Day 47 – May 20

An detailed morning planning session was in order as Sean and Carla were planning a couple day side trip to San Francisco and we wanted to make sure that we had a rendezvous plan well in place. So after heartfelt hugs and best wishes the armadillo temporarily split up with promises to keep in touch as much as wifi access would allow.

Our plan was to head north and west to resume our trip along the California coast. Healdsburg, which we had visited only briefly the previous Saturday, was along that route so we decided to give it a more lengthy visit. The drive there was through endless fields of grape vines and their associated winery estates, each one successively announcing its presence through their substantial entry gates, tasteful signs and roadside gardens, with winding tree lined roads leading to the estate. I don’t think it would be possible to visit every winery in this area and still have an in tact liver. The magnitude of the wine industry in this area is overwhelming.

We arrived at Healdsburg at around 11:00 after making one stop at a roadside vendor to buy a basket of fresh cherries. Each brilliant red cherry was like a little explosion of sweetness and flavour. it is such a treat to have produce that is absolutely fresh.

We did have a couple of goals for the day, the BRT needed refuelling, we all needed to have some laundry done and I needed a small repair to my reading glasses. We found a laundromat next to Big John’s market, a substantial grocery store brimming over with fresh produce. Ike volunteered to baby sit the laundry while Jane, Diane and I headed into the town centre to look around. The plaza was decidedly more quite than it had been on Saturday and many of the galleries surrounding the square were closed, an indication that, as we had been told, Healdsburg is a big tourist destination.

We visited a couple of galleries and I found a place to fix my glasses as well as a leather shop where I bought a belt for the buckle that I had bought in Tijuana. Italian leather bought in USA and a Mexican buckle, sort of a mini united nations around my personal equator.

After a quick lunch at Big Johns we headed further north. Once we left the main collection of the large winery estates we entered endless field of vineyards, the production fields that support the phalanx of estates wineries we had just passed through. Virtually every foot of arable, accessible real estate is dedicated to grape production.

Before long we headed west for the coast. Our maps showed a road heading to Stewarts Point on the ocean so we plugged that into our GPS and headed off. Now on the map it appeared as a harmless little line with a few squiggles. The reality was quite different. As we were headed for the coast we knew that we would be climbing and descending the western ridge of the Sonoma Valley but weren’t prepared for just how winding and narrow the upcoming road would be.

In theory this was a 2 lane road. In practice however the road morphed from a narrow convoluted mash of interconnected switchbacks to a paved goat path and back again. In many places there was no centre lane marked because to have put one in would have allowed about 5 feet per lane, with not a guardrail to be seen. Mercifully there was little oncoming traffic which in hindsight tells me that the locals know better.

All that being said however it was one of the most beautiful drives we have had, in one moment providing us with spectacular views down the cliff sides and a moment later moving into the shelter of a majestic redwood forest. The magnificent trees rose hundreds of feet over our heads creating a canopy of branches that blocked out the sun. The bases of some of these giants easily measured 6 to 8 feet across and we understood that these weren’t the ‘big’ redwoods.

The Redwoods

After about an hour of this alternating jaw dropping scenery and near death driving experiences we broke out onto that coast and were treated to a beautiful view of the blue Pacific Ocean. Heading north we passed through a community called Sea Ranch. This was an elite planned community populated with houses of a very uniform design style. This is where the California beach house style is personified. The soffitless 45 degree angled shingled roofs capping walls of vertical weathered cedar siding were the signature style for miles along the coast highway.

The ‘wide’ part of the ‘road’

At one point we were taken by a unique structure and we had to turnaround to see it. Ignoring the no RV’s sign we proceeded into the small parking lot of the building. It turned out to be a non denominational chapel that was funded by the Sea Ranch community and it was a marvellous building with not a 90 degree corner to be found. Beautiful stained glass windows frames the views and hand carved benched afforded an opportunity to co template the small unique space. However our reflections were soon disrupted by a member of the Sea Ranch private security force ( did I mention that this was an exclusive community) who came into enforce the no RV rule.

The Chapel

Magical

After a stop in a shoe shop in Gualala when Jane found some long sought after ox blood shoe polish but was disappointed in her ongoing search for new Birkenstocks. As it had turned 6:00and there was a campground nearby we headed for the Gualala River Redwood Campground where we found two lovely sites, no doubling up at this park.

The sites are worked in amongst the towering protected redwoods and as a result are very spacious. Being amongst these trees reminded me of the Ents, the ancient tree people in Lord of the Rings. For me, any living thing this size assumes a personality and demands the respect due something that has survived possibly hundreds of years. I felt privileged to share their space.

Camping with the Ents

Jane and Ike cooked up an awesome supper of chicken fajitas and we enjoyed a great campfire in a stone ring. A much nicer setting than the typical steel drums we have been using in other parks. Would have liked to share this with Sean and Carla. It was a good day.