Category Archives: diary

If ever there was a great example of man’s ability to artificially manipulate the environment to suit himself, Vegas would be it! Las Vegas is in the Mojave desert. Average rainfall per year is about three inches and the temperature during the summer is well over 100 degrees farenheight, yet here is this bustling metropolisContinue reading “Barstow to Las Vegas (Monday)”

It’s a tragedy! The fast food chains are killing off the the American diner! Well, that is what it looks like to me. Like weeds these fast food chains are moving in and squeezing the traditional diners out. How sad. When I chose to stop off at Barstow I saw it as a small dotContinue reading “Barstow (Sunday)”

Back on the bus and I’m heading for Las Vegas. I’m going to break the trip by staying two nights at Barstow, a small town on the western edge of the Mojave Desert. I want to experience some small-town desert living and I need to time my arrival in Vegas to get the cheap mid-weekContinue reading “Visalia to Barstow (Saturday)”

Visalia’s origins day back to the early 1850’s when it flourished as a service town for all the miners streaming into the goldfields further north. California’s gold fields attracted hopefuls from around the world, including Australia. When the gold ran out here, many went to new finds in Australia, particularly the Palmer River Gold FieldsContinue reading “Visalia (Friday 27 August)”

The National parks, here in California at least, are amazingly set up for visitation. With the volume of people flowing through they have to be. Of the two parks I have visited there is a village life about them with shops and all levels of accommodation available. They even cater for the huge RV vehiclesContinue reading “Sequoia to Versalia (Thursday)”

I wake up feeling fluey today. The signs were there yesterday and it is worse today. I hope it’s very temporary. I have another easy day to speed up my recovery so I spend it walking amongst the sequoias. Another bear experience! This medium sized bear walked across the path from the woods to andContinue reading “Sequoia NP (Wednesday)”

Today is an easy one, mainly to recover from yesterday’s walk and to get some laundry done. I grab a coffee to get me going. The coffee drinking situation in America (this part anyway) is interesting. Most of the coffee I have come across is filtered coffee, weak filtered coffee. Expresso coffee is rare butContinue reading “Sequoia NP (Tuesday)”

I’m in the Giant Forest area of the Sequoia NP, so named by the great John Muir who describes it far more eloquently than I or most mere mortals. ‘When I entered this sublime wilderness the day was nearly done. The trees with rosy glowing countenances seemed to be hushed and thoughtful, as if waitingContinue reading “Sequoia NP (Sunday)”

Hugh arranges to meet me at my hotel in Tulare. He has very generously offered to take me to the Sequoia NP. He takes his family there often and knows the area well. When he went to leave home his wife said to him ‘Well, will I see you tonight?’ ‘What do you mean? DoContinue reading “Tulare to Sequoia NP (Saturday)”