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Ian Rambles
The giant redwoods, protected in their State Parks,
are truly impressive. I'm so pleased to have seen them.
We did the tourist bit and drove through a couple of
them.
Fiona's Journal
This was our Redwood Appreciation Day and truly they
are impressive trees. They grow surprisingly close together
for such huge trees and to stand amongst them and look
straight upwards at the sky through their distant foliage
is awe-inspiring and makes me feel tiny.
First we had brunch in Mendicino which is a beautiful
coastal town of late 18th century clapboard buildings,
all immaculately maintained and painted in contemporary
and tasteful shades. It is very picturesque but perhaps
a little too self-consciously so. I couldn't live there
without feeling I was failing to live up to its standards
of perfection!
From here the coastal highway wound its way through
ancient Redwood forest for most of today's 250 mile
drive. The road surface is excellent and the bends and
turns are less extreme than on some of the previous
sections of road which allowed a faster and smoother
drive. Ironically this made me feel mildly car sick
all day – an affliction I have never suffered from
before! We drove “through” two Giant Redwood
trees during the day. In the first a squarish arch had
been cut through the base of the trunk of the mature,
living tree. The second had developed with a natural
cleft in its base, 7 foot across at car height and tapering
above. The trunk is also hollow so that you can stand
inside it and look straight up at the sky. Apparently
the Native American's used it for sending smoke signals.
We ended the day in Brooking, just across the border
into Oregon, where we had a fish supper at “The
Hungry Clam” and booked into a Western Motel at
$138.00 for a two bedroom suite for the night, rather
cheaper than we have been paying in California.
Arthur's Log:
We have 860 miles to do in the next 3 days so
its not too bad we did a couple of drive through trees,
ill let you ponder that until you see the photos, but
I have to say those trees were massive!! You probably
can't tell from the photos but our car going through
is small and it goes up for ever.
George's Musings
The tree waS COOL but I thought it would be bigger!
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