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food, friends, national park, roadtrip, travel, UK, vehicles

Right south & well north

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With a perfectly timed transfer from Southampton Central to the fast ferry terminal on a free bus, I got a ticket & boarded the fast ferry to Cowes with not a moment to spare. It worked out even better, as the ferry landed just as Ben was getting home from work & was able to walk down to the terminal & show me the short route to their house. The centre of Cowes is a cute little village with cobbled twisty streets, a fair percentage of sailing & boutique shops & their flat is only about fifty metres walk off the main street – fantastic location. I had however missed the chaos of Cowes Week a week or so before – when the place is one big sailing festival.

Gina had to work a little late, so we were charged with tea. Of course a scaled down version of one of the many Wellington St barbecues was in order. Scaled down because it was a very small charcoal burner & we were a little short of charcoal – with only three more weeks left in the country for Ben & Gina, there was little point of getting more. A short walk (1oo metres) to the supermarket topped us with essentials – Ben was particularly pleased at getting the small keg of Heineken that he had his eye on for a while. Eventually we were able to pour a glass of beer that wasn’t all head! The rest of the night was spent eating & catching up & sharing travel stories – I was even more surprised to find a second group of people to sit through the best of my American photos in less than a week.

After a fitful night’s sleep in the attic (no curtains & a pub just over the road & springs that felt they were coming out of the mattress to make the acquaintance of innards), I was happy to doze until much too late & got up well after Ben & Gina had gone off to work. What remained of my morning I strolled around Cowes & some surrounding areas & enjoyed the sunshine. After a bit for a late lunch I took the chain ferry across the river to East Cowes. One of five left in Britain it drags itself the hundred-odd metres back & forth the river all day on two rather large chains.

Also called a floating bridge, it was free for pedestrians & after the very short voyage I was off walking up the hill to visit Osborne House. Osborne house was built by Victoria & Albert & was a favourite residence of theirs to spend time in with their family & away from the public eye. The tour of the house was extensive (no photos inside unfortunately) – as well as the state apartments & the family’s living area, I found the table dresser’s room in the basement interesting. This is where the elaborate table settings were designed & made. I had wondered why we never saw the kitchen – Gina told me later that Victoria did not like food being cooked in the house (to do with the smell I think), so it was all done in a building not far away from the house.

The grounds & gardens were extensive & I enjoyed the remainder of the afternoon strolling around these & checking out the old ice store & the little fort that Albert had made for his children. I arrived home just after Ben & Gina had got home – it was soon off to a pub for dinner & then an early night as we were off to Cornwall early the next morning. We had a 4.30 sailing to Lymington, so the alarm was due to go off at 3.30 (it is a little drive through small IOW streets to Yarmouth).

So, up early & fed – it was off to catch an uneventful ferry (who wants eventful at half past four in the morning) to Lymington & Ben heroically drove us all the way to Cornwall & the Eden Project. I dozed a little in the back & was pleased when we got past all the caravans & arrived by nine o’clock. The Eden Project, with its two big Biomes (biological domes I assume) was quite interesting.

The bigger of the biomes was plants & climate of rainforest from around the world – thankfully it wasn’t too hot & only slightly humid. The smaller of the biomes was dedicated to plants from Mediterranean-like climates – the Mediterranean obviously, California & South Africa spring to mind. I’m not much of a horticulurist, but it was all pretty interesting – the stand out being the plant that curled its leaves up or drooped its stalks the instant you touched it, we spent quite awhile prodding it just to see it curl up in defence. Gina was quite disappointed that she could not buy one to take home to NZ.

In another building they had some big contraptions (overly complicated machines) made from all sorts of used steel products that went through a very elaborate process to crush hazelnuts – a bit like a machine you would expect to find in Wallace & Gromit.

Also in this building was a massive sculpture of a pine cone made out of a huge piece of Cornwall stone.

We were pleased to have missed most of the crowds & left slightly after noon to try & find somewhere to stay the night. One of Ben’s workmates had recommended Fowey as a nice little place. So we headed off there & parked well above the centre of town as we had to walk down a steep hill down some very narrow twisty streets (one way only & no parking). It turned out that a week long regatta was starting the next day & consequently, the town was packed. Somehow we managed to find beds for the night – so we climbed up the hill again & I think we passed a bit of the afternoon napping after the early start. Much of the rest of the day was spent walking around the town, sitting next to the harbour, eating & drinking – early night for all.

Sunday afforded us a nice sleep in – almost five hours on the previous day – & a large English breakfast to get us going (or slow us down). We were particularly impressed by all the local produce in the breakfast (all from less than ten miles away) – the mushrooms were easily the best I have had in a long time. We had to make our way back to Southampton by 7pm for Ben & Gina to catch a ferry back to IOW & me to train back up to London. I’m not sure how we settled on where to go for a walk, but we were keen to get out & stretch our legs (Ben & Gina need all the leg-stretching they can get – they are shortly off to Macchu Picchu) & headed off to Castle Drogo in Dartmoor National Park. Along the way we passed dozens & dozens of caravans & became proficient at identifying each make & model from a distance. The English also seem to like buying small cars & then realising they don’t have enough space for fitting everything in, so buy poxy little box trailers that have wheels the size of dinner plates & tow them along – it looks ridiculous. Although, kudos to the slightly large ones with bikes on top.

Arriving at Castle Drogo, we decided not to fork out the entry fee as Ben & Gina had seen too many castles already, & it was only built in the early twentieth century & didn’t look all that impressive. Instead we walked down Teign Gorge for a couple of miles admiring the view & getting to Fingle Bridge – a nice skinny bridge (we saw a Corolla find that it was much too skinny & leave a deposit of red paint on the walls of the bridge) & river & an inn & nothing much else apart from walkers & those out for Sunday lunch.

Completing a loop of a extra mile or so, we walked along beside the river for a while & then climbed out of the valley & back to the car to head off to Southampton. Along the way Gina managed to tick Devonshire tea & scones off her list as we stopped at a small B&B serving such wonderful homemade delights. Yum.

Got back in time for a earlier ferry for Ben & Gina; I missed a train by about twenty seconds & had to wait another half an hour, but I was home in Sidcup before 8.30, so that was good. The rest of that night & the next morning was spent organising enough clean clothes & good clothes for a funeral & two or three weeks in Edinburgh.

More trains in to London, across London & up to Retford, I was met by Mum’s only maternal cousin Tony & we were back to his house to prepare for his father’s funeral. Although not the best occasion for it, it was great to catch up with family – somehow I think I became a Spurs supporter (family allegiance & all that). Thankfully, I’m not much of an expert on funerals, but I think it went OK. I was surprised to see the limo we rode in was a big stretched Aussie LTD sedan & the hearse was a flashed up Falcon with a lot of glass & higher ceiling.

Tuesday afternoon saw me on another train – now I’m in Edinburgh & it’s nice to be back & especially during the festival – the weather is much as I remember it for summer, mostly cloudy & drizzling, with patches of sun. I haven’t quite worked out why (unsure if it’s just the festival time) but there is so much trash around on the street – I’m not sure I’ve seen anything like it outside of Asia. They seem to have small wheeled skips on the residential streets for depositing household trash & recycling in – only problem is they must get overfilled, as a lot of it is on the ground. I’m staying with a guy that Mum used to nanny a fair few years ago. Thomas has a flat about twenty minutes walk from the centre of everything, so it’s really convenient. Haven’t done too much, just getting settled & have seen a couple of street shows – & finally saw the Half-Blood Prince (where were you Elizabeth?), it was OK – mostly a lot of development, like the book really.

A curious anomaly in NZ English – we say ‘route’ as the English do, pronounced ‘root’; yet we say ‘router’ (as in a networking device) as Americans do, pronounced ‘rowt-er’, but laugh at them for pronouncing ‘route’ as ‘rowt’. I’m not sure if that makes sense or not, but I thought it amusing. While I’m on differences, it’s pleasing to be in a country where there are lights installed in ceilings in living areas & you don’t have to rely on lamps; also, I’m back in a country where switches (lights, power etc) are off at the top & on at the bottom – I never really worked out why the Americans would do this the opposite way around – units & driving I can understand, but this just seems so contary to every way I’ve ever know. It’s also nice having pound coins & no dollar bills.

city, national park, travel, USA

First NYC day

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A quick email blog from New York City – I’m exhausted – pictures may follow some time next week. NYC is fantastic – I arrived late this morning on a bus from Doylestown (still can’t believe how green & wooded Pennsylvania & New Jersey are). Quickly found my hostel (only a couple of blocks from bus terminal) & stowing my gear, it was a short walk to Times Square. As it was my first day in NYC, I had to do the traditional foreigner thing & see the Statue of Liberty & the Ellis Island Immigration Center – pretty good, thankfully the long queues moved quickly. Before leaving Doylestown I forked out for a New York City pass – it pretty much lets me in to more attractions than I can get to in six days for one flat fee. I think I’ve already recovered half the value of it in twelve hours. The rest of the day was spent on the open-topped double-deckers being camera happy tourist. I have been most impressed by the architecture & design (& size) of many of the buildings. Apart from all the normal NYC things, I’ve already seen a live film set on the sidewalk of 6th Avenue, a mugger getting seized by a cop in a mufti-car (don’t worry, I was safely on the top of the bus) & a SWAT team just generally hanging on the sidewalk. Anywho, I’m a bit tired, so will see if I can get some sleep before another all go day tomorrow.

Actually the internet is working a bit better so I could put some photos up – but looking at the hundred or so I took today – they are all pretty standard. So I’ll put a couple up of me ruining the foreground.

Oh, I just got an email from a paralegal – they’re talking about booking flights for me to go back & testify in San Diego; so that cross country jaunt is looking more likely. Unless the date changes…

city, history, national park, travel, USA

West to East

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So on arrival back to San Diego, I found that the juveniles had got a plea bargain & pled guilty to chasing me with the baton & stealing my money (a much lesser charge than bashing Andrea’s face & attacking the other guy). I needn’t have arrived home a day earlier, rats. But it didn’t matter too much as I had the next leg of the journey to prepare for. The next few days were pretty cruisy doing mundane stuff – haircut, posting maps, return of rental car (over 3000 miles in eighteen days), pack up bike, order a whole heap of bike stuff to meet me in Pennsylvania (things I’d been putting off replacing until I got to the cheaper shops of USA – shoes, Camelbak, chain, tyre, grips, small tools & so on; I think I saved about thirty to forty percent) – & also took the Turners out for a large authentic Mexican meal & spent a bit more time down at the Cass Bar.

The day before I left San Diego was the final pack & also a little thing called Independence Day. As my bike was packed up & the car was returned I didn’t have too many means (except a long walk) to go & check out the crazy crowds down at the beach – but I didn’t have the inclination to be swamped by people either. Beverley & Chris put on a BBQ for about ten people – great food & red, blue & white cup cakes & also root beer floats for a bit of tradition. From the deck, we could watch about ten different fireworks displays down towards San Diego & Ocean Beach. I’ve seen some pretty big & impressive fireworks before (Sydney, New Year’s 2000 springs to mind); but I haven’t seen so many displays in such a short period of time before. Lots of big explosions & also some pretty cool shapes made by the pyrotechnicians; the only drawback of being able to see so many displays at once was that the distance somewhat muted the bangs & one couldn’t feel the wave reverberate through one’s body. To bed relatively early (11.30) to get up again in five hours…

Beverley & her friend Bronwyn kindly got up & took me up to LAX, I tried to stay awake. Uneventful check-in, even though my bike was oversize; on the flight to Philly I enjoyed looking down at all the canyons & then peeking down to the cropping plains as we got further east – the plains, or what I could see of them, were greener than I could see (& obviously a lot greener than the environment I’d been used to over the previous four weeks). Approaching over Pennsylvania, I could begin to see a few more details – a nuke plant, a few quarries, a lot of golf courses & once again, generally a lot of trees & woods. Then down over the Delaware River to land more than half an hour early, bags straight off the carosuel & Jessica waiting right outside – smooth. Jessica & Doug (American friends I meet in Palmerston North in 2004 while they were on sabbatical) live in a small town thirty or so miles north of Philly – we had to pick up their two kids (2 & a bit years & 5 months) from Jessica’s sister’s place on the way home. Once off the freeways & driving down what the English would call B-roads in to small subdivisions I was impressed again by all the trees & lush green grass (apparently June provided a lot of unseasonal rain for the area). Clearly a lot more water available for growing things here than in California. The house that Jessica’s sister & family live in, while also I would say is a typical American house – it was completely different from the Turners’ in San Diego. For the climate I suppose – steeper roof, two storied, huge basement, large garage, lush lawn, Stars & Stripes flying, & strangely (to me) no fences or hedges between neighbouring houses (I would soon get used to seeing a lot of this) – hard to describe just how familiar (too any movies & TV programs) it seemed. After spaghetti & meatballs & letting the kids run around the soccer field chasing balls it was off to my home for the next few weeks.

Doylestown is a very quaint little town with a lot of old row houses & has a nice town feel to it (as opposed to a series of subdivisions with a strip mall plonked somewhere near by) & some nice skinny streets. D & J live not far from town in another very nice leafy area. Saw another fireworks display (postponed from last week) & in to bed after a long day of travelling (lost three hours along the way, but getting up at 4.30 I wasn’t too fussed). Monday was a recovery day & a orientation around Doylestown – drive around, check out the college Doug is a professor at, meet a few people, assemble most of bike (still waiting on package to arrive with the chain) & plan a few things. I’m off to New York City on Friday for five nights – can’t wait.

Tuesday (today) was up too early, despite the alarm not going off, & on the train in to central Philly (the express takes about seventy minutes). Today was to satisfy my history bent walking around the Independence National Park – lots of historic buildings to do with the drafting, signing & proclamation of the Declaration of Independence, rooms that housed Congress & the Senate once upon a time & being the Monty Python fanatic that I am – how could I not visit the Liberty Bell? Although, when visiting the bell, Sousa’s tune was playing – so the whole place seemed a bit silly after that! A great day wandering around (a lot – sore feet again) looking at all sorts of all things & enjoying the parks & very pleasant weather.

Some trivial, & some not so, differences from CA I’ve noticed so far – the traffic lights have yellow housings, there are far fewer SUVs & pickups and the predominant minority has changed from Latino to African-American, unfortunately there are nowhere near as many mountain bikes on cars going to trails (although there is still the group in the city devoted to fixies). Home in time for dinner & fantastic dessert Jessica was trying out the recipe for – a sherbert & frozen cream-cheese mixture – how to describe taste? There wasn’t a whole lot left.

Except for the little mugging episode (which I escaped relatively unscathed), my time in California was fantastic – I did a lot of cool sightseeing things, but it was mostly made by all the various people I met. All the very generous mountain-bikers who took me places & showed me some great trails & scenery – but most of all the wonderful hospitality of the Turners in San Diego & getting to know them eighteen years after they left Papamoa & New Zealand. Thanks all.

national park, roadtrip, travel, USA

Yosemite, but no Sam

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Up again too early, checked out & on the road north by eight. Was driving north to get to the east entrance to Yosemite National Park. Was great driving up the side of the Sierras – I was surprised to see snow still up there, but I suppose they are reasonably high – they are quite spectacular in places. Once again tried taking photos out the car window (which are now a lot filthier after all those great gravel roads over the weekend)

Started the long & winding road up to Tioga Pass & almost got to ten-thousand feet again. As I opened the window to pay to get in (I’ve now been to so many National Parks in the last week, that it was cheaper to upgrade to an annual pass – although what exactly I’m going to do with it now, I’m not sure) I was attacked by also sorts of horrible biting insects. So on the next few stops at picturesque lakes I covered myself in repellent & stunk for the rest of the day. The drive from the east of the park to the west (where Yosemite Valley is & where most of the tourist & vacationers go) was absolutely beautiful – nice Sequoia forests, reflective lakes, impressive granite peaks. By now I was up amongst a little snow – not something I was expecting from my Californian summer road trip.

There were plenty of cars parked on various verges & lots – many people going for quite a few days hiking in Yosemite & I can see why. Joined the masses driving in to the valley & then the masses already there. Another shuttle system here to enable so many people to move around. Unlike Zion, there were plenty of people staying here in lodges or tents & having an extended stay – also saw a lot of people hiring small inflatable rafts & floating down the river. Took a small walk up to Mirror Lake – after the small mountain lakes I had seen on Tioga Pass it was rather disappointing. All the waterfalls in the park come from snowmelt – so at the start of summer they are still going. Yosemite Falls are the fifth highest in the wall & the largest in North America.

I had to take a photo of this little guy because I keep forgetting to say that I have seen so many squirrels scurrying off the singletrack on my rides – this one must have been used to people as I walked right past him & he hardly flinched. The granite cliffs were spectacular (although I preferred the rock at Zion) & the largest granite monolith in the world is in Yosemite.

Yosemite is the number one big wall destination for climbers in the States & apparently if you looked closely you could see them up there camping out half way up the El Capitan (1000 m) – I can’t have looked closely enough.

Rest of the day spent driving two hundred miles to stay with a friend of Anna-Marie’s in Berkeley. It got nice & warm (110 oF) driving from Yosemite (funny to think I had just been in snow), but I was surprised as how much cooler it was in San Francisco. But apparently the place is known for not having the weather I’m used to in San Diego & other southern California places.