Week 3 – Tuesday

Tuesday night.
We did a quick drive around San Francisco this morning before hitting the road again.
The drive through the Presidio (formerly a military training ground, and these days a public park) was just beautiful. Got the obligatory shots of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Then, it was on the highway and bound for Yosemite National Park.
Along the way, we passed through the little town of Oakdale, home to a bar which goes by the dubious name of “The Battered Beaver”…. visions of “Naked Gun 33 1/3” anyone?
Then, while taking a family portrait at the Yosemite National Park sign (just inside the park), another couple stopped to take their photo. I offered to take a shot of the pair of them, and the guy, upon hearing my accent, says “Are you Aussie?”. We got talking, and found out that not only did he come from a small New South Wales country town which I had formerly lived in, but we had a bunch of common acquaintances.
Small world, or what?
And then we got into the park proper.
Wow.
Actually, you know what? “Wow” just doesn’t do it justice. You ever taken a photo of a magical place you visited whilst on holidays, and then when you see the photo later on, you think “yeah, that’s it alright, but the pic just doesn’t completely reveal what it’s like in the flesh”?
Well, Yosemite is one of those places.
You can look at the photos of it… even the truly great ones, and they STILL don’t prepare you for actually standing here and looking up at these massive stone monoliths. Try to imagine this… a mountain with a face that is over 3000 ft (that’s over 1km for everyone outside the U.S.) which is ALMOST VERTICAL!!
Seriously, you have to BE here to really GET it.
Anyway, we’ve received all the warnings about not leaving any food items in your car because it attracts the bears, and yes, they WILL smash the windows of your vehicle to get at it!
We’ve made a slight alteration to the itinerary for tomorrow.
Instead of just heading straight down the 5 (freeway) through Fresno and Bakersfield and into LA, we’re actually going to head out of the east side of Yosemite, and travel south between King’s Canyon and Death Valley. It’ll make for a longer day, but everyone we’ve spoken to says the trip down the 5 is totally boring with nothing to see.
It’ll be the last long haul day on the road… thank God!
Thursday and Friday are both going to be spent in LA.
Cath, Max and I have just come back from the bar where we sat by an open fire enjoying a couple of drinks (well, obviously, NOT Max!). They’ve both gone to bed, and I’m about to head over to the lobby where there’s wi-fi which will enable me to upload this post.
Cheers,
Bruce.