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Published: September 23rd 2008
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Bit of a sleep in this morning. This place is very relaxing - we even had a family of deer eating outside our room this morning to provide entertainment.
Decided to rent some bikes and explore the valley this way. Not cheap at $25 per bike for the day, but we thought afterwards that it was well worth it. We headed up the valley to check out the Curry Village (tent cabins which I’m glad we’re not staying in) and up to Mirror Lake (what lake? - there’s not a drop of water to be seen). Spent a couple of hours walking up one side of the dry riverbead and back - but didn’t seen any bears unfortunately. Had a picnic lunch when we did find some flowing water, but the mosquito’s were so annoying we didn’t hang around too long. Spotted another deer, some lizards and on the ride back down came across a wild coyote trotting up the road - very cool!!!! Stopped in at the very posh Ahwahnee Lodge Hotel for icecreams in their garden and oogled at their dining room with prices of $50++ per main - and it was packed!!
On the ride back
to the Yosemite Lodge happened to come across an poor wee injured squirrel on the pathway. Much to Steve’s disgust, we picked him up in Jordi’s jersey and tucked him under my arm whilst riding my bike to take him to one of the many rangers who patrol the park. When we did find one a short way down the road, his reaction was, “A squirrel? You’ve gotta be kidding me! You know they’re likely to carry Rabies…” Excellent…. Anyway, we’ve done our good deed for the day and that's gotta earn us some brownie points.
Did a bit more biking around before having our dinner in the Yosemite Lodge Dining Hall. A bit like summer camp I imagine, only you pay for your food. The kids had their pasta and meatballs and Steve and I hogged down some very healthy grilled chicken and veges. All for $47. Food is not cheap we've discovered.
Before heading in for the night we decided to take one last ride around the valley in the free shuttle bus. We;d intended on staying aboard for the entire circuit however half way along the driver pulls over and says, "if you wanna see
a bear, get out here and walk thru the camp. I bet one comes along." So, off we go thru this jamb packed permanent tent cabin camp in the dark when what do we see - Raccoons! Steve is real happy - he loves Raccoons. We stand and watch their antics for a while when the next thing, people are rushing all over the place yelling, "Bear, Bear!". Turns out, the poor mother bear and her cub were being mercilessly chased thru the camp by japanese, camera toting tourists (of course we would have joined them, but our camera batteries had just died), followed by a very concerned Park Ranger yelling at the top of his voice to scare the bear out of the camp. Very sad. But - WE...got...to...see...a...bear...!!!!!!!
What a fabulous way to finish and excellent day....
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