13th September

I must first of all update on last night’s post. Being tired and in no fit state to find somewhere else to eat, we were told that we had to make a reservation for dinner. Why, I have no idea, as the place is deserted, but I asked for 6 pm only to have the suggestion of 6.15 as two other people were booked in at 6. God help them in height of season. Our waiter was named Everett, and was as sweet and gay as you can imagine. He had only just started here, and had been told how to serve a glass of wine by resting the open bottle across his left (limp) wrist on a napkin. This exercise took far too long for Liz’s liking, so having spent an agonising minute watching Everett pour 2 inches of Merlot in my glass, she grabbed the bottle “gissit ‘ere”! He didn’t try and serve us wine after that!

Supper was fine – we both had a little Caesar salad to start, and Liz had more pasta while I had a burger, served with some peculiar reason with overcooked, cold, limp and wet broccoli. We were early to bed, being completely exhausted with an early morning In Death Valley and long day on the road.

We woke as usual at 6 this morning, as the light was coming to the valley. We were both revitalised after a reasonable night and decided to set off and explore as early as possible and make the most of the full day we have here. First stop was to be the huge sequoia called General Sherman. On the way to see that, a mother bear and two cubs crossed the road about 75 yards in front of the car. We were too shocked and surprised to have the camera ready, and they disappeared into the woods, but we were so excited to have seen them. Having parked up in the car park, we took the hike down to see the General Sherman sequoia, and halfway down, Liz spotted yet another bear, rooting around in the forest floor!

The photos aren’t great, but we saw him. We watched him for about ten minutes before he was disturbed by some loud people coming down the trail, and he wandered off into the woods. Four bears in one day. We were very fortunate indeed, according to the rangers. We logged the sitings in the visitor centre, feeling very smug indeed!

We then decided to do the 4 mile hike up to Tacomah Falls. However, being summer, it is Tacomah Trickles. The trail was reasonably easy. But as we are at around 7500 feet, the air is quite thin, and two fat ladies found they had to stop and admire the scenery every now and then. We saw a white headed woodpecker, lizards, chipmunks, squirrels, butterflies, an American robin and nuthatches on the way to the head of the dry falls, before coming back down again. Having regained the car park, we headed for a large cold beer, decided to do some shopping for an early supper in the room, and returning to have a shower and rest. Neither of us felt we could do another trail today. But it has been a GOOD day, and was worth the long long drive here just to have seen the bears.

Tomorrow, we will leave early again and are heading off to Indian Wells/Palm Springs for one night so we can visit the Joshua Tree National Park. It will be another 8 or so hours to get there. Hope they have wifi in the rooms!!

In the store, we bought a Bloody Mary mix to go with our stash of vodka, and have made it up and are sitting outside the hotel to use their wifi. The mix could literally strip paint, and at every sip we are reduced to cries of “hooya!” And hitting the back of the neck like Eric Morecombe! Liz reckons she could have root canal surgery now without any problem.