Wow, what a day. We arrived in Yosemite around 1,having stopped for fuel and sandwiches for breakfast. We decided not to do the vineyard walk in Napa after all, but set off for Yosemite and make the most of the day. The Sun was shining, the roads were ok – we went over some quite remarkable bridges, and on some pretty rocky roads to get here, but oh boy is it worth every moment.<\/p>\n
The scenery is quite incredible, and there is a new fire burning in Yosemite not too far away<\/p>\n
The amazing thing is that nobody seems particularly worried about it. We can smell the smoke, we can see huge plumes of smoke which may well affect our weather patterns tomorrow, but it is all in a day’s work for the rangers here. <\/p>\n
When we arrived, we booked on a tour of the Yosemite valley, and saw so many beautiful rock formations and points of interest. They are three years into a drought. Yosemite Falls is dry, the river Merced is stagnant, other waterfalls are non existent, and their fire season which normally starts in September actually started in June this year. Black bears are more abundant in the valley, searching for food. The new fire has been blowing and expanding for 24 hours.<\/p>\n
The rooms here are basic compared with Napa Valley, but perfectly in keeping with the ecological environment. Our room is a bit like a motel but we had a good chicken and chips at lunchtime, and we went to the bar for a couple of beers this evening. We are planning on getting the environmentally friendly Eco shuttle bus in the morning and walking a few trails during the day, fires permitting.<\/p>\n
I have to tell you about the Japanese kids (2 couples ahed about 20) on the tour this afternoon. They spent the whole 2 hours taking selfies and being the beautiful people that we wanted to smash them to a pulp. They were so concerned about how wonderful they were that they didn’t look at the environment. Or listen to the ranger doing the tour. What a plonker, Rodney. Their loss.<\/p>\n
We haven’t seen much wildlife yet apart from deer and a few blue jays and a couple of squirrels, but there’s loads out there!<\/p>\n
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