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 […]
Winter is certainly the best time to visit Death Valley. Like it’s name portrays, this national park is a stark and desolate place. It is both the lowest place in the United States (282ft, 86 meters below sea level) and has the hottest recorded temperature on earth (56.7 ⁰c in 1913). It is hard to believe people once survived here […]
Big Bertha came with Absorbent Glass Mat (AGM) lead acid batteries when we bought her in 2018 and we replaced these with another set of AGMs in Namibia in 2022. They have served us well. Lead acid batteries are very robust but have two inherent disadvantages in our application: Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) batteries do not have these disadvantages; they […]
What a contrast Las Vegas is to the back country national parks we’ve been visiting in January! We are very lucky to have friends living in Las Vegas; we met Fabi and Chris onboard the Ocean Victory whilst visiting Antarctica just over two years ago. They then invited us to stay in Las Vegas and, two years later, we finally […]