Day: May 13, 2019

So here we are in Sequoia National Park, walking amongst the giants. We have so looked forward to this. Many of you will know that Jock has a particular interest in trees, so seeing the biggest tree in the world and being in the heart of the Forest of Giants is really something special. There is a wondrous quiet and majesty about these forests.

The evening we arrived there was a massive thunderstorm, followed by a densely foggy and unseasonably cold day which was a bit of a blow, but luckily the next day was sunny and crisp. It was great to see the two different moods, but all fog would not have been good!

The second day we walked slowly along the Congress trail soaking in the splendour of the many groves. The woodland is open with a soft needle floor, snow covered in places, so naturally quiet and soft. The sun intensifies the redness of the trunks of the old trees, while the young ones have brown trunks.

The oldest tree in the park, called The President (which we visited) is estimated to be 3200 years old. That’s hard to comprehend isn’t it.

As well as the trees and gushing streams, we were treated to lots of bird sightings and we saw a groundhog ! We felt the altitude, and are still jet lagged so we found it hard to ascend any heights but took our time and rested often on rocks and the beautiful chunky benches that are spotted along on the trails.

We are staying at a lodge here and ended the day with a cocktail and pizza on the deck , chatting to other guests round the fire pit. Ahhhh……………………………………….

Wish you were here.

As you know I wrote my last post while flying over Greenland on our way to San Francisco. A few days of jet lag brain followed that, but luckily we were in sunny Sausalito, which was a great place to start this last leg of the trip.

Sausalito is on the San Francisco Bay across the Golden Gate Bridge from downtown San Francisco. It is very picturesque and in May, very relaxed. But it is a tourist town and apparently gets very congested in the summer. It has a walking path and bike path for miles along the waterfront and is very green. It was sunny with a big blue sky and most surprisingly, we felt right at home as it is just full of Australian native plants. They are everywhere, both shrubs and trees, and being spring the bottle brush was in full bloom. Who knew?

I went on a walk with a local to get some history and insights (another of those experiences that you book on Airbnb) and he told me that the trees were planted during the gold rush, by Australians who came to find their fortune. As the eucalyptus are fast growing they thought they could make money on the timber but it was found not to be suitable as a building material there. So now they have these eucalypt covered hills adding to the fire danger!

But there are so many paperbarks and a myriad of other plants used as streetscape that it must have been a council policy at some stage. They are certainly thriving there and they add to the general gorgeousness of the place.

My guide, Ben, told me a lot of the history of the area, which was a hot house of creativity, especially music, in the sixties and seventies. Carlos Santana , Van Morrison, Fleetwood Mac, Janis Joplin, you name them, they all lived there at some stage during the height of its house boat alternative community heyday. “Dock of the Bay” was written there………………….

From there we caught the ferry over to downtown San Francisco to buy some items we couldn’t get in Sausalito and were shell shocked by that little foray. It was crowded, of course, but also noisy, dirty and just generally unpleasant. I was spat at by a guy I happened to look at who was marching at great speed with his bedroll on his back. That was not enough to put us off on its own (it didn’t land on me, by the way) but was part of the whole unhappy vibe.

It seemed on that short exposure to be one of the least attractive cities I have visited, with not much to recommend it. Though we did only walk from the ferry through the financial district and as far as China Town, which we did not explore.

So when we return from the national parks we are going to stay at Sausalito again instead of in the heart of San Francisco, near Union Square, which we had booked, and just take the hop on hop off to have a look round. I met a guy on my walking tour in Helsinki who was from Oakland, which is very near San Francisco. He told me SF has become a dirty and dangerous place in the last five years and I really did not want to believe him . I cant speak for dangerousness, but dirty , yes, I agree.

From Sausalito we went by car, train to Fresno, then rental car, to arrive at the end of a long day in Sequoia National Park. But more of that in my next post.

At the train station we had another of those experiences of people going out of their way to make sure we got on the correct platform . We are finding Americans to be very friendly, polite and articulate. A lot of people who have served us in shops and so on are willing to have a long chat and we have been delighted by their accents and outgoing ways. They do have trouble with our accent though, and I am resorting to making myself sound more American (not hard) so that they can understand me more easily!

See you in Sequoia!