April 2026: ‘Wild camping’ for a camper the size of Big Bertha was a little difficult in Vancouver City and so we settled for an expensive downtown campsite rather than a free spot far outside the city. This was a good choice allowing us to explore the city easily on foot, with public transport or with Uber. First up was […]
April 2026: We picked a beautiful afternoon to cross from Port Angeles, USA to Victoria, Canada, capital of British Colombia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island. We had heard Victoria has a very British feel to it and we were looking forward to one of its famous high teas. The ferry docked deep into the harbour with sweeping views […]
Crossing into Washington State from Oregon, our first stop was Fort Vancouver National Historic Site. Here we explored the historic fort (with working kitchens and blacksmith), the small aviation museum and the more modern fort. The historic fort was a major outpost of the Hudson Bay Company, chartered in 1670, by King Charles II, and originally established as a vast […]
Oregon is known for its rugged coastline and we followed it for most of our time in this state, only venturing inland to loop around Mount Hood. Alaska calls and so we did not spend the time in Oregon that it deserves for a full exploration. Crossing the state line, we followed the coast up to Port Orford where we […]
You really need to see them close-up to appreciate the scale of these trees. They are phenomenal and to be able to drive and hike through the groves was a privilege. From Chico, we headed towards the coast, and the Redwoods, stopping at Clearwater lake on the way. From there we hit the coast at Fort Bragg, a picturesque town […]
At the time we visited (March) Lake Tahoe (1897m) should have been snowbound. But thank you to global warming, the sun was shining, the skies were blue and the roads were clear. Leaving James’ Treanor Vineyard in the Napa Valley we skirted around Sacramento and climbed up to the south shore of Lake Tahoe. From there we went clockwise around […]
Leaving San Francisco we visited Bodega Bay before turning inland towards the famous winery area of Napa Valley and where we had been invited by James and Alison to stay at their vineyard, near Calistoga, for a few days. James is a cousin of our long time friend Mary (she has a multitude!). One stop of note was at Bodega, […]
We really did! We want to come back. We would like to live here. Our stay here was special thanks to Shaun and Cricket. Who? You ask. We met Shaun and Cricket, Californians, at a Tanzanian campsite on a coffee plantation in 2022 and then on a couple more occasions shortly afterwards. Tanzania, 2022 Shaun said that when we arrived […]
California State Route 1 (the Pacific Coast Highway) covers 1,056km between Dana, just south of Los Angeles, to Leggett in northern California. It is renowned for breathtaking coastal views, particularly through Big Sur just south of San Francisco. We joined it at Los Angeles and followed this very scenic road all the way to San Francisco. We were fortunate! The […]
We were very lucky to find Miles on iOverlander (our trusty app). He has a yard just outside Chinatown in downtown LA and is willing to let international overlanders stayover whilst visiting the city. It was a great location! The number 45 bus stopped right outside (in both directions) and this conveyed us into Chinatown and on to the metro […]