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Published: July 13th 2011
After a week chilling out and recharging the batteries we hit the road again; this time hiring a car for a month so we can try to cover as much ground as possible. We headed north into Redwood country, home of some of the oldest and biggest trees in the world. We drove through Napa Valley – the famous wine growing region although we did not stop due to our decision to detox for a while after SF and anyway we will hopefully be going to Walla Walla in Washington – an up and coming wine region. We headed to the coast by the Navarro River and stopped at a beautiful state beach. After a relaxing afternoon we set up camp in the forest campsite…and then the paranoia of bears kicked in for the first time!!
The day after we drove further up the coast stopping at various places on the way. At one point we discovered that I had been bitten by a tick and it was in the process of burying itself into my hip….nice. Naturally Mary sh*t herself (ha ha) but pulled it out; we didn’t actually know what it was so we asked a local who
Navarro State Beach
We spent the afternoon here, before blagging a free camp spot. People had made make shift Teepees from the drift wood.diagnosed the tick but said we didn’t have to worry about Lyme disease in this area. The chap told us about Montgomery Park that was home to the largest tree in the world, so we changed our plans and went to have a look.
The forest was amazing, some big big trees but America being so good at signposting (not) we weren’t sure which one was actually the tallest. We drove back to the coast tried a campsite near another beach but it was full and getting late. The only option we had was to walk into some woods and set up camp – bear paranoia x 10!!
The next day took us to The Avenue of the Giants – a 31 mile drive through an ancient Redwood Forest. Again this was stunning and we spent most of the day stopping and walking throughout the drive. The average size of a tree was 300ft – taller than the Statue of Liberty. In the evening we camped again and on site they had special Bear Boxes where you put your food inside so bears do not attack you or destroy your car in search for food – bear paranoia
Cormorant - we think
It was good watching these diving for fish and fighting amongst themselves. x 1000!!!!!
Relieved to have no bear encounters, we woke for the final drive through another Redwood National park before arriving into Oregon. We preferred Northern CA to Southern CA (as in England I suppose!) people were more friendly and the scenery was amazing.
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