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Published: October 18th 2018
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One and only selfie
Did we mention that the weather was fabulous We're gearing up for RTW4 by writing up some retrospective blogs from our recent California trip..... You should be able to see earlier blogs - look for "Previous entry"... Anyway, back to California..
Highway 1 northwards to Mendocino CJ writes: Our final stop was to be Mendocino, about 189 miles north on the famous Highway 1 – the Pacific Coastal Road (PCR). What fabulous scenery! We knew it was good when we decided to go up north, but hadn't appreciated just how wild that coast is. Fishing is good right along the coast, and we passed many small towns built around that industry. It took us about 6 hours driving along winding roads to get to our destination.
The PCR hugs the edge of the cliff – sometimes right on the edge – and we could see the Pacific and its ceaseless roar beating the hell out of the rocky foreshore. At other times we drove through towering redwood forests in near darkness, surprising the occasional wild deer and looking out for bears. (We didn't find bears, but we did pull up sharpish when we spotted the Hog Island Oyster Bar on the side of the road –
Mendocino
Picture Postcard Perfect mmm, rarely eat live oysters, but these were doozies. As I believe the Americans would say). (SC - We also took a train through the woods - see photo)
Redwoods can live for hundreds – even thousands - of years. When the extent of the forests was realised some time in the 1800's, the lumberjacks learned to cut these huge, ramrod straight trees about 15 feet above ground level. That's because the lower trunk is so waterlogged (with the effort of getting water up to its extremities) that it won't float – and floating logs down to the coast from the hinterland was a vital part of the logging process. But for every stump left three, four or five new trunks grow – so the redwoods are pretty dense, especially near the old logging trails.
Mendocino turned out to be an old logging town, set up when the redwoods were first discovered by Europeans and recognised for their economic potential (much of the lumber was shipped to San Francisco in response to the building boom – many of the houses are timber built, and wood was needed for boats, wharves etc). Originally a dirty noisy but prosperous logging
town, it eventually fell onto hard times, with the result that the lovely houses built during the boom period were left untouched.
When the artists discovered it in the 1960s – very run down by now – and realised that they had a lovely and peaceful spot full of heritage quality houses overlooking the dramatic coast, its fortunes began to rise again. It's now a UNESCO site – the whole village – and primped and painted into a beautiful location with lots of lovely artisans' shops and great restaurants (I know, how do we do it?!). A history walk by a local guide revealed that the many water towers that we saw attached to houses around town were needed because there was no water supply here – and in fact there isn't to this day! Water is brought in by bowser during summer droughts.
I'm delighted to say that the beach below the headland – just across the road from the main street – was full of driftwood! (See "Spoiled for Choice" below). I now have a driftwood project in mind …
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