Monday May 18, 2015

Another typical start to the day on the North Californian Coast – cool, overcast and a little windy.

It took me a while to warm up and I was considering switching jackets to my heavier one, but by the time we had gone up a couple of hills, I had warmed up.

Today was another hilly ride, with a couple of long climbs over 500 feet.

We followed the coastline almost all of the day, we did come inland briefly, but not for very long.

There were some areas of coast that the houses had fallen into the ocean. Very precarious living in this area.

Although we were hugging the coast, we were also seeing a lot of farming (small farms). Some of them had signs on them saying they were protected in perpetuity by the agricultural society of California.

Today we saw a lot of wild flowers, the yellow ones that I really like, a variety of lupins and sweetpeas, and red hot pokers all hanging on to scrubby pieces of soil. Ralf said he would take photos of them, but unfortunately there was no opportunity to stop when we saw a good showing of flowers. I am not sure when he got this shot for me.

We also saw an amazing sight, the first time ever of an Osprey with a fish in its talons. Of course, we were struggling up a hill and it only landed briefly on the tree before heading out again. Ralf and I said at the same time, “Did you see that?” No where to stop and of course no chance of a photo.

The deer that popped her head out to see if the coast was clear got a bit of a shock as we silently came up the hill she high-tailed it back into the woodland. Actually she probably heard me coming, breathing heavily on a hill and my heart pounding out of my chest.

Fort Ross has an Historic State Park which has a Russian Fort as part of the park.

As we crossed the road to take a photo, I noticed the windmill. As per our longstanding game of spotting windmills, I called it. Unfortunately I almost gave Ralf a heart-attack as he was crossing two lanes of traffic on a corner. He thought I was shouting about traffic, he had a few choice words to say to me about when and where to “call” windmills.

We stopped for lunch in Fort Ross. According to the ACA map the convenience store was closed, so we thought we might have to push it to Gualala, as we needed sauce for the pasta. Fortunately, the store was open and they had a small café and wi-fi. I checked email, sent a warmshowers request and checked to see where Janet and Stephen were. Hopefully tomorrow in Manchester, the KOA will have wi-fi and I can update the blog.

I was feeling a little tired today, but if I had known that this State Park did not have showers (only toilets with cold water) I would have pushed it to Gualala. We had already paid the $12.00 before we found this out!

As we were getting organized and setting up the tent, two young women arrived. Ciara and Emily are from Kingston and are heading north as well. They are basically doing the same amount of miles a day as we are but did not buy the ACA maps. After I showed them the maps they decided to get the two remaining maps sent to them.  They are taking a rest day tomorrow.  We will probably see them again, further up the coast.