village! Suva is a typical capital city, lots of traffic and a busy old port area. We visited the tiny Fiji Museum just past the Parliament Buildings, where there was an interesting seafarers exhibition on, including part of the rudder from The Bounty (of Mutiny on the Bounty, Captain Bligh fame). We had lunch on the balcony there overlooking Thurlestone Gardens (the old Botanical gardens) and marvelled at the fruit bats hanging from branches in a nearby tree, squabbling away to each other.

Then we treated ourselves to cake at the Grand Pacific Hotel – opened in 1914 and reopened in 2014. She’s an icon of the South Pacific (and the cakes were good, too!).

We chilled out (on Fiji time which is a saying you here everywhere) on the coral coast despite the weather being rather overcast and at times rainy and enjoyed walks along the beach spotting various marine life – lots of blue starfish here as well as rather creepy sea snake cucumbers.

Our 4 days on Serenity Island was a bit of a disaster but without going into it too much we did have a lovely bure on the sea front (not quite on the beach but close enough) and did some snorkelling in a wonderfully warm sea.

So, having decided that Fiji was too expensive and possibly just not our thing, we cut our visit short by a week and headed off to New Zealand.

August 29, 2023September 3, 2023

Oahu, Hawai’i

Okay, just to prove that we’ve not just been drinking cocktails!!!

We got up at silly o’clock and did the Diamond Head Crater hike (early, so it was still cool – sort of!). Quite a workout on the legs as lots of stairs but not far distance wise. You enter the crater via a road tunnel and then hike up the inner wall to the summit where there is an old Fire Control Station that was built between 1908 and 1910. Thankfully, there are now handrails the trail originally didn’t!!! There’s also a tunnel you need to get through – not too bad as it is lit and it was worth going for the view (and to say we’ve hiked a volcano!!!!).

The crater was used by the military in the 1900’s for training and to defend Oahu during WW2. The crater is just over 1/2 mile wide and thought to have formed from a single eruption. Le’ahi tends to be called Diamond Head now after traders in the 1700’s mistook calcite crystals there for diamonds.
Oh, and in case you’re thinking of doing this, your time slot has to be reserved in advance along with car parking, although we just got the number 23 bus.

So, I guess if you’re coming all the way to Oahu, Hawaii, one of the key sites to visit is Pearl Harbour. This is the site of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour on 7th December 1941, which led to America entering WW2. There are some interesting exhibitions about the attack, before and after accounts, an informative film and of course the poignant trip across to the USS Arizona memorial which still lies beneath the water with 1,178 souls still aboard.

Andy also went off to visit the USS Missouri (site of the final Japanese surrender signing on 02 September 1945, thus bringing an end to WW2) and also the aviation museum on the same site. You can visit the memorial for free but must book your trip to the memorial in advance on line (or take pot luck when you arrive – there is a standby section and your chances depend on time of day). The other exhibits, such as the aviation museum, USS Missouri, and the USS Bluefin (submarine), have an additional cost.
You can take an organised tour there or just jump on a bus (number 20) like we did!

We took a round island tour to see some of the other Oahu sites, including the Dole pineapple plantation (gorgeous pineapple icecream or Dole whip as it is known here),

the beautiful North shore with its lovely sandy beaches (but be careful snorkeling and surfing here – the sea is not as friendly as it looks) and yummy fresh shrimp dishes, Highway 3 – apparently the most expensive road in America, which cuts through some stunning scenary, Jurassic valley as it is known due to some filming here (!), and also the Byodo-In Temple – a replica of one near Uji, Kyoto and which stands within the Valley of the Temples Memorial Park which is a huge multi denomination cemetary.

We also got to see more green sea turtles swimming near the shore.
It was a good snapshot of the rest of the island if you don’t want to drive but it’s not cheap (although we did get a fair amount of discount for sitting thro a timeshare presentation – well it was the middle of the day in an air conditioned room so nothing was lost there!!!! And no, we don’t own a timeshare now🤣🤣).

And just for you Hawaii Five-O fans, we had to go and find the King Kamehameha statue seen in the series. In actual fact it stands outside of the Capitol of the Kingdom of Hawai’i and home to the Hawai’i State Supreme Court – you can go on a tour but sadly not when we visited – court was is session.

Instead, we crossed over the road and went on an interesting tour of the Iolani Palace. It was built in 1882 and is the only royal residence in the United States. It was the home of Hawai’i’s last reigning monarchs before they were overthrown in 1893.

So our Hawaiian trip comes to a close – it’s been interesting seeing how different the 3 islands we visited are; Big Island is very brutal with its huge lava fields, Kaua’i is stunning beautiful and green and Oahu is a real mixture of scenary, history, music, surfing and commercialism. If you are water babies, love surfing and snorkelling, then these islands are for you – even if you’re not, then there is still lots to see and do. The food has been great, lots of fresh fish (Poke bowls are delicious) and fruit, we’ve had yukele lessons, learned a little Hawaiian – goodness, it’s a hard language and only has 13 letters in their alphabet, and enjoyed some stunning scenary. However, it is VERY expensive, especially on Oahu. Would we come again? Probably not, but it is worth visiting once in your life, at least if you can.

August 21, 2023September 3, 2023

Kaua’i, Hawai’i

Chocolate, shaved ice, yukeleles, and gorgeous scenery – what more do you need?

We spent a week on Kaua’i, the oldest of the Hawaiian Islands and the greenest – it is known as the Garden Island and you can see why – towering pleated cliffs and mountains all covered in verdant greenery – it’s also one of the wettest places on earth and yes, we experienced that as well!

We’ve driven the length of the island as far as you can in a rental anyway – the centre is pretty much off limits and there is no road on the west coast due to the huge imposing Na Pali coastal cliffs – best seen by boat or helicopter apparently. We’ve visited the Waimea Canyon (the Grand Canyon of Hawaii) and driven up to the Kalalau lookout (avoiding major pot holes but worth it).

It is best to go there first before the fog or rain comes in, and we were lucky enough to make it just in time. Stunning views, and you really do expect to see Dinasours (well, Jurassic Park was filmed here!). We didn’t get a chance to do any of the hikes because it bucketed down, but there are lots here of varying different lengths and difficulties.

We made a major error with places to visit here as you really do need to book up about 30 days in advance, so we didn’t get to any of the botanical gardens (although our AirBnB has such a stunning garden I’m not sure we missed anything!!) or the Haena State Park at the very top of the island – although we did drive up there – gorgeous scenary, valleys of taro farms, lovely beaches and lots of surfers and windfoilers riding the waves. We did get to Kilauea lighthouse,

now a wildlife refuge where we saw Shearwater chicks, Great Frigatebirds and the elusive Nene goose.

We saw (and heard) the Spouting Horn

and watched sea turtles swimming, explored tiny old towns like Koloa and Kapa’a, visited an old sugar plantation house, saw the Wailua and Opaekaa Falls and generally chilled.

We visited the Lydgate Farms Kaua’i Chocolate, where we were treated to a very informative talk about how cocoa is grown (each tree can grow for about 50 years with its prime harvest being up to about 20 years), whilst also tasting their delicious chocolate. I personally am not keen on dark chocolate, but I found their 70% was lovely, not at all bitter but still with a wonderful depth of taste. Needless to say, we ended up buying some, along with some chocolate covered mac nuts! They had harvested some beans about 3 weeks ago, but we could still see the tiny flowers and small pods growing on the tree trunks.

It’s definitely worth the trip, and you can also do a 3 hour tour if you have a chance.
In the lovely little town of Kapa’a we sampled our first shaved ice, which, although I was sceptical about, turned out to be delicious (watch out for brain freeze tho!!).

Then we came across a yukele shop, and were given a demonstration of various different techniques by a very knowledgeable gentleman.

It’s a lovely island which needs a car to explore, is slightly more expensive than Big Island but maybe because there are some high-end resorts and golf courses here. Oh, and there are hundreds of roosters here – the forest reds and, accordingly to local lore, a Hurricane enabled domestic chickens to escape, and now they’ve interbred. All are protected!!! There is no need for alarm clocks here!!!!!

August 15, 2023August 31, 2023

Hawai’i – Big Island

Hawai’i or Big Island is the youngest and biggest of the Hawaiian Islands and famed for its active volcanos, so our first visit was to the Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park for a day. On the way, we stopped off at Punalu’u Black Sand Beach – very aptly named as the sand is indeed black.

It’s a favourite for the Hawaiian Green turtles who often bask on this beach, and along with rarer Hawksbill turtles may lay eggs here, too. We spotted 2 turtles in the sea but thanks to Hurricane Dora (a fish hurricane, one that necer makes land) some 400 miles off the coast, the waves were incredibly fierce (as was the wind) and they struggled to get to the beach.
We drove through vast areas of black lava to the park and then drove along the Kilauea Crater Rim drive. It’s hard to describe the vastness of the crater and how much it sank after the last big eruption in 2018. There are no eruptions at present, although there was one in June this year, and a new cone has formed in the crater from that.

Kilauea Crater – you can just see the steam rising too!

We also saw the Kilauea Iki Crater, which you can walk across. This erupted in 1959 and continued for over 30 days. Columns of lava spouted higher than the empire state building during this time and eventually formed a new mountain.
Then, we had a short walk through the Thurston lava tube to finish the trip.

You can hike around the park (subject to conditions of course), and there is also another drive – chain of craters – but we didn’t have enough time for this.
Nature is pretty awesome, and this area is proof of that indeed. Our photos really don’t do it justice.

Thursday we visited two different cultural sites here in Hawai’i. Firstly St Benedicts Catholic Church, aka The Painted Church. It was built in 1899 and painted by Belgian Father John Velghe with no artistry training. It is quite something inside. It is a practising Church and whilst many Catholic churches preach fire and brimstone depicting hell – this is not the case in Hawaii as they already have their own “god of fire” in Pele and the volcanos! There is a small cemetery here with beautiful gardens. All graves are above ground due to the difficulty in digging through lava!

St Benedicts Catholic Church – The Painted Church

Then we visited Pu’uhonua o Honaunau – a temple of great powers. However, beyond the great wall that surrounds the Royal Grounds is a place of refuge. This is where those who broke the kapu or sacred laws and beliefs could seek refuge if they could elude their pursuers by foot or swimming through the reefs. In wartime, this area was also a sanctuary for the elderly and children.

We saw lots of yellow tang fish in the clear sea waters around this beautiful site.

Friday – rain stopped play (well nearly!). It was the first rain we’ve seen properly since April!!!
The day started well and we headed off down Saddle Road, which runs through the middle of the island between the two huge volcanos – Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. Whilst not terribly photogenic it does make you feel very small and humbled by these amazing mountains. We took the side trip up 9200ft to Mauna Kea Visitor centre, which, although small, has an interesting display about the observatories and telescopes on the summit. You can hike there (the air is 40% thinner so you need to be wary of altitude sickness) or drive in a 4WD but the top is 13776ft, can be snowy and cold but is also considered a sacred area. The visitor centre gets busy at sunset as it’s a good viewing spot.
Then we headed towards Hilo and into pouring rain! The plan had been to visit the Botanical Gardens and Akaka Falls but there was no point. We did manage a break in the rain to quickly view the huge 6 mile long Waipi’o Valley, also known as the Valley of the Kings – communities used to farm taro here but most left after the 1946 tsunami.

Then on back to Kona to sample the local Ola beer and watch a stunning sunset after all that rain!

Next we ventured to the North of the island to the tiny town of Hawi, once a busy sugar town. We were amazed that you can see the island of Maui from this coastline.
We travelled up Highway 250, the Kohala Mountain Road, with amazing views back across the island. Here, it is very pastural land with ranches and cattle everywhere. We passed the Parker Ranch/ Camp Tawara memorial for the 2nd and 5th marine division, who returned here to recuperate and retrain during the second world war.
After a coffee and cake stop we ventured back on the coast road and stopped off at the Kawaihae harbour for a paddle – this was formed by a 120 ton aluminium ammonium nitrate explosion (under Project Plowshare, to normalise the “friendly atom”! This explosion creates something close to an atomic boom!). It created the harbour but did no damage to nearby Heiau (temples).

We then visited Pu’ukohola Heiau – a historic temple to the war God Ku and where King Kamehameha established his kingdom. There were some very interesting videos here of the hawaiian culture and history which tied in all the other sites we’d seen throughout the week. Then back through varying landscapes of old lava flows (cinders and smooth) to our AirBnB.
But before we left the island, we had to visit our two favourite local breweries, here in Kona!! Kona Brewing and Ola Brewing.

We’ve enjoyed Hawai’i. You definitely need a car to get around as the buses are not terribly reliable and the distances, whilst not huge, take a while to get around due to road conditions and speed limits. A very chilled island.

August 7, 2023August 7, 2023

San Francisco

We spent a few days in a lovely airBnB in Oakland chilling, being entertained by chattering blue Jay’s and squirrels playing. We’ve taken a trip to Alcatraz (yes, they let us leave!) – interesting, albeit smelly trip (the island is now home to a huge number of seagull and cormorant nests hence the smell).

View of Alcatraz as we approached on the boat

The cell block audio tour was worth doing, with tales of what life was like as a prisoner and the few escape attempts.

There was an excellent exhibition about the Indian Occupation of the island in the 1970’s too. After our boat trip back, we wandered along Fishermans Wharf and then hopped on one of the famous cable cars for a trip up and down the crazy San Francisco hills

and also saw one of the trams that had just been restored – it was out on its first trip complete with people dressed in historic attire.

The next evening, our hosts invited us to join in their street party for National “Night Out,” which is an annual event now and a wonderful opportunity for everyone to meet their neighbours. We did feel as if we were gate crashers but were welcomed by everyone, so we were soon put at ease.
Then we hopped on a ferry to Sausilito for a wander around – still didn’t get to see the Golden Gate bridge – the bay was in sunshine, but the bridge still shrouded in sea fog!!! Obviously, it is a very shy bridge!!!

We’ve also seen the USS Potomac ship (aka the floating white house – President Roosevelt used it for a while) in Jack London Square in Oakland. Jack London was an author, born in San Francisco and famous for his books “The Call of the Wild” and ” The Sea Wolf”.
Can’t quite believe we have reached the end of another leg of our trip – next stop Hawaii!

July 30, 2023July 31, 2023

San Luis Bautista and Santa Cruz

As we didn’t have far to go and had time to kill before getting to our hotel in Santa Cruz, we visited San Juan Bautista. This pretty town was once a bustling city in the late 1800s before the railroads took a lot of the stagecoach business away. Now the old hotel, stables, blacksmiths and adobe are protected as a State Historic Park – they have laid out an interesting self guided tour with some entertaining information boards.

These buildings are laid out around a large grassy town square and on one side is the San Juan Bautista Mission complex, founded in 1797 and which became known as the Mission of Music.

In the Chapel there is a door with a cat flap built in so they could catch the mice (yes even in those days!) and you can see animal foot prints on some of the clay floor tiles where they walked over them as they were drying in the sun!!

The San Andreas Fault runs along the hill at the bottom of the cemetery and during the 1906 earthquake the sidewalls of the church collapsed (they were restored in 1976). The remains of the original El Camino Real can also be seen here.

The Mission was featured in several scenes in Alfred Hitchcock’s movie “Vertigo” and there are a couple of old carriages in the museum that were used too.
We then continued our journey to Santa Cruz – our final stop before handing the car back.

And so our 3394 mile, 5 week, Pacific Road trip has come to an end and the car has been returned!
We did venture into the crazy world of Santa Cruz for a day – if you love the beach, surfing, fishing or amusement parks, this is the place for you.

We walked the length of the 2745 ft wooden pier (longest wooden pier in the US) – never seen so many fisherfolk – and watched the Californian Sealions barking and jostling for a place on the pier supports.

There was a rough sea swim going on when we arrived, which looked like hard work and lots of surfers looking for a good wave. We didn’t spot sea otter 841 though – its making the news as its been hitching lifts on surfboards and then taken to biting the boards and becoming a nuisance so they are trying to catch it to check out its health. We wandered around the famous Boardwalk for a while watching some of the rides – 2 are historic landmarks now (the old Giant Dipper roller coaster and the Charles Looff carousel with 73 wooden horses and a 342 pipe organ – both rather gentle in comparison to the thrill rides of the modern world but lots of people were still queuing to go on them).

Then it was back up the road to the Santa Cruz Mountain Brewery for a good pint and pizza from the food truck next door.

For those who are interested, we used the Moon book “Road Trip USA Pacific Coast Highway” by Jamie Jensen as a rough guide to base our trip on.
Would we do it again? Probably not, but if we did we’d stick to the area above San Francisco and explore Crater Lake, Mount Hood, Mount Ranier and Mount St Helens National Parks.
Now for a few days chilling before leaving mainland US and heading to Hawaii.

July 28, 2023July 31, 2023

Big Sur, Monterey and Pacific Grove

We moved north up Highway 101 to Salinas for a couple of days (the salad capital of the US, supplying nearly 80% of the country’s lettuce!! And also where John Steinbeck, the author, was born). From here, we drove the north end of the Big Sur (Highway 1) as far as the closure at Lucia.

It started off with the infamous marine layer covering everything but soon the sun burnt through and we had blue skies again. Whilst the Big Sur is supposed to be one of the main road trips I must admit, whilst it was scenic, I think we’ve seen just as spectacular, if not better, on other stretches of Highway 1 (Depoe to Cape Perpetua and Fort Bragg to Jenner). There were 31 bridges built, most of which have been replaced, with the exceptions of the 7 concrete bridges known as the Big Sur Arches like Big Creek Bridge and the iconic Bixby Bridge (didn’t stop for this one as too many tourists!!).

We stopped off to see the McWay falls – an 80 ft waterfall that drops directly into the Pacific (well, it does when the tide is in and is then known as a tidefall).

We did also manage to watch a group of huge magnificent Californian Condors soar overhead – they were on the brink of extinction but in 1987, scientists captured the last 27 and started a breeding programme before releasing back to the wild – it seems to have worked.

The next day, we visited Carmel Mission, one of the more important of the 20 plus missions on the El Camino Real. It was the home and final resting place of Junipero Serra, the Franciscan priest who established a lot of the missions (and according to a gravestone, the final resting place of Old Gabriel at 151 years old!!). The gardens here are beautiful.

From here we drove around Carmel (not the 17 mile toll road as it was so foggy it wasn’t worth it). Sadly, the 1855 Point Pinos lighthouse in Pacific Grove was closed but we did have a wander around the local cemetery (all the gravestones are laid flat to the ground) along with a small herd of deer!!!

We then parked up in Pacific Grove and walked the sea trail along into Monterey. During the Spanish and Mexican regimes, Monterey was the Capitol of California. In later days it became the hub of sardine fishing and canning. The old cannery row is now rather commercial but you can still see the old cannery buildings either side of the row and there are still three of the original 16 bridges that vaulted the street – they were used to shuttle unfilled cans to the cannery and packed tins of sardines back to the warehouse for shipping out by rail.

There are plenty of information boards around explaining a lot of the history and canning process, and not to forget, the links with author John Steinbeck.
We had a lovely seafood lunch at the Coast Guard pier, listening to Californian Sealions barking away from their resting places under the pier.

Whilst walking back, we spotted a sea otter playing in the sea kelp and a group of harbour seals lazing in a cove.

July 26, 2023July 29, 2023

San Luis Obispo, Solvang and Hearst Castle

From Colusa we travelled on to Chowchilla and on down through the humungous flat central valley of California, passing acres and acres of orchards – almonds, walnuts, pistachios, peaches and nectarines (all growing in amazing heat – 40 degrees plus) and on down to San Luis Obispo. Having had various discussions, we had decided not to go to Lake Tahoe or Yosemite further up due to the huge queues of tourists visiting (3 hour wait just to get into Yosemite!!!) so went south instead but knew we weren’t going to get as far as San Diego (too hot and there were wildfires south of LA).
We spent a couple of days in San Luis Obispo – famous for the 1772 mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa and the Madonna Inn (a pop culture landmark – rather outlandish decor in each of its 110 themed rooms!) – oh and home to the Central Coast Brewing Co – hmm, wonder which one we visited!!!!

We spent a very hot day visiting the tourist trap known as Solvang.

It was set up as a Danish community in 1911 but has developed into a rather kitsch fake European town – however, the danish pastries were lovely. We did visit the old mission Santa Ines here, built in 1804, which had beautiful gardens and was lovely and cool.

There were about 21 missions built between 1769 and 1823 by Franciscan missionaries from San Diego up to Sonoma all about a day apart and linked by the El Camino Real (Kings Road) which runs roughly along Highway 101 and is denoted along the way by mission bells on posts.

Next day we travelled the south end of the Big Sur (you can’t do it all in one go at present as it is still blocked after a huge landslide in April this year) and visited Hearst Castle, William Randolph Hearst’s 115 room hilltop house (The Enchanted Hill)! It was a collaboration between Hearst and architect Julia Morgan which lasted from 1919 to 1947. It is somewhat over the top and filled with amazing art and antiquities that he collected during his lifetime and is now a Californian State Park. Although it took some 25 years to build, it was actually never finished and still remains that way. There are several tours you can do but we just did the Grand Rooms tour (taking in the Neptune Pool, Esplanade, The Cottages, Casa Grande, North unfinished terrace and Indoor Roman Pool), which also included a film.

How the dining table was laid out – including sauce bottles to remind him of his childhood.

There is a 20 minute bus tour to take you up a very steep windy road to get to the top. We never got to see any zebras (they were released onto the estate when his zoo animals were rehoused and apparently still roam the fields!!).

After our trip we headed on up the Big Sur and came across the Elephant Seal viewing area – we weren’t quite sure what to expect, but it certainly wasn’t seeing these huge creatures so close up. They are on the beach and the public can view them from a cordoned pathway. There were some year old pups who had completed their first migration – they seem so small compared the giant adult males!

We ended our day with a pint and chilli at Central Coast Brewing.

July 20, 2023July 29, 2023

Sonoma County – Vineyards and Peanuts

We’ve left Windsor and travelled to Colusa.
Our 4 nights in Windsor were supposed to be a bit of a treat in a slightly better hotel (hah) with a pool for a chill out. Let’s just say that did not happen and left us with a very unpleasant memory. However, Windsor is a lovely town, laid out around a town green, with some great people who reminded us why we were travelling!!! We had intended to go on an organised wine tour of the Sonoma Valley but discovered that there are wine tasting rooms in Windsor, so we just tried those – cheaper too!!! Well, in reality, we only got as far as one – Baldassari and stayed as we loved both the wine and the company there!

We popped to Sonoma (lovely town based around the old Solano Mission and Mission Barracks from the Mexican War) and Healdsburg (gorgeous high-end shopping area and lots of wine tasting rooms). We probably didn’t do the area justice as couldn’t quite get into the right frame of mood but hey ho – it’s taken 15 weeks of travelling to reach our first low point so we probably haven’t done too badly!!!!!
Sonoma County has links with Charles M Schulz, creator of Peanuts, so we kept coming across life size cartoon characters dotted around the town!

After Windsor we travelled inland to get around San Francisco (doing a loop around, going south then coming back up the coast to return the car to San Francisco before spending a few days there), via Clear Lake (apparently the oldest in the US) but should have been called Green Lake – it was very smelly too but seemingly this is a summer thing!! We did see an Osprey fly overhead with a fish in its talons. Then on to Colusa – a tiny town in the Central Valley, sitting in 38 degrees, so hot but where we met some lovely characters – yes, that’s what travelling is about – meeting new people and listening to their amazing stories. One such couple are driving a lovely 1949 Ford Shoebox around – they’re off to Montano soon in a convoy with 7 other hotrods!! Oh, and weirdly, we’re in rice growing country!!!! And as per Asian rice paddies there are white egrets here too.

July 16, 2023July 29, 2023

Highway 1 – Fort Bragg to Jenner

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”